Diversity at Stanford

Elizabeth
Fox

Ultimately I want to screenwrite, but I’m really, really interested in physics. I came in undeclared but figured I’d choose something I’m interested in and apply that to storytelling, so I’m majoring in Physics and English. I also love science fiction and other thought-provoking fiction. One standout class I’ve taken so far is Film and Philosophy with Professor of Comparative Literature Joshua Landy and Assistant Professor of Philosophy Jorah Dannenburg. We ask big questions through the context of Hollywood movies.

Naomi
Girma

For me, Stanford has the best of both worlds in academics and athletics. I’m a member of Stanford Women’s Soccer team and having the student body come out and support us in our games during the season was amazing. There is a great energy and a great community here. Everyone is willing to help.

Geraldine
Millos-Lopez

I took an Introductory Seminar on Mindsets with Professor Carol Dweck, and going back to her over the years helped me persevere through my hardest moments at Stanford. Growing up in Bolivia, I taught myself HTML and Java and took the AP Computer Science test on my own because my high school didn’t offer Computer Science. During the summer, I plan to volunteer in Bolivia to expose students to more academic paths. I became interested in computers because I loved to play video games as a child, and one of my favorite activities here has been the Stanford Video Game Association. We host video game nights with students across campus who are passionate about video games, whether programming or just playing casually.

Maya
Burke

As co-chair of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts (IDA) fellowship program, I feel like an art mom when the other fellows come to me with cool project ideas. The IDA is a space that houses overlapping identities – queer, black, femme, indigenous, and others. It’s complicated to define the space. The IDA spring class consistently brings truly life-changing guest speakers like like Native Poet, Musician, and Playwrite Joy Harjo, who is one of the artists I helped bring to campus. Her poetic voice is so powerful and when you listen to her work, there’s no way you can believe that artwork is an appendage to other work.

Ali
Vaughan

I had been working in collage, painting, and drawing here as a mixed-media artist. But I decided to try sculpture for the first time for my honors thesis. I learned welding, woodworking, and digital printing onto unconventional materials such as aluminum. Working on the project for a year and being part of a group exhibition was one of my proudest moments at Stanford. I’ve enjoyed attending MFA students’ shows and having conversations with faculty after a film screening. It’s been great to connect with other artists and the larger Stanford community through art. Off campus, I’ve learned to surf in Pacifica!

Bakari
Smith

Stanford has been a journey of enormous self-discovery for me. I’ve experienced ebbs and flows, at times biting off more than I could chew. Then I studied abroad in Beijing, where I had a chance to put my language skills from 13 years of studying Mandarin to the test. I did a Stanford Bing Overseas Study Program externship at a venture capital firm and realized I really liked business. The experience brought me back to the passionate mindset I had upon arriving at Stanford.

Sheridan
Rea

Freshman year, I learned to dance as a member of Stanford Swing Dancers. I have loved the ability to try new things in a really supportive environment. I’ve taken a very computational approach to my major, Biology. I’m applying to med school right now and am interested in the ways medical data can be interpreted from data science and computer science perspectives. Being able to process huge quantities of medical data is going to be important in the coming years. I am grateful to go to Stanford.

Zora
Williams

I’m interested in the intersection of data science and law. In my honors thesis, I investigated the use of pretrial risk assessment scores in the Santa Clara County criminal justice system. I’ve also been studying French since I was 11 and want to be involved with French language in some way. Spending a quarter at Stanford in Paris was a big part of my college career. This summer I’ll be returning to the Sciences Po Paris media lab, where I began my thesis research, to present my findings.

Juliana
Chang

I’m part of the Stanford Spoken Word Collective, a slam poetry group. It’s a really cool community of writers and artists, rappers and page poetry authors. Each year we travel to the National Poetry Slam, and this year, in Houston, we placed third.

Lucas
Ramos

One of my favorite Stanford experiences was a storytelling class with Dan Klein of Stanford TAPS, in a workshop format with about 20 people. It made me realize how much I like telling stories, especially personal ones, and care about doing it well. I’m going to be working as a software engineer after I graduate, and I know that I’ll keep storytelling as part of my life even though it may not always be evident in my job.

Noah
Folefac

I’m passionate about social justice in the black community in the UK and passionate about statistics. I’ve applied both to a school project on the Data Justice Lab and my major in mathematical and computational science. I’ve always been interested in technology, and Silicon Valley was my preferred place to go for college after growing up in England. Stanford fit my personal values, promoting a healthy social life as well as being academically strong. Everything seemed to fall into place for me at Stanford.

Jack
Virnich

For the Cardinal Studios 48-hour film fest last year, I got together with other Stanford students I’d never worked with before and we created something that had a piece of each of us in it. It felt as though we were collaborating to the highest degree possible. The arts community is tight-knit. The freshman dorm experience is also amazing at Stanford. At Serra, where I lived, most students kept their doors open, and one day I walked by people playing a video game in one guy’s room and he invited me in, and he ended up being my best friend.

Calvin
Qi

I enjoyed my time on the Stanford Jumprope team—the most optimistic, wholesome, and fun group ever. I came in with no experience and the group really took me under their wing. Later, I was captain for a year. It was a precious growing opportunity for me, and I’ve really enjoyed teaching the newer members and seeing them grow. It’s exhilarating being on stage in the spotlight with people in the audience cheering. You get into a flow state of concentration, and everything else disappears.

Justin
Portela

I’m interested in global happiness research – in particular, how we can increase well-being and happiness in developing countries for people who are struggling and who don’t have access to antidepressants, therapy, or strong channels for resilience. I chose the cognitive science track of the Symbolic Systems major because I’m interested in mental health, Philosophy and Computer Science.

Kyle
D'Souza

I chose to double major after taking Sociology 1 with Professor Tomás Jiménez, and it was AWESOME. Sociology asks questions about things like how economics works and why religions exist. I chose Applied Math to push myself quantitatively. I took all these new classes that I hadn’t been exposed to so far. I came to Stanford not knowing what Sociology even was and ended up majoring in it.

Mary
Markley

The CoHo (Coffee House) has been my favorite site for plein air painting because it’s very busy – look in any direction and you can find something that catches your eye. The plein air painting course combines many of my interests – it’s not just how to paint but about having a sense of place and observing what’s around. I’m a linguistics major, which is fun for me because I love etymology and words and because it’s interdisciplinary, bridging STEM and the humanities.