“By the time I was in high school in San Diego, I had seen a different side of California than the blissful, beachy getaway state portrayed in the media. I’d walked along the sidewalks where tens of thousands of people sleep every night. I found myself occasionally slipping into the apathy so many people practice to avoid the guilt of living in such a blatantly unequal society. I also noticed how few meaningful interactions were taking place between housed and unhoused people (beyond the occasional dollar dropped at someone’s feet). I wanted to break down that boundary to better understand the problem, so I started talking to the people I saw sitting on street corners and park benches. I asked about their families, their hobbies, their paths to homelessness, and their hopes and dreams. I met hundreds of incredible, resilient humans, and I brought their stories to my community. After sharing their experiences, I saw the ripple effect immediately. My family began passing out food at the downtown library on Thanksgiving; my peers started reaching out to people they had often overlooked in their own neighborhoods. Arriving at @Princeton, I wasn’t sure how my pseudo-sociological endeavors would fit into an academic space. Over the last three years, though, I’ve found that academia absolutely needs stories like these. At @princetonSPIA, I’ve realized that the concepts and statistics we study in the classroom are refined and have given new life in the testimonials of people directly affected by the problems we seek to solve. These crucial narratives can fill in the gaps in well-intentioned policies that fail to achieve their intended ends. I’ve also been lucky to find a space beyond the classroom to grapple with hard questions about the philosophy of service in the @pace_princeton Service Focus program, and a platform to share my revelations about homelessness at TEDxPrincetonU. As I embark on my thesis research this year — studying hotel-housing programs designed for people experiencing homelessness in California during the pandemic — I feel grounded in the conviction that the most transformative policy is rooted in a deep understanding of the human side of social issues.” @remyreya ’21 #Princetagram #PolicyProfile is a series featuring our community. Want to be featured? Comment/DM us.