JASNEH SASAN

Jasneh Sasan is a dedicated rising senior at Carlmont High School. She is passionate about socio-political and economic issues and would like to pursue a career in international diplomacy in the future. 

As a speech and debate enthusiast, Jasneh was exposed to various domestic and international issues at an early age and enjoyed participating in discussions about controversial topics. One of her favorite quotes is, “The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance” by Socrates. As an immigrant from a small city in India, Jasneh greatly values her education and hopes to spread that opportunity to other children as well.

Throughout her high school years, Jasneh has experienced a lot of growth and set-backs in her political career. She noticed that as a high schooler, the news wasn’t catered towards her generation, thus, many of her peers remained ignorant of the political and societal issues surrounding them. To remedy this, Jasneh started publishing news articles and political commentary that explained complex global problems in easily understandable terms, often comparing events to pop-culture. 

Today, Jasneh publishes deep-dives and political commentary on a bi-weekly basis and amasses approximately 10 to 50 thousand views per article. Jasneh has won various awards for her reporting, such as the International Youth Journalism Opinion Writer Award and Best of SNO award for various articles. She’s on track to earn a Capstone diploma and a Seal of Biliteracy for learning French. In addition, she speaks English, Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi, and a bit of Arabic. In her free time, teaches Punjabi and Sikh Heritage to younger Sikh students, professionally plays the Harmonium, and is the president of her school’s Speech and Debate Team and Mock Trial team.

As someone who doesn’t see enough Sikh representation in politics, governance, and media-- Jasneh aspires to spread awareness about her community through education and policy change. She has founded Sikhia, a non-profit organization that aims to educate the Sikh youth of California about government, economics, international relations, and civic engagement.

Jasneh hopes to attend U.C. Berkeley in the future and continue her political and academic education. After that, she hopes to work as a U.S. diplomat to South Asia and the Middle East.