# @ucberkeleyofficial on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Da03MMyEoUD
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/67790839-ucberkeleyofficial-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/7ab080fead.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-07-15T19:53:43.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** UC Berkeley (@ucberkeleyofficial) — https://gondola.cc/ucberkeleyofficial

## Caption

In 2016, Danny Muñoz was at a crossroads that few survive. After being shot five times, he spent his recovery in deep reflection. He had lived a life on the margins: navigating poverty, addiction, and cycles of incarceration since he was a juvenile. In that moment of survival, he found a new drive.

“I decided to come back to school and put myself in a position that would help deter young people from communities like mine from similar outcomes, or worse,” Danny says.

Initially, Danny thought he would become a social worker or a life coach. But a conversation with a mentor from Berkeley Underground Scholars changed everything.

“I started to learn that even though I wanted to support young people, I would just be a ‘band-aid’ to the problem,” Danny explains. “Policy showed me how I could attack the root of the problem through legislation.”

“At Berkeley,” he says simply, “I found purpose.”

As a Double Bear (Sociology/Public Policy ’23, MPP ’25), Danny utilized programs like BerkeleyUndergroundScholars and NAVCAL to navigate the transition and turn his lived experience into expertise. Today, he’s a Senior Policy Analyst at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC), drafting the very legislation that reshapes California’s justice system.

Now based in Oakland, Danny is tackling intersectional 21st-century challenges like climate justice in state prisons (AB2499) and the “Hugs Act,” which seeks to restore the simple, human right of physical contact between incarcerated youth and their parents.

Whether he is advocating at the state capitol or life-coaching young people in his community, Danny’s work is about restoring dignity and building a legacy of generational wealth and values for his family.

Full story at the link in our bio: https://bit.ly/4wgnMKP

#CalAlumStory #UCBerkeley

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## Tags

ucberkeley, calalumstory

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