I'm a Stanford sophomore majoring in Chicano/Latino Studies, Computer Engineering, and minoring in Islamic Studies. In addition to my day job, being a student, I'm also a stand-up comedian (my YouTube/Instagram is @Ritu Does Comedy!) I've performed a headliner comedy tour in Cupertino, Seattle, and Barcelona, and I've opened for Zarna Garg. 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 justice. Scholarships will help me fund my education and pursue my dreams of becoming a community-engaged scholar. Language-wise, I'm fluent in English, Spanish, and Costco. I've also studied Arabic for two years.

• Advocacy
• Politics
• Volunteering
• Philanthropy
• Entrepreneurship

• Basketball

  Varsity · 1 award

  2020 – 2020

  Awards:

  Unofficial Benchwarmer

• Research Intern

  Stanford Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis — Researching depictions of Black people in classical art: "What does an Aethiopian look like?: A Digital Catalogue of Black Africans in Ancient Art Collections" · Digital Humanities and Textual Studies

  2025 – 2025

  Research topic:

  Representations of Black People in Ancient Roman Art

• 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"

  Big Data 4 Health Equity Lab at University of Maryland · Public Health

  2021 – 2023

  Research topic:

  Racial Health Disparities

• First Author, published in the Association for Computational Linguistics, paper entitled: "Automatic Identification of Code-Switching Functions in Speech Transcripts"

  UC Santa Cruz · Linguistics and Computer Science

  2021 – 2023

  Research topic:

  Spanish-English Code-Switching

• First Author, published 40 page paper entitled: "Holy and Hilarious: Humor in Islam and Contemporary American Muslim Comedy"

  John Near Scholar · Religion/Religious Studies

  2023 – 2024

  Research topic:

  Holy and Hilarious: Humor in Islam and Contemporary American Muslim Comedy

• Comedian

  Ritu Does Comedy · Performance Art

  2021 – Present

  Productions:

  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

• Founder and President

  Founder and President At the Intersection Open Mic Series · Performance Art

  2022 – Present

  Productions:

  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?

• Founder and President

  Founder and President of Stanford Stand-up , D Club · Performance Art

  2025 – Present

• Dancer

  Ballet Folclórico de Stanford · Dance

  2024 – Present

  Productions:

  Día de Muertos Mexican Folk Dance Showcase

• VP of Community

  Volunteering · Muslim Tech Collaborative

  2024 – Present

  Mission:

  A home for Muslims in tech to collaborate on solving problems, educating our youth, and leveling up their careers through our professional network and resources.

• Student Liason

  Volunteering · La Asociación Latino Musulmana de América (Latino Muslim Association of America)

  2022 – Present

  Mission:

  Creating a community where Latino Muslims can learn about Islam in Spanish and support each other through challenges that come with being a new Muslim

• President

  Advocacy · Sunnyvale Youth Public Policy Institute

  2021 – 2024

  Mission:

  Giving high school students the resources and initiative to make change on a city, county, and state level.