Published:
Friday, August 8, 2014
The ACLU of Washington has a team of all-star volunteers who staff the front desk for us. We would like you to meet some of them.
Yoko Gardiner, who joined our front desk crew at the beginning of the summer, loves learning about new issues and being involved in fighting for civil rights. She recently became a paralegal, and is developing her knowledge of issues and planning her future. She is most interested in environmental and issues of women’s rights, and hopes to find a job that allows her to combine these interests.
Yoko went to the small liberal arts college of Linfield in Oregon, where she got her BA in French. She has traveled extensively to France, including six months spent in the Loire Valley, and to the UK where her family is from. This love of travel and knowledge of the world makes her want to work internationally. She has found that around the world, people are different, but also the same. Yoko wants to be part of forging relationships, working to help people across the globe to connect via shared interests and for their mutual benefit.
Yoko once planned to be a professional pastry chef. She still bakes regularly: cakes, cookies, whatever takes her fancy. She says that becoming a paralegal was not as completely different as it may sound – just a different way to help people. Whether mixing batter or defending First Amendment Rights, Yoko is determined to help people improve their lives. In her newfound free time since getting her Paralegal certification, Yoko likes to hike and spend time with friends, and like most of us spends too much time surfing the Internet.
