At the end of every year, Stanford Politics highlights a number of undergraduates of impact, the “Politicos.” In the past, these Politicos have hailed from campus media organizations, activist groups, student government, and more. This year, we received more nominations of people to consider than we have ever before. After interviewing a shortlist of over 30 nominees, our editorial board has decided to recognize the following list of ten individuals and groups — profiled below by members of the staff of Stanford Politics — as this year’s most influential undergraduates at Stanford.
As a non-partisan publication, Stanford Politics does not endorse any particular agenda held by any of the Politicos.
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John David Rice-Cameron (Sophomore, Economics), or “JRC,” is one of the most talked-about students at Stanford. A number of rumors surround his persona as a right- wing ideologue, many of which are untrue. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that Rice-Cameron, who Stanford Politics has profiled more extensively, is indeed a figurehead for and leader of a movement to redefine campus conservatism. He has helped to organize the hosting of controversial speakers at Stanford — from the alleged Islamophobe Robert Spencer this past fall to Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk just last week. Additionally, in January, Rice-Cameron co-wrote a widely-criticized article in the Stanford Review, in which he accused a Stanford professor of being a “ring-leader” of a “violent domestic terrorist movement” and called for the professor’s resignation. (The professor responded by labeling Rice-Cameron’s work as “right-wing propaganda” and “yellow journalism.”) Rice-Cameron’s conservative politics are all the more intriguing when one considers that his mother is former Obama administration National Security Advisor and US Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice ’86. However, as many children of well-known figures spend much of their lives trying to do, Rice- Cameron has succeeded already in his short time at Stanford to establish an identity based on his own efforts and achievements and not his parentage. And as the recently-appointed president of Stanford College Republicans, Rice-Cameron has even more potential to continue his mission to Make Stanford Great Again.
Nani Friedman (Sophomore, Urban Studies), Courtney Pal (Senior, Earth Systems and Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity), and John Yiyang Zhao (Senior, Environmental Systems Engineering) are not the official leaders of the advocacy group Stanford Coalition for Planning an Equitable 2035, more commonly referred to as SCoPE 2035 or just SCOPE. SCOPE doesn’t actually have official leaders, or even position titles. Nevertheless, Nani, Courtney, and John were nominated by several of their peers to be considered as some of the most influential undergraduates this year for the work they’ve done as committed and effective mobilizers within the organization.
Before SCOPE, which was born out of a Housing Justice Research Lab class project in the fall of 2016, most students hadn’t heard of Stanford’s General Use Permit (GUP) application for expanded campus development. SCOPE sought to change that. Through education and advocacy efforts, the student group (in partnership with the campus chapter of the Service Employees International Union) aimed to highlight, and ultimately mitigate, what they believe would be unjust environmental, transportation, labor, and housing impacts of the University’s expansion plans on Stanford’s workers and other marginalized members of the local community. Their work — from hosting town halls, teach-ins, and visible demonstrations to compiling research, attending public meetings, and formally submitting feedback to Santa Clara County — has made SCOPE one of the best organized grassroots groups in this field.
SCOPE recently released their official policy platform, a lengthy document of wonky ideas on how Stanford’s development can be more equitable. The platform reads less like a piece of campus activism and more like a think-tank report. SCOPE proved to be one of the rare groups that can effectively bridge both on-campus and off-campus activism, blending esoteric policy with political action.
Not to mention, SCOPE is not the only avenue for these three student’s activism. Among other things, John is a former co-president of the environmental group Students for a Sustainable Stanford (SSS), and Courtney has been an associate of the Outdoor Education Program for two years. John and Courtney also served as undergraduate representatives in the ‘Beyond Stanford’ steering group for the University’s Long-Range Planning process, and John was a member of the University Committee on Land and Building Development.
*Editor’s Note: This has profile has been corrected to note that SCOPE has formally submitted feedback only to Santa Clara County and not also to the City of Palo Alto.
In recent years, thanks to the work of many advocates, but particularly that of Zina Jawadi (Senior, Biology) and Bryce Tuttle (Sophomore, Political Science), the disability community has become a more visible and politically effective force on campus. Zina and Bryce founded the Stanford Disability Initiative this year, building on their extensive histories of disability-related work on campus. Both have previously served as presidents of Power2ACT, Stanford’s disability advocacy group; both have served as Disability Lead for the student government (ASSU) executive cabinet; and both now serve as chairs on the Disability Initiative’s board.
