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Ritu Belani

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Bio

Hi! I'm a Stanford student majoring in Chicano/Latino Studies, and I'm also interested in Islamic Studies, computational linguistics, and public policy. In addition to my day job, being a student, I'm also a stand-up comedian (my YouTube/Instagram is @Ritu Does Comedy!) I'm returning from a headliner comedy tour in Cupertino, Seattle, and Barcelona. Maybe you'll see me on Netflix soon :) In my future career, I'd like to bring together my track record for publishing research, effecting policy change, and advocating for social justice. Scholarships will help me fund my education and pursue my dreams of becoming a community-engaged scholar. Fun fact: I'm fluent in English, Spanish, and Costco. (Also currently learning Arabic!) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritu-belani/

Education

Stanford University

Bachelor's degree program
2024 - 2028
  • Majors:
    • Linguistics and Computer Science
    • Area, Ethnic, Cultural, Gender, and Group Studies, Other
    • Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other
  • Minors:
    • Middle/Near Eastern and Semitic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General
    • International Relations and National Security Studies
    • Religion/Religious Studies
  • Not planning to go to medical school

    • Career

    • Dream career field:

      Public Policy

    • Dream career goals:

      Uniting the worlds of academia, policy, and community engagement to serve marginalized groups

      Research

      • Public Health

        Big Data 4 Health Equity Lab at University of Maryland — Data analyst, published in Int. Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2023, paper entitled: "Examining exposure to messaging, content, and hate speech from partisan news social media posts on racial and ethnic health disparities"
        2021 – 2023

      • Linguistics and Computer Science

        UC Santa Cruz — First Author, published in the Association for Computational Linguistics, paper entitled: "Automatic Identification of Code-Switching Functions in Speech Transcripts"
        2021 – 2023

      • Religion/Religious Studies

        John Near Scholar — First Author, published 40 page paper entitled: "Holy and Hilarious: Humor in Islam and Contemporary American Muslim Comedy"
        2023 – 2024

      Arts

      • Ritu Does Comedy

        Performance Art
        Headliner Show: Stanford Bound: Surviving the College Applications Chaos with Humor, Performed in International Comedy Clubs, ¡Comedia en Español!, Check out more @RituDoesComedy on YouTube/Instagram
        2021 – Present

      • At the Intersection Open Mic Series

        Performance Art
        See more events on our YouTube @AtTheIntersectionSeries, Hahahalal, My Beliefs, Your Beliefs, Our Beliefs, My Multilingual Selves, Towards Educational Equity, Who Wasn't Invited to Thanksgiving?
        2022 – Present

      • Ballet Folclórico de Stanford

        Dance
        Día de Muertos Mexican Folk Dance Showcase
        2024 – Present

      Public services

      • Volunteering

        Muslim Tech Collaborative — VP of Community
        2024 – Present

      • Volunteering

        La Asociación Latino Musulmana de América (Latino Muslim Association of America) — Student Liason
        2022 – Present

      • Advocacy

        Sunnyvale Youth Public Policy Institute — President
        2021 – 2024

      Future Interests

      Advocacy

      Politics

      Volunteering

      Philanthropy

      Entrepreneurship