Each quarter, the Stanford Center for Racial Justice hosts part-time internships for Stanford University undergraduate juniors and seniors, graduate, and law students to support our work to address some of the most challenging problems in our country resulting from the history and persistence of racism. We are excited to announce our amazing Fall 2022 cohort, who collectively bring a stellar range of personal, academic, and professional experiences that will contribute to the advancement of racial justice!

Meet Our Fall 2022 Interns

Ashwin Pillai | Ashwin (he/him) is a senior from Santa Clara, Calif. double majoring in Philosophy and Political Science, minoring in Music, and pursuing a coterminal master’s degree in Philosophy. On campus, he is an undergraduate fellow at the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, a Structured Liberal Education tutor and community connection, a Political Science department peer advisor, and an avid member of Stanford Mixed Company A Cappella. He is currently working on an honors thesis in the Ethics in Society program inspired by research he did while working for the fair housing project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. His academic interests are primarily in political theory and in thinking about the role of the judiciary in a democratic society, and he hopes to attend law school in the future. In his free time, he loves going on long bike rides, listening to Supreme Court podcasts, and singing with his friends.

Claudia Nmai | Claudia is a senior from Twinsburg, Ohio majoring in Sociology and minoring in African and African American Studies. She spends her time at Stanford understanding and researching the collateral consequences of the criminal-legal system in the United States, and is working on an honors thesis exploring the intergenerational consequences of policing on Black immigrant families in Cleveland, Ohio. On campus, she’s a Resident Assistant in Ujamaa, a Mellon Mays fellow, and works at the Women’s Community Center. She has also been involved with the Black Student Union (BSU), the Ghanaian Students’ Association, the Frosh 101 program, and Associated Students of Stanford (ASSU). Claudia is grateful for the opportunity to intern at the Stanford Center for Racial Justice, and is excited to work alongside the other interns and staff members throughout the quarter.

Emily Nichols | Emily Geigh Nichols (she/they) is a senior from Baton Rouge, La. studying African & African American Studies and Mass Communications. She has served as President of Black Student Union, Chair of the 23rd ASSU Undergraduate Senate, and Director of Social Justice for Stanford Women in Law. In addition, Emily has also served as Leadership Development Chair for the Black Community Services Center. The past two summers, she interned at The Bail Project as a National Policy Intern, served as an Advocacy Fellow at The Gathering for Justice, interned for former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, and co-founded the national #Students2Stay movement. Recently selected as a 2022 Truman Scholar Finalist and Sidley Law Scholar, Emily’s academic interests focus on how to use law, advocacy, and arts to eradicate the school-to-prison pipeline and reimagine educational institutions that center transformative justice. She hopes to attend graduate school and receive a joint JD/MFA in law and film. In her spare time, Emily enjoys styling clothes, working on her fashion and wellness blog, and vlogging about her experience at Stanford!

Ian Partman | Ian is a writer, artist, and third-year student from Washington, D.C. studying English and Human Rights. He is the founder of Ignite Collective, a collective of young activists who work to resist police violence through direct action and mutual aid, and an organizing member of Survived and Punished, a national organization that advocates for the release of incarcerated survivors of gender-based violence. Prior to joining the Stanford Center for Racial Justice, Ian interned at the Brennan Center for Justice, where he conducted policy research on police violence and alternative models of justice. Ian has published academic research on histories of racial exclusion within everyday institutions—specifically within higher education—and is currently at work on a forthcoming monograph that explores Black childhood in the age of #BlackLivesMatter. In his free time, Ian enjoys hiking, filmmaking, DJ’ing, and growing his already extensive postcard collection.

Remeny White | Remeny (she/her) is a 2L at Stanford Law School interested in infrastructural racial justice—in education, housing, the environment, technology, and beyond. Before law school, she spent a year of the COVID-19 pandemic serving as an academic tutor and socio-emotional mentor “at” Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights (but really, entirely over Zoom) through AmeriCorps’ City Year, Los Angeles program. Much of her service year was dedicated to getting students the Chromebooks and Wifi hotspots they needed just to be able to log into school. At law school, she is a volunteer at Stanford’s Housing Pro Bono project, a Public Interest Mentor, and a Lead Articles Editor for the Stanford Environmental Law Journal. This fall, she’ll be traveling to South Africa as part of a law school course to interview grassroots lawyers and activists fighting for racial and infrastructural justice in post-apartheid South Africa. And this spring, she’ll represent clients in East Palo Alto in eviction defense cases and work to expunge criminal records and secure Social Security disability benefits through Stanford’s full-time Community Law Clinic.