Zina, who became Disability Lead in 2016, worked with administrators to establish a permanent physical space for the disability community on campus — a venture that Bryce finalized with her once he joined her as a Disability Co-Lead last spring. Their work paid off this past November with the launch of the Abilities Hub (A-Hub), Stanford’s first disability community center. In an interview with Stanford Politics, Zina explained that the center acts as a safe space for people with visible and invisible disabilities alike, as well as allies. Through it, she says, the disability community can finally “raise a voice” on campus.
In their work with the Stanford Disability Initiative, Zina and Bryce have amplified that “voice” even further. This year, in collaboration with other Disability Initiative board members, the two authored five Long-Range Planning (LRP) proposals on topics from the value of the Office of Accessible Education (OAE), to long-term plans for A-Hub, to campus social life accessibility and course accessibility. Their goal, Zina describes, is to push Stanford to be more proactive than reactive about issues of disability.
As chair of the Academic Scholarship Committee for the Disability Initiative, Bryce says he’s proudest of his successful campaign to get renewed funding for a new disability studies course on campus, “Introduction to Disability Studies and Disability Rights.”
Together, Zina and Bryce have changed the campus climate surrounding disability. Two years ago, Bryce tells Stanford Politics, no one was thinking about disability as an issue on campus. But now, he says, “people are paying attention” — a change to which this year’s A-Hub launch, Zina’s and Bryce’s outreach efforts with ASSU senators and University administrators, the founding of the Diversity Initiative, and the first iteration of a disabilities studies course have all surely contributed.
*Editor’s Note: This profile has been corrected to note that five, not four, LRP proposals were authored by Zina and Bryce.
Hamzeh Daoud (Sophomore, International Relations) has been an active leader in both the ASSU Senate and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), championing a number of high-profile movements on behalf of the international student and Muslim student communities. Notably, in the Senate, Hamzeh, who grew up in Jordan, advocated for a widely popular need-blind admissions and aid policy for international applicants. To support this, he co-authored and circulated a petition that garnered more than 1,000 signatures from across the community, and he gathered more than 100 personal narratives from international students to further substantiate it. While he initially viewed the demand as a long-shot, he met with both President Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Drell in an effort to include it in their long-term planning process, an effort that was ultimately successful. Hamzeh told Stanford Politics that Tessier-Lavigne was “very responsive and personally vouches that a need-blind admission policy is among the top three priorities he will advocate for in the long-range planning process,” something Tessier-Lavigne reiterated publicly just a few days after our interview with Hamzeh. While “it cannot happen overnight,” Tessier-Lavigne said about the initiative during a presentation on their vision for Stanford’s future, “it’s something we want to do, and it’s something that we need to do.”
As one of two Muslim senators, Hamzeh also led the senate in drafting and passing a resolution condemning Robert Spencer, a self-described “Islamophobe” who spoke at Stanford in November. Hamzeh was personally denounced by Spencer on his blog Jihad Watch. Nevertheless, Hamzeh made clear to both the public and to Stanford Politics that he was not originally opposed to Spencer’s right to visit campus, affirming his commitment to freedom of expression. He says he only became opposed after the contract between the speaker and the school was purportedly broken. Hamzeh also gave a spoken-word performance at the well-attended campus counter-rally to Spencer’s visit.
Hamzeh, who has been described to Stanford Politics as a role model by multiple members of the Muslim student community, has also worked with SJP to promote Palestinian narratives, and he participated in a widely-seen, on-campus protest following Trump’s designation of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Hamzeh, who hopes to become a human rights lawyer, is currently studying at the Stanford in New York program this spring while he simultaneously works an internship with the New York City Commision on Human Rights; he will work this summer as a Stanford in Government fellow with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees.
At Stanford’s activities fair every year, one might notice the many political organizations and the handful of various “Stanford Women in…” clubs (Stanford Women in Business, Stanford Women in Computer Science, etc.). But until a few years ago, there was not a single organization that explicitly catered to female-identify students interested in politics. Hattie Gawande (Senior, Economics), Shivani Pampati (Senior, Public Policy), and Kinsey Morrison (Senior, International Relations) — who have all been involved in student government, local and national politics, and/or community organizing — decided to change that. The three women decided to create their own club, Stanford Women in Politics (SWIP), an organization designed to uplift, inspire, and empower a previously overlooked community on campus: women motivated to get involved in government and to support other women’s involvement in government.
