Olivia M. (IN A NUTSHELL)

Olivia is a recent graduate of Stanford University with a dual degree in International Relations and Comparative Literature. She will be attending Cambridge University in the Fall to pursue a Masters of Philosophy in Politics and International Studies.

A native of the Southern California Desert, she grew up wandering through sand dunes, searching for treasure among the grains of sand. She found it in the form of the wonderful teachers, peers, and support systems she’s encountered in her years of education. In high school, she often felt her humanities education was lacking, and founded a literary club dedicated to the discussion of political literature. She created a creative writing blog, where she began reflecting on the unique ways humans and environment intersect in the desert. She was also an active member of her high school debate team, where her love of politics flourished, and her team won multiple regional championships. She graduated as valedictorian.

At Stanford, Olivia has had the opportunity to pursue her interests in new and often challenging ways. As Editor in Chief for Leland Quarterly, Stanford's creative writing magazine, Olivia incorporated new voices in the publication, including its first-ever foreign language piece. She has taken classes on everything from authoritarianism to Russian literature to a novel-writing workshop. She is particularly interested in the way literature intersects with political and human rights issues.

Outside of school, she has worked at the US Department of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor as well as the European Parliament doing human rights work, where she’s learned about the exciting ways in which political systems function, as well as numerous nonprofits. In her free time, Olivia loves to work out, hike, spend time with friends and family, and practice her Spanish and Russian. She watches the occasional pretentious film, but enjoys her fair share of really bad movies, too. As a Curious Cardinal mentor, Olivia hopes to provide her students with the same treasure she was lucky enough to find in hometown’s sand dunes: an enthusiasm for learning and growing that can only be inspired by patient, thoughtful, and flexible teachers who can adapt based on their student’s needs.