Winter Cohort 2026 - Early Admission Deadline Closing on

18th October, 2026 11:59 PM PST.

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Winter Cohort 2026 - Early Admission Deadline Closing on

18th October, 2026 11:59 PM PST.

Apply Now

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Mentors

Valerie Zhu

Valerie Zhu - University of California, Berkeley

Education

PhD in Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

Subjects

International Politics, Global Political Economy, Game Theory, Archival Research, Quantitative Analysis

Achievements

Graduated with High Honors from the University of Chicago (BA in Political Science); scholarship for Master's studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies; Master's completed jointly at Johns Hopkins (Washington DC) and Sciences Po (Paris)

About

Valerie is a PhD student in Political Science at UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on international politics and the global economy, with an emphasis on how policies and markets interact. She applies a range of approaches, including socio-economic game theory, historical and archival tracing, and quantitative analysis, and has mentored research projects on the evolution of soft power and the influence of political identity on global markets.

Discipline

Politics & Policy

Academic Achievements

Graduated with High Honors from the University of Chicago, scholarship for Master's studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

Teaching & Mentoring Experience

Mentored research projects on the evolution of soft power in international politics, influence of political identity on global market, and more

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Valerie Zhu

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Joshua Wu

Brown University

Josh is an MD-PhD candidate at Brown University. His research interests are in aging, neurodegeneration, and Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. He aspires to become a neurosurgeon and a neuroscientist.

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Damon Petersen

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Damon is a PhD student in finance at MIT with a focus on quantitative topics. He has interdisciplinary interests spanning statistics, finance, engineering, and machine learning. His current research focuses on factor models for the covariance structure of asset returns, effects of bias on duration effects in equity returns, and multimodal transformer models for time series prediction.

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Karat Prateeksha Menon

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Prateeksha Menon holds a BA (Hons) in Gender Studies from the University of Melbourne and an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Her research interests lie at the intersection of gender, climate justice, migration, and global health. She has conducted critical research on the racialised and gendered framing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australian public health campaigns, and explored the theoretical and ethical dimensions of Female Genital Cutting (FGC) abandonment efforts in The Gambia. Prateeksha has also led pioneering research projects on street harassment in Australia, applying an intersectional lens to inform public policy. With research experience across Australia, India, and the UK, she is passionate about interdisciplinary inquiry, decolonial research practices, and supporting young scholars to think critically, ask meaningful questions, and challenge dominant narratives through their work.

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Joshua Wu

Brown University

Josh is an MD-PhD candidate at Brown University. His research interests are in aging, neurodegeneration, and Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. He aspires to become a neurosurgeon and a neuroscientist.

View

Damon Petersen

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Damon is a PhD student in finance at MIT with a focus on quantitative topics. He has interdisciplinary interests spanning statistics, finance, engineering, and machine learning. His current research focuses on factor models for the covariance structure of asset returns, effects of bias on duration effects in equity returns, and multimodal transformer models for time series prediction.

View

Book a free call

Book a free call

Joshua Wu

Brown University

Josh is an MD-PhD candidate at Brown University. His research interests are in aging, neurodegeneration, and Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. He aspires to become a neurosurgeon and a neuroscientist.

Damon Petersen

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Karat Prateeksha Menon

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Joshua Wu

Brown University

Josh is an MD-PhD candidate at Brown University. His research interests are in aging, neurodegeneration, and Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. He aspires to become a neurosurgeon and a neuroscientist.

Damon Petersen

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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