In an interview with Stanford Politics, Shivani made clear that SWIP is “not just for networking, it’s not just to meet people,” but rather “it’s to have this community of people who think like you and want to do things like you, that you can always fall back on.” Since its inception in 2016, SWIP has undergone the typical growing pains associated with starting a new organization on campus, including low member retention and difficulties in acquiring funding. This year, however, it appears as though the club has hit its stride, even winning a ‘Campus Impact Award’ for being “transformative of the University community.”
With about 200 community members and a core group of 30 women, the group has been able to host impressive events, including a highly-attended conversation with Danica Roem, the first transgender woman elected to a state legislature seat. Additionally, the group has secured a sizable grant to better pursue their goals. They’ve already worked to develop an internship program, which will begin next year, and in the coming years, the women told Stanford Politics, they hope to create a mentorship program, which they plan to be involved with as alumni, within the organization.
After they graduate this June, these three women will take their political zeal beyond Stanford to congressional campaigns and fellowships in local government, but they all hope to stay connected with SWIP, advising the next wave of campus politicos.
The Fountain Hopper, or FoHo, is likely the most-read email newsletter at Stanford. However, from its origins as a tabloid-esque gossip and campus life hacks provider to its growing reputation as a source for hard-hitting investigative reporting, The Fountain Hopper is at an inflection point in its existence. Emma Johanningsmeier (Senior, Comparative Literature and Italian Studies), the anonymous editor behind The Fountain Hopper this year and an aspiring journalist who has interned with the Omaha World-Herald and the Wall Street Journal, has pushed to take the popular unofficial student publication in a more journalistic direction. The Fountain Hopper, which Stanford Politics has written about more extensively, has broken a number of important stories this year, often about administrative corruption or impropriety. And although The Fountain Hopper still struggles to employ basic journalistic ethical norms — including separating news from opinion as well as identifying sources — it has certainly become an important force of accountability reporting on campus.
Most student government (ASSU) senators are disenchanted with the role by the end of their first terms and few run for re-election. That’s far from the case with Gabe Rosen (Junior, Public Policy), who was recently elected a third time in a row.
As appropriations chair both this past session and the next, Rosen has been instrumental in overseeing the implementation of ASSU funding reform, including a complete overhaul of the way student groups get grants. Funding clubs is, after all, the primary responsibility of the elected body. When he was a first-term senator, Rosen says, he saw the then-appropriations chair have to pull $100,000 from the group’s reserves to make ends meet. Under Rosen’s subsequent leadership, he’s sought to ensure that the guidelines the Senate has in place are followed more strictly, and he’s successfully not just stayed under budget but also stemmed the trend of rising annual grants, ultimately saving every student from an exorbitantly rising (more so than at the rate of inflation) ASSU fee.
Furthermore, as Rosen begins his second consecutive term as the only returning senator, he brings institutional memory and knowledge to the body, guiding new senators in best practices that he’s witnessed throughout the years, particularly as it pertains to funding.
Lastly, in a role separate from student government but nonetheless political, Rosen has served as president of Stanford Democrats, bringing (among others) California gubernatorial candidates Antonio Villaraigosa and Delaine Eastin to campus. A consistent Politico, this is Rosen’s second appearance on Stanford Politics’ ‘most influential undergraduates’ list.
Kimiko Hirota (Sophomore, Sociology and Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity) has made a name for herself on campus by bridging the gap between activist groups and student government, working, as she puts it, “both inside and outside the system.” She has become an important voice on campus regarding both funding and resources for community centers as well as how to support survivors of sexual violence. Her involvement on campus is extensive: She was a senator on the 19th Undergraduate Senate, a member of the ASSU Sexual Violence Coalition, and the organizer of the Community Center Coalition campaign, as well as a member of the Stanford Asian American Activism Committee and a member of the Students for the Liberation of All People. Perhaps her most well-known work is in the service of community centers on campus, coordinating meetings between the leaders of the community centers to develop an organized campaign to persuade the Vice Provost of Student Affairs to increase funding and resources for the community centers. Hirota and the other organizers of the Community Center Coalition Committee are currently waiting for a response to their proposal. Her work as a Senator also cannot be ignored ― she wrote and passed a bill to ensure that the Senate acts as advocates for sexual violence survivors and recommends changes to the Title IX reporting processes. The potent mix of both working directly with Stanford’s administration, such as through the Senate, as well as organizing direct action — such as the prison divestment campaign during Homecoming Weekend, the Robert Spencer walkout, and the Charles Murray counter-rally — has made Hirota a powerful force on campus when it comes to effecting change.
