When I was applying to graduate programs, I knew Stanford was the place I wanted to be, so much so that this is the only school I applied to! Stanford has such a strong culture of innovation and change, and there’s a real zeal here for fresh ideas and entrepreneurship.

My area of policy interest is nuclear weapons. That often strikes people as quite surprising, but it goes back to a research project I began on the Model UN team at Pepperdine. I had no background in nuclear weapons policy at all, but I suddenly became so enveloped by the work I was doing for Model UN that I would catch myself in my other classes yearning to work on my nuclear weapons research. That’s when I knew I had to work on these issues full-time.

I believe understanding the politics of nuclear weapons is foundational to understanding the world’s power structure. Whether considering the way multilateral institutions operate, the way states derive global influence, or the way everyday citizens assign prestige, all of it goes back to nuclear weapons in some way.

One of the things I have seen again and again is that our thinking about nuclear policy hasn’t changed much over the decades. We’ve relied on a lot of the same theories since the Cold War. But we no longer live in a Cold War world. There are new technologies, new geopolitical dynamics, new global challenges that all complicate the way states think about nuclear weapons.

If we want to address these kinds of concerns, we can’t keep walking on the familiar paths that have already been carved; we need to forge new paths, new ways of thinking, new solutions. We also need to make sure that diverse voices are brought into nuclear policymaking circles and that underrepresented communities are able to contribute meaningfully to these dialogues.

I think Stanford presents such a great opportunity to do just that. There are experts like Rose Gottemoeller and Scott Sagan here who have been instrumental contributors to nuclear thinking for decades. But there’s also a culture of change and an openness to looking at issues broadly and across disciplines. This is an environment that empowers individuals to go out in the world to be leaders and make a difference. I’m eager to be molded by such an environment and use what I learn to make an impact.
 

I’m coming to Stanford from Singapore, where I have been involved in civil society and Southeast Asian development. My background spans civil society, academia, and the corporate sector, and I’ve gotten accustomed to wearing quite a lot of different hats. Many Southeast Asian societies are at a point of democratic inflection and transformation right now. There are resurging demands for an open society and political pluralism which run up against entrenched and dynamic authoritarian resilience. We’re also in a global moment of democratic disillusionment and dysfunction. So, one of the things I’m interested in is understanding better how Southeast Asian societies can pioneer and innovate our own forms of indigenous democracy and openness that are suited to our own contexts. What does that look like? How do we avoid pitfalls we see in other places or in our own colonial and postcolonial experiences? How can we best engender shared prosperity?

These questions are very much on the minds of many younger people in Singapore and Southeast Asia. I had the privilege and opportunity to help co-found the Community for Advocacy and Political Education (CAPE), which is Singapore’s first independent youth-led civic literacy and democracy-building organization. The younger generations want to understand their society and their government and how to make changes in it. In the past, advocacy and policy changes in Singapore have happened very slowly. But there’s starting to be more eagerness and urgency to see change and innovation.

I want to be a part of that change. Singapore and Southeast Asia are where my long-term goals and interests are, and I want to be able to go back prepared to help build a new, better society. And I think being here at Stanford in the MIP program is instrumental to that. I love academia, but I’ve always seen myself as much more of a practitioner, so I love the very practical, hands-on approach that this program takes to teaching about policy and how to actually get things done amid our contemporary dysfunction: building coalitions, connecting the global with the local, working with stakeholders, and handling bureaucracies and political intricacies. It’s not just about the theory or the research; it’s about doing the work and actually making a difference. I’m very much looking forward to spending time in this community and learning from all the expertise and talent that is here.
 

Hong Kong, where I grew up, was instrumental in shaping my interests and perspectives. Being immersed in a new city, language, and culture from a young age was an incredible privilege for which I will always be grateful. I still feel intimately connected to the city. While in college, I took up research internships in Beijing at the World Resources Institute and with the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, focusing on Chinese domestic policies, specifically on the environmental challenges of rapid development.

After college, I delved deeper into the think tank world at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), with a geopolitical and energy focus. In 2016, keen to combine my interest in policy with the fast-paced, ever-changing world of technology, I joined Spotify, where I evaluated a potential launch in China and later helped start and grow the Trust and Safety team. In the MIP program, I am excited to go deeper into the intersecting areas of digital policy, emerging technologies, online speech, and user safety.

Poorly implemented digital policies can erode public trust, disproportionately impact marginalized communities, and reshape global information systems. I’ve seen how some of those things can impact audio and video platforms, and I’m curious to learn more about what those issues look like in other digital spaces, both domestically and globally.

At Stanford, I’m looking to find ways to combine my prior experience working on policies related to China with my focus in cyber. The domestic conversation is centered on competition between the U.S. and China, particularly in technology and AI, but I think there are plenty of opportunities for collaboration. I studied government and East Asian Studies in college because I wanted to better understand the issues that connect and divide us as people. That still informs my interest when it comes to understanding this great power competition we’re seeing today.

The opportunities and expertise at Stanford in both these areas — cyber policy and U.S.-China relations — are really remarkable. There are so many incredible people to learn from. I love the interdisciplinary approach the MIP program takes and the encouragement to learn things outside our comfort zones. I’m someone who really believes in the impact thoughtful policy can have, and I know the skills and conversations developed here will shape my future.
 

