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As Legislative Director, Ayla is responsible for managing the Senator’s legislation and policy, working everyday to successfully get his bills through their respective committees and then eventually passed by the legislature. She also manages the Senator’s budget priorities when they take up the state budget every year, ensuring the organizations in his district and the state priorities he has worked on get the adequate funding they need. Lastly, she is generally responsible for being up-to-do date on and informing the rest of her team about legislative activity in formal sessions, informal sessions, committee hearings, briefings, personal meetings with advocates, events inside and outside the State House, and more. Ayla started working for Sen. Domenico as a Legislative Aide. Prior to that, she was a Policy Fellow for Andrea Campbell, Boston City Councilor (as part of the Civic Action Project), and she currently is a Board Member of the Civic Action Project, and a Board Member of the Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee. After her undergraduate education was complete, Ayla continued her studies and received her Masters in Public Policy degree from UMass Amherst. As an undergrad, Ayla interned for U.S. Representative Tony Cárdenas, who represents the 29th district of California. She did this internship as part of the SBS in DC program.
While at UMass, Ayla was:
A tour guide
A political science peer advisor
An SBS peer advisor
An SBS teaching assistant for first year seminars
A new student orientation leader
A volunteer with MassPIRG’s hunger and homelessness campaign
On the e-board for Phi Sig, the political science honor society on campus
And she studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain during junior year.
Ayla says: “All of these experiences truly helped prepare me for the career I have today, and generally prepared me for life outside of college. By doing all of these extracurriculars I met the most incredible people, which contributed to my very positive experience at UMass Amherst, which gave me more confidence to put myself outside there and get involved in much as possible on campus before I graduated. I learned better time management, leadership skills, patience, the importance of learning how to communicate different things to diverse groups of people, professionalism, interpersonal skills, and so much more. I credit so much of my development to the endless support of SBS throughout my college years as it’s made such a lasting impact on me.”