Last year, Alexis Kallen (Senior, Political Science) was awarded a prestigious Truman Scholarship, and this year as a senior, she received a Rhodes Scholarship to pursue graduate study at the University of Oxford. But Alexis is much more than her accolades.
Most notably, Alexis is the mind behind Stanford’s Scary Path Task Force. “Scary Path” was an unlit, unpaved 528-foot path, winding amongst looming trees between two Stanford fraternities near the location of where the infamous Brock Turner rape occurred. Upon walking along this path at the beginning of her freshman year and feeling scared for her safety, Alexis immediately began what turned into a two-year campaign to make “Scary Path” less scary.
After assembling a team of advocates from across various campus communities, attracting national media attention to the issue, and spending countless hours working with administrators to convince them of the importance of taking action, finally, in December of 2016, pavement and lighting for the path was approved and funded, and construction was finished this past fall.
Alexis — who has personally persevered through a childhood of financial difficulty and has Cerebral Palsy — was also the most-recent chair of Stanford in Government, one of campus’ largest political organizations. She is committed to public service, which she plans to pursue through human rights law.
Almost every year a student (or group of students) tries to start a new publication. Most years, that publication gets no traction and the creators move on to other endeavors. Once in a while, however, a new publication shows that it has the potential to stick around. This year, that publication is the Stanford Sphere.
When Ravi Veriah Jacques (Sophomore, History) arrived on campus in 2016, he saw a Left that he believed to be “disorganized.” Dissatisfied with what he characterizes in an interview with Stanford Politics as liberals’ “overwhelming urge to constantly act and engage in activism rather than think before acting,” Ravi sought to “really change the Left…and make it a bit more thoughtful, and that will make it far more effective in its actual activism.”
Ravi tells Stanford Politics that when he created The Sphere this past fall, he wanted it to be (and still does) “the voice of the Left on campus.” However, as much as The Sphere’s founders keep saying “the Left,” most of their critiques appear to be reserved for that very side of the ideological spectrum, which it claims to represent. The website’s about page even unambiguously states: “Indeed, the founders understood that there existed two fundamental problems with political discourse on campus; first a claustrophobic ‘liberal consensus’ dominated discourse thereby constraining meaningful and interesting debate. Second, Stanford lacked a strong left-wing intellectual presence. The Sphere was designed to remedy both these problems.”
Ravi understands this seeming contradiction, telling us: “The response has been quite divisive, to be honest. Certain people within activist spheres have taken objection to our criticisms of the Left, but others within those same circles have really enjoyed us.”
The Sphere may be struggling to immediately establish its identity, but it certainly has at least been the subject of much conversation, Ravi points out, noting that it has been mentioned multiple times in Stanford Politics, the Stanford Review, and the Stanford Daily. It is undeniable that The Sphere is seeping into campus political discourse.
On another note, Ravi has also been influential this year through his role as one of the members of the student steering committee for the Cardinal Conversations speaker series. Ravi says that he is personally friends with the series’ former organizer, Hoover fellow Niall Ferguson. The series has been controversial for its alleged conservative leanings, so Ravi sees his role as one of the few self-identified leftists on the committee as all the more important, crediting himself in large part for the series’ invitation to Dr. Cornel West for an event next fall.
PAST POLITICOS
2016 – 2017
2015 – 2016
2014 – 2015
The editorial board for this feature includes Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna, Jake Dow, Maddie McConkey, and Lucas Rodriguez. Additional staff that contributed interviewing and profile-writing include Raleigh Browne, Allie Dow, Sierra Maciorowski, Thomas Pfeiffer, Rebecca Smalbach, Julian Watrous, and Amber Yang. This article appears in the June 2018 issue of Stanford Politics Magazine.