Sean Tan was a Civic Opportunities Initiative Network (COIN) fellow and scholar with the New World Foundation. Sean belonged to the first cohort of COIN fellows, which was created to enable young people to be active participants in social justice advocacy and organizing. As a fellow, he worked with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), a community-based organization dedicated to advocating for the rights of immigrants and refugees. Throughout his time at CHIRLA, he was a participant and then, organizer of Wise Up! and the Wise Up! Summer Leadership program. Wise Up! trains high school students from immigrant backgrounds to be social justice leaders and prepares historically underrepresented students to pursue a college degree. As a result of the program, Sean has been successful in advocating for immigrant communities. He initiated community campaigns to defend AB 540, a California law enabling undocumented students to receive in-state tuition in public colleges as well as campaigns that led to the passage of AB 130 and AB 131, which provides institutional and state financial aid through the CA DREAM application. Furthermore, he worked to further worker’s rights for LA car washers, day laborers and domestic household workers. He is a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient and continuously works to push for comprehensive immigration reform in the United States.

As an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, Sean was actively involved in student body and campus issues. He was elected as one of twenty senators for the Associated Students of the University California in 2013. Sean became the second undocumented student to be elected in the history of the ASUC. Sean supported the establishment of the Undocumented Student Program at Cal providing students with academic, financial and legal services. As a Senator, he worked with Cal Students for Equal Rights and Education (CalSERVE) to bring greater attention and action on issues facing historically marginalized student communities. He proudly advocated for the needs of the Pilipinx / Pilipinx American community at Cal.