Stephany Triska is the Spring 2020 Development and Membership Junior Fellow.

Stephany will be graduating this spring semester as a Political Science major with a concentration in Global Politics from California State University, Long Beach. As an international student from Brazil, Stephany moved to the United States to pursue her education at the age of 17, and since then, she had the experience of living across the country in cities such as Boston, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and now Los Angeles.

She is currently writing an honor thesis entitled “Beyond quota laws; obstacles to female successful political campaigns to legislative offices in Brazil,” which demonstrates her passion and interest for the topic of women representation in politics. Faculty members at CSULB recently chose Stephany for the Political Science Outstanding Graduate Senior award as a recognition of her academic achievements, leadership, and volunteer experiences throughout her undergraduate student journey.

We sat down with Stephany to learn more about her passion for international affairs.

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Fast Facts

Name: Stephany Triska

Department: Development and Membership 

Hometown: Curitiba, Brazil 

College/University and major: California State University, Long Beach, Political Science 

Languages spoken: Fluent Portuguese 

Go-to source for interesting takes on what’s going on in the world: Foreign Affairs, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Folha de S. Paulo (Brazilian newspaper) 

Areas of interest: Latin American politics, women in leadership, campaigns/elections, and politics of development

Fun fact: In Brazil, I studied one semester of law school since you have the option of getting a bachelor’s degree in law there. However, I dropped out to pursue my degree in the United States.

What drew you to the Pacific Council?

I was excited to apply for this fellowship because I wanted to understand the different avenues one can take to work in international affairs. Also, I wanted to have an overview of the operations of a non-profit organization. The Pacific Council is the perfect combination of my professional goals. 

When did you first realize you had a passion for international affairs?

When I first moved to the United States, in Boston, to develop my English skills, I had the chance to meet friends from all over the world, and I was fascinated to know people from different cultures and backgrounds. My first study abroad opportunity sparked my interest in studying international affairs and learning more about world politics.

What recent international policy trend(s) do you think is/are important to address and why?

I would argue that environment protection policies should be a primary concern of the international community, especially with the recent natural disaster occurrences in Australia, Brazil, and other countries. 

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The Pacific Council’s Junior Fellowship program offers students and recent graduates the unique opportunity to work alongside our staff of non-profit and foreign policy professionals. Learn more about the Junior Fellow program here.