
My name is Amen Gashaw, and I am a junior, Class of 2024, from Atlanta, GA in Eliot House studying government and political economy with a secondary in molecular and cellular biology. This year, I'm thrilled to serve as the IOP's student president, a role responsible for leading the IOP Student Executive Team and supporting our programs and program chairs as they work to make public service and politics more accessible to undergraduate students of all backgrounds and interests here at Harvard. Over the next year, I'm looking forward to building out the IOP's institutional memory, reviving many of the projects that have made the IOP an unparalleled space for learning and engagement in its long history, streamlining the administrative process, and reimagining IOP programming to reflect the diverse needs, interests, and experiences of our student body and national community.
In years past, I've served on leadership at the Harvard Political Review, Harvard Votes Challenge, Policy Program, Fellows and Study Groups Program, and IOP Coalition for Global Affairs. Most recently, I served as student communications director in the IOP's 2022 Executive Team. Outside the IOP, I serve as social action chair with Harvard College Faith and Action, political action chair at Harvard's Eritrean-Ethiopian Students' Association, as a violinist with the Bach Society Orchestra, as a tutor with the Academic Resource Center on campus, and as a private violin teacher. In my free time, you can find me reading YA fantasy novels or the occasional contemporary romance, devouring an episode of Suits or the West Wing, writing, or going for long walks or runs along the Charles. I couldn't be more excited and grateful for the opportunity to crystallize and expand on the IOP's mission in 2023!