Hi, I’m Julian

I mostly write about politics and workforce development and sometimes put together travel guides for my favorite places. Thanks for stopping by!

  • Biases and Flaws in Occupational Licensing: A Barrier to Economic Mobility

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    For the last 10 years, my focus in academic studies, community involvement, and professional pursuits has centered on increasing access to economic opportunity. Affordable education programs, like those I developed at Coursera, are useful for unlocking new careers for historically underrepresented populations. Equally important is the identification and removal of regulations that create unnecessary barriers […]

  • SF’s Other Epidemic

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    As a society we’ve proven our ability to mobilize relatively effective measures to control/reduce Covid-19 deaths; we need to use the same level of urgency and public health investment to combat the Opioid Epidemic and its growing fatalities.

  • The Case for Youth Stimulus

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    (or, “the angst created by too much time debating politics with my parents”)

  • The Remarkable Utility of John Rawls

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    An overview of Rawls’ work and why its simplicity offers a powerful yet simple way to analyze the most critical questions we face today.

  • Is this the hour of reckoning for contingent labor?

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    Defining what it means to be a contingent worker – its benefits and risks – and why it’s time for the government to reevaluate how we think about employment altogether. 

  • The Predictable Pandemic

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    I recently re-discovered a letter I wrote to Kamala Harris in July of 2018 regarding the Trump administration’s failure to proactively prepare for an epidemic. I share this letter not because I think Trump could have stopped COVID-19 and definitely not because I wanted to be right, but because, by listening to experts like Anthony […]

  • My Path to Coursera

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    In fall of 2019, as I filled out my applications to Business School, one question on the Fuqua application caught me by surprise: “Life is full of uncertainties, and plans and circumstances can change. As a result, navigating a career requires you to be adaptable. Should the short-term goals that you provided above not materialize, […]

  • Addressing Housing & Retail in NOPA

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    As part of my work with the NOPA Neighborhood association, I recently launched our first ever land use committee. We announced the committee publicly in the May edition of the NOPNA news; check out the letter below or read the full edition here. ————————– I originally joined NOPNA as a way of giving back and […]

  • Supervisor Brown on Housing, Homeless, and Clean Streets

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    [Published in the November / December edition of NOPNA News] Vallie Brown is no stranger to NOPA. Prior to being appointed by Mayor London Breed as the new District 5 supervisor, she was a neighbor, community organizer, and legislative aide to both Breed and Ross Mirkarimi. She draws on these experiences when speaking of her […]

  • Vision Zero – Pedestrian Safety Update

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    Safety by the Numbers Update (This article appeared will appear in NOPNA’s Feb/March Edition) The San Francisco Chronicle recently declared 2017 the safest year for traffic fatalities in the city’s history. The proclamation was a step towards the city’s goal of cutting traffic fatalities to zero by 2024, but just how safe are NOPA’s streets […]

  • Sonoma Academy – Alumni Advancement

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    I’m excited to update everyone on a recent project of mine – the Taylor Mountain Alumni Association! I was approached earlier this year by Seav Banus – an alum of SA as well as a former teammate of mine. Seav founded the Alumni Advancement Committee 5 years ago in an effort to grow alumni engagement. […]

  • Santa Rosa Fire Update

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    Thanks to the hard work of the Bennett Valley Fire Department and the numerous other first responders who provided mutual aid, I am thrilled to say that our house was spared by the Adobe/Nuns Fire. It is hard to put into words the gratitude my family feels for those who provided air support, dug ditches, […]

  • Sonoma Academy Opening Convocation Speech

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    Background:  Clare and I were recently asked to give the opening convocation speech at my high school. It was an exciting event, not only because the speech occurred roughly 12 hours after my return from Romania, but because it was a continuation of my recent involvement with the school. Furthermore, it was an fun to […]

  • Safety – By the Numbers

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    (This article appeared appeared in NOPNA’s June / July Edition which can be located here) On busy nights, Divisidero, Masonic, and other NOPA streets are filled to the brim with tourists, date-goers, bike-commuters, and families. With so many pedestrians and bikers on the road, it’s no surprise that traffic safety is a major concern (only […]

  • Conclusions from Colorado

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    I recently spent two weeks volunteering for the Hillary campaign in Colorado. I spent the majority of my