Jorge was born and raised in Portland to a working class mom who cleaned buildings after moving to Portland from Mexico. As a son of Mexican immigrants, his mom and older sister came to Oregon for a better life and a better education system. His mother didn’t receive secondary education and his older sister was able to graduate as a first generation student, attending Portland State University and receiving a bachelor's degree. Jorge intends to follow in her footsteps and become a first generation student, majoring in Political Science and minoring in Public/Business Administration.  

Jorge first became socially involved in 2017, when gentrification and rent spikes hit his NE neighborhood, Cully. He, alongside his family, friends, and neighbors became part of the Normandy apartments march in 2017 at 10 years old to fight back against folks who were putting profits over people. The impact affected over 15 students (including him) that were facing the possibility of moving schools due to a proposed 100% rent increase. Jorge and his family fought hard so he could remain at his school, Rigler Elementary. 

Since 2017, Jorge has been fighting for social issues such as climate change, transportation equity, gun violence prevention, educational funding, police accountability, and so much more. He has been in the fight for creating change for the past 8 years and he continues to show up for working families, his fellow peers, his community, and those that aren’t brought to the table. 

At 16 years old, Jorge got his first union job at Portland Parks and Recreation working with kids and the East Portland community. One year later, he worked with Portland State University to bring together a youth-led initiative about how young people envision their city. The project brought together community leaders, students, lawmakers, state officials, local officials, and organizations to work collaboratively on creating a better Portland for all.  

Most recently, he was appointed to the Oregon State Board of Education as a student advisor to empower student leaders throughout Oregon and to bring the student voice on policy matters at the state level. He works with the Director of the Oregon Department of Education and so much more to improve our education system. Jorge has been advocating for many bills in the legislature regarding educational funding, early literary, summer learning, special education, school meals, technology usage, and more.