When I was young, I dreamt of being the first Emerati recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics. I love the sciences, particularly astronomy. Many people don’t realize it, but the United Arab Emirates actually has a very expansive space program. We're currently the only country that has reached Mars while having a population less than 100 million; we launched a probe in 2020 with the purpose of more completely mapping the Martian atmosphere and its layers.

So it’s actually something of an accident and some unexpected turns in life that I have ended up in politics and policy. I was given the chance to work as the Head of Science & Technology Diplomacy in the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was truly an incredible opportunity. I’ve been working on initiatives to bolster our science and technology ecosystem and better inform our foreign policy on emerging technology issues.

I firmly believe that collaboration on technology and scientific development is an important pathway to help countries become more responsible and more integrated into the international community. In my experience, speaking as a nerd, nerds are the same everywhere you go. Scientists all speak the same language no matter where you are. And that is an important reminder that at the end of the day, we are one global population. I think the UAE has a very important role to play in this space, both regionally and globally, and that given the right mindset and investments, we can do a lot of good as developers and collaborators in science and technology, not just purchasers.

That’s why being here at Stanford as a member of the MIP program is such a unique experience. There’s no comparing the kind of exposure you get here to Silicon Valley and the innovation ecosystem. There are so many titans of tech and tech policy here. And there’s so much to learn from how Stanford operates as a university. There’s a topic for everything. There is collaboration happening everywhere. I’ve only been here for a few weeks, and I’ve already noted down so many things that I would like to see implemented in my own government and in our universities.

I think the first Nobel Laureate in the advanced sciences from the UAE has already been born. I think I will see that person in my lifetime. So my goal is to do what I can now to make sure that the UAE’s policies and the infrastructure of our research ecosystem is ready for them. And I’m collecting as many ideas as I can from Stanford to take back with me to do that work.
 

Surrounded by problem solvers and people that cared about creating impact, I grew up knowing I could change the world. I cared about changing the narratives in my community — a small town in the Ondo State of Nigeria — and contributing my quota to our collective development. When our headlines were filled with stories of conflict-induced food insecurity, I developed an interest in socio-economic fragility and wanted to work to fight food poverty.

Having designed multiple national disaster risk management solutions across Africa largely financed by grants, I became interested in innovative private financing for climate change adaptation. The bulk of my research here at Stanford will be focused on creating sustainable financing solutions, particularly for rural enterprises in Africa. In my prior work, I have found that it takes about 10 to 15 years for grant money allotted to rural households to begin making a difference. In contrast, creating sustainable, market-led financing options can start making a difference within three to five years. 

Not only is this type of financing important for supporting communities facing poverty and upheaval caused by conflict and climate change, it’s also an important way to help lift the burdens on women-led households and ensure they have enough financial stability to send their children to school. One study I helped conduct showed that when women received a payout from the insurance, they were more likely to save and pay for household expenses like school fees! It was a win-win for me — supporting early childhood education and financial gender balance.

Because the MIP program has such a unique balance of self-directed learning and practice-based learning outcomes, being here is really going to allow me to expand my understanding of how to design sustainable financing programs both from the policy perspective as well as the business side of it. I have the opportunity to take classes both from some of the world’s leading climate change professors and policymakers as well as from experts at the Graduate School of Business. And they’re all right across the street from each other.

I’m looking forward to taking advantage of all of these resources to push myself to fill in the gaps I discover in my own thinking with the new perspectives I gain from being here.
 

When I was about 10, my parents decided that I could only watch TV channels that played documentaries. I soon got hooked on WWII documentaries and came to realize that the building blocks that made my world intelligible to me could not be taken for granted; everything from our economic livelihood to our human rights depend on ordinary people playing a role to try to make things better. Liberal democracies are far from perfect, but they’re the best governance system we’ve yet devised to allow individuals and communities to flourish.

In my career, that approach most recently drew me to an opportunity to work on establishing a new political party in California, the Common Sense Party. Our aim is to leverage California’s open primary system to offer an open, values-based alternative to the major political parties. And while those operations have been in California, that experience has reinforced in me how interconnected democracies are. California’s democratic system has an impact on American democracy as a whole, because states tend to model their own systems off other ones that work best. And the United States, even with its current vulnerabilities, is still a powerful influence on other democracies around the world. Local and global struggles for democracy are linked. 

I want to spend my time here at MIP understanding those interconnections better and determining where I can match my interests with impact to take the next step in my life. There are fundamental questions facing liberal democracies right now: How do we make sure they are legitimate and deliver for people on kitchen table issues? How can we make sure they lead in technology and national security? How do we better defend these systems against authoritarians who help sow the misinformation and cynicism I commonly encountered in my work at the Common Sense Party? 

Obviously, these are complicated questions with lots of intersecting answers. There are economic development aspects to these issues. There are security aspects. There are aspects of governance and the role of institutions. I’ve found that the most interesting questions tend to be where these subjects intersect. 

The MIP program is designed to be a choose-your-own-journey, so I can narrow in on those aspects of governance, development, and national security that interest me most. Half the credits we choose can come from any school within Stanford, and that was something that really drew me to the program. And MIP students are outnumbered by the faculty at FSI, which is an awesome privilege and not the case in very many policy programs. I also love the applied approach of the MIP curriculum: for instance, in our required global econ class we are starting with datasets for real countries and then working to the economic theory and policy recommendations. Many classes I’ve taken previously would start with the theory, and I’ve found the MIP approach much more conducive to learning. I think it better sets us up to be effective policy makers, not just smart ones.