"With $35 and a contact in New York, my mom applied for political asylum," says Oriana Riley. Oriana is a rising sophomore at Stanford University interested in politics and creative writing. When she's not working on Econ PSets or ignoring her PWR homework, she writes for the Stanford Daily and works for the Law Library. In her free time, she goes on long runs and writes short novels.

"Black students were routinely punished more harshly–in terms of detention, suspension, and expulsion to alternative schools–for the same offenses as white students, including dress code violations, selling snacks, and leaving campus for lunch," says Michael Brown, describing their experiences growing up in Houston. Micheal is a senior at Stanford majoring in African and African-American Studies with a minor in Political Science. They were born and raised in Houston, TX before moving to Palo Alto, CA. They are passionate about politics, philosophy, music, media, and popular culture.

"Since the Lebanese Civil War of 1975, Lebanon has been mutilated, tortured, and destroyed by mafia lords comfortably sitting on a pile of crimes and obstructions," says Tiffany Saade. A rising junior at Stanford majoring in Political Science and minoring in International Relations, Tiffany was born and raised in Lebanon, in the midst of political instability and corruption. Her dream is to return to her country and participate in the much needed reform on the political, governmental, judicial and constitutional levels.

"My parents' version of 'the talk' was not about how babies are born–it was about what to do if one or both of them got deported," says Lizbeth Hernandez Rios. Lizbeth is a freshman at Stanford majoring in International Relations and double minoring in Human Rights and Art Studio. She is interested in the development of Latin American countries, and chose to focus her Personal Politics submission on the effect the current anti-immigrant laws had on her and her family–and so many others in their same position.

"As the summer of 2020 came to a close, a red, glowing, hellish dusk of smoke engulfed the comforting blue I had grown up with," says Alyssa Krull, describing the impact of wildfires near her California home. Alyssa is a rising junior at Stanford University majoring in Energy Resources Engineering, with a focus on Clean and Renewable Energy, and minoring in Creative Writing.

"I want girls and women to live their lives free from gender-based violence so that no one dies like my aunt did," Jackline Wambua says in her Personal Politics submission. She’s a rising sophomore at Stanford, born and raised in Kenya, and a strong voice for justice and gender equality.

From gender-based violence in Kenya to renewable energy in California, Personal Politics is a platform where participants connect personal stories to political arguments. On this episode, project founder Nadav Ziv discusses the project's inspiration and goals.