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 Winter 2023 cohort, who collectively bring a stellar range of personal, academic, and professional experiences that will contribute to the advancement of racial justice!

Meet Our Winter 2023 Interns

Micayla Bozeman | A senior from Lansing, Michigan, Micayla will be graduating with a major in Political Science and minor in Psychology in spring. She is interested in how the intersection of race, class, and gender affect the arrests, charges, and convictions in the criminal justice system. For the past three summers, she has spent her time working at the Social Concepts Lab studying racism and race representation in psychological research with Professor Steven Roberts; working at the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office in Oakland helping lawyers prepare for their cases; and working as a Bay Area Law School intern, researching why students attend law school and the social influences throughout their education that affect their career choices. Currently, she works as an intern for the Court Listening Project with Professor Matthew Clair. Micayla plans on attending law school and eventually becoming a public defender.

Sarina Deb | A senior from the Bay Area studying Political Science with minors in Psychology and Human Rights, Sarina is the founder of Jailed for Melanin. The platform and advocacy group strives to address mass incarceration and its disproportionate impact on people of color and other marginalized groups. With Jailed for Melanin, Sarina has designed and implemented a curriculum on mass incarceration in K-12 schools and conducted research on the school to prison pipeline and the prison industrial complex. On campus, Sarina is a social justice committee chair with the Stanford ACLU, a Vice Chair in Stanford in Government, the President of Students Against Eating Disorders, and a Stanford Undergraduate Constitutional Law Fellow. She has interned with Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), California Appellate Project, and Equal Rights Advocates. Sarina has also served as a research assistant with the Stanford King Center for Global Development and the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Projects. 

Imani Nokuri | A 1L at Stanford Law School, Imani is interested in studying the intersections of race and technology, two areas that touch every aspect of our world. Before law school, she graduated magna cum laude from University of Maryland College Park with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Politics and a minor in Nonprofit Leadership and Social Innovation. During her time at Maryland, Imani worked closely with the African American Studies Department and the Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion to research solutions for underrepresented students adjusting to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her prior work experience includes the American Enterprise Institute, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, and the Office of the Public Defender in Prince George’s County. In law school, Imani is a Member Editor for the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and a 1L representative for Stanford’s Black Law Student Association. In her free time, Imani is a Zumba instructor and loves planning game nights.

Mara Stojanovic | A coterminal master’s student from Oakland, Mara is studying Public Policy with a concentration in Urban Policy. As an undergraduate, Mara concentrated in Discrimination, Crime, and Poverty Policy. Her undergraduate policy practicum focused on the economic and racial equity impacts of East Palo Alto’s Opportunity to Purchase Act housing policy. She has interned for the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, where she researched alternative labor organizations as part of the Creating a New Moral Political Economy Project. During her time on the executive team of Stanford Women in Politics, Mara led teach-ins and service opportunities on political issues ranging from the criminalization of survivors to environmental justice. Mara’s academic interests include examining the impacts of the criminal justice system, policing, and urban policy across intersections of race, gender, class, disability, and sexuality; and exploring transformative justice approaches that decenter carceral institutions. In her spare time, Mara enjoys reading, crocheting, and writing.

Esha Thapa | A sophomore from Lincoln, Calif. majoring in Data Science & Social Systems with a concentration in Economic Inequality and Opportunity, Esha joins SCRJ as a Research Intern to assist with data science ideas and execution for our ongoing projects. Her internship is part of a collaboration with the Stanford Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA) through its Undergraduate Research Intern program. Outside of CESTA, Esha can be found dancing for Stanford’s K-pop dance group, mentoring high school students as a Matriculate Advisor, and working at the Lathrop Learning Hub as a Technology Consultant. She will be with SCRJ through the rest of the academic year.