— Margarita Simonyan —

Margarita Simonyan is an undergraduate student at Stanford University pursuing a double major in International Relations and Slavic Languages and Literature. Her academic and personal interests center on conflict, diplomacy, and global security, shaped by her family’s history as descendants of survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
She is the founder of Armenian Youth Education Aid (AYEA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of education in low-income communities and villages in Armenia. Through her work with AYEA, Margarita focuses on community-driven development and the long-term empowerment of Armenian youth.
Margarita is passionate about rebuilding post-conflict societies through a geopolitical understanding of power and institutions. Her work focuses on how states and communities can harness existing institutional structures to prevent renewed violence and create long-term stability. In the future, she hopes to return to Armenia to strengthen the country’s role in the international world and promote sustainable peace and justice in the region.