INTERNATIONAL EXPLORATIONS

Jagruti is a passionate educator who is focused on demystifying the critical intersection of climate science, environment, and social change. After receiving her PhD in Ocean Sciences from University of Southern California, she went on to do her postdoc at Stanford. Ever since she has been teaching several aspects of Earth Science in SF Bay Area colleges and has taught summer courses at UC Berkeley and Stanford for the past few years. Through her courses, she strives to propagate the need of the hour in the light of recent developments in the climate scenario. She is sensitive to the needs, opinions and aspirations of students, and focuses on creating a safe space where experimentation, critical thinking and reflection can flourish.

Ross is a Ph.D. Candidate in Aeronautics & Astronautics at Stanford University and is a recipient of the Stanford Graduate Fellowship (SGF) in Science & Engineering. He is a researcher in the Stanford Intelligent Systems Lab (SISL), researching principled methods for algorithmic decision making under uncertainty utilizing approaches involving statistical machine learning and artificial intelligence. Ross’s research has led to international collaborations on topics spanning autonomous driving, multidisciplinary design optimization, and COVID-19. Ross has designed and taught several short artificial intelligence courses for middle and high school students and he has also served as a teaching assistant for various engineering, mathematics, and computer science courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Nada is a multi-disciplinarian at the intersection of entrepreneurship, art, and pedagogy, who creates stories, media, performances, installations, and business plans. She is the founder and president of Artist on Art, teaches at University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), co-organizes TEDxSantaCruz, and hosts a weekly live radio interview show and podcast. In 2020, Nada co-founded GetVirtual.org, an organization that gives local businesses impacted by COVID-19 the tools to adapt to the virtual landscape and extend their businesses online. Nada taught for Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies for 5 years, both on the Stanford campus and in international locations including Kazakhstan, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and Brazil. She recently won an Honored Faculty Sammy Award that annually recognizes contributions towards career development in the UCSC community.