As a freshman, student activist Luna Plaza is a positive force to be reckoned with. Since arriving at the University of Miami last fall, Plaza has wasted no time in carving out her niche in the campus community by dedicating much of her attention to the pursuit of social and environmental justice.
Plaza is a community-minded individual. She began her path in mental health advocacy work as a teenager in high school by creating and facilitating communal healing spaces. Born and raised in Miami, Plaza moved to Pittsburgh when she was 11 years old but returned to Miami before she enrolled at UM.
“I learned a lot about how to do peer support work and what healing looks like in a community,” she says. “When I started high school, I became a mental health advocate by spreading awareness and fighting against stigmatization of mental illnesses and substance disorders. I am still part of a statewide organization called PA Youth Advocacy Network that organizes around mental health policies including mental health days and mental health curriculums.”
When police brutality hit her community in Pittsburgh, it served as an impetus to follow a path of social justice. “In my freshman year of high school, Pittsburgh police officers shot and killed the cousin of one of my classmates,” Plaza recalls. “That was when I participated in my first direct action through protests.”
From there, Plaza became involved in several climate change movements, such as weekly strikes in favor of the Green New Deal legislation, the Greta Thunberg-led Fridays for a Future, and the Pittsburgh-based Gen Z visionary collective. She returned to addressing acts of police brutality again in 2021 with the “Justice for Jim Rogers” movement.
Plaza continues her passion for social justice initiatives and is also balancing her academic studies at the University. She has declared a double major in psychology and anthropology, with a minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies—all of which is increasingly informing her social justice work. “I would love to pursue a further degree in clinical psychology, with specializations in eating disorders, and harm reduction,” says Plaza.
Plaza is involved in several campus organizations where she carries out her community work. She participates in monthly service efforts on campus and in Miami's Overtown neighborhood with Decrim 305, in support of sex workers' rights and well-being. She also serves as the Outreach Chair for two groups—the University of Miami chapter of PERIOD, a nation-wide organization that distributes menstrual products to people in need, as well as the Disability Ambassadors Program. She also co-founded the Asian LGBTQIA+ Student Affinity Group, housed in the LGBTQ+ Student Center, and is part of the Asian American Students Association, ECO Reps, Indigenous Heritage Committee, and UThrift.
“This is my life’s work,” she says. “I am still connected and organizing with my comrades in Pittsburgh while organizing in the community of Miami. The work that I do is about saving my life, my friends’ lives, and the lives of those in my community. I hope that when others read this article about me, they get inspired to help do this important work, too.”
