2020-21 Fellows
Adesuwa Agbonile ’21 is a senior at Stanford majoring in Economics and minoring in Creating Writing. She has always loved telling stories - whether that be through making an audio story, writing fiction, or reporting for a newspaper. She's particularly interested in how storytelling can spur social change — especially in the arena of racial justice. In her free time, Adesuwa likes to write, read, listen to R&B music while dancing along to it, and watch bad reality TV.
Darnell (DeeSoul) Carson ’20 is a senior majoring in Cultural/Social Psychology with a minor in Creative Writing (Poetry). He has been writing poetry for eight years now and believes not just in the power of our storms, but also in the joy at their center. At any given moment, he can be found running between several commitments, sharing poetry, or playing an egregious amount of video games. He is interested in the way identity intersects with art, and how art helps us to understand the experiences of others. He is Co-Director of the Stanford Spoken Word Collective, so if you ever need any poetry recommendations, he's your guy!
Luciana Frazao MS ’21 is a Master’s student in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. Her work emphasis is on robotics and human-centered design. She graduated in 2017 in Industrial Design at Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil.
Kory Gaines ’21 is a senior, majoring in African and African American Studies and Political Science. In those majors, they focus on Black art and cultural expression and political philosophy respectively. They are from Washington, D.C. and Prince George's County, MD. They are interested in the arts for the arts' own sake and for the interplay between arts and politics. They enjoy running, bingewatching shows on Netflix, reading, writing poems, listening to music, and dancing for fun.
JJ Kapur ’22 is a junior at Stanford majoring in Theater and Performance Studies and Minoring in Psychology. Currently he is back home and taking classes over Zoom in Des Moines, Iowa—where he was born and raised. When asked, “Is this heaven?” JJ’s reply is always: “No, this is Iowa.” JJ loves exploring the intersection of theater and psychology, especially how the theater can be used as a platform for healing. JJ’s desire to bridge both fields of study led him to found “Sikhs in the Spotlight”: a youth-led organization that uses theatrical vignettes to shine the spotlight on issues affecting the mental health of Sikh Americans. When JJ’s not writing Zoom theater skits, you can find him sipping a cup of chai with his family, watching pre-2005 Spongebob episodes, or learning a Beatles song on his guitar.
Elaine Lai is a PhD candidate in Religious Studies at Stanford University specializing in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, with a focus on the Great Perfection tradition. Before Stanford, she spent ten years studying and working in China, Taiwan, India, Hong Kong and Nepal where she received many teachings from various Buddhist teachers, and trained intensively in yoga and martial arts. In the world beyond academia, she serves as the co-president of the Buddhist Community at Stanford (BCAS) where she facilitates inter-faith dialogues on the intersection of compassion, identity and justice. Elaine is interested in supporting all movers and shakers in the world thirsting to create a different paradigm of being, one which is truly free. Dark chocolate and peanut butter toast are her favorite foods.
Rachel Lam ’20 (any pronouns) is a graduate from the Psychology department. They are Anigiduwagi enrolled Cherokee Nation and a first-generation Malaysian-American. This year they are working for Stanford’s Office of Religious Life/The Stanford Storytelling Project, the City of Seattle, and on a Cherokee language textbook project. Their interests intersect community health, art practices, and languages.