Amaris Leiataua is an aspiring educator from Compton, California. After graduating from Dominguez High School in Compton in 2008, she went on to pursue a higher education at the University of California, Berkeley. She graduated from Berkeley in 2012 with a B.A. in Social Welfare. While at Berkeley, she was very active within the Pacific Islander community as President of Pacific Islanders at Cal and interning with the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and Empowering Pacific Islander Communities. Amaris spent her last undergraduate semester studying abroad at the University of Auckland in New Zealand where she learned more about her Samoan heritage. Amaris is currently in her first year at the University of California, Los Angeles pursuing a Master’s in Education and a secondary social science teaching credential. She loves spending time with her family and enjoys exploring all that the world has to offer.