Meryl Press

Meryl began her undergraduate experience with the goal of becoming a journalist, and rose to the position of new editor at UC San Diego’s student student-run newspaper, The Guardian, where she was surrounded by students with immense fervor and enthusiasm for politics. However, during her junior year while studying abroad in Bordeaux, France, Meryl’s plans shifted in a different direction as she experienced the world as a foreigner in the eyes of others. She observed Europe’s refugee crisis and the terrorist attack on Paris in an intimate setting, and the prominent school shootings in the U.S. from a distance. “It was a life-changing experience for me,” Meryl said. While overseas, she traveled to the Ukraine, her family’s homeland, where “I saw what it was like to live in a developing country where corruption is high and people do not have the opportunity to ever leave the city they were born in.” Her curiosity about international affairs was amplified on this journey, and reinforced her passion for her volunteer position on campus in the Office of Student Advocacy.

Meryl is majoring in Literature/Writing with a double minor in Political Science/ Russian Literature; her goal is to guide others through the legal system as an attorney. An internship with the Superior Court of Los Angeles further solidified her decision to go into law, while a legislative internship in the Office of Senator Joel Anderson opened her mind to broader opportunities relating to issues that are very personal to her. “Being raised with a traditional, patriarchal father is the reason that I am an outspoken feminist and so adamant about women’s rights.” Her sights are currently set on working in the United Nations as a women’s rights representative for the United States.