Amiya Bansal

There’s much anticipated excitement around getting your first I Voted  sticker in the United States. Throughout high school, this simple yet monumental item is plastered everywhere by students—water bottles, computers, phone cases, and even cars.  But what if this milestone came sooner? Instead of requiring young people to wait until 18 to substantially participate in politics, lowering the voting age to 16 (the age of existing pre-registration policies) would empower youth to be civically...

Where the Light Doesn’t Reach:  At sunrise, Los Angeles’s skyline glows with billion-dollar towers and beautiful high-rise buildings, but the light never seems to reflect the thousands of tents gathered at their feet. The wealth gap is growing, but homelessness legislation is crumbling.  Over 70,000  people in LA County are unhoused, living in rough conditions on the streets with little substantial help coming from the government. The city’s homelessness problem has become bigger than just a...

James Evans* didn’t buy a ticket to hell, but that’s exactly where his train took him.   The moment he said yes to a stranger’s offer of a glamorous new life, his nightmare began. Instead of the safe love he was promised, he found exploitation, and by the time his train pulled into Chicago, his body, life, and choices no longer belonged to him. That day, Evans  became one of the roughly 27.6 million people worldwide who are subjected to trafficking each year.  Human trafficking isn’t a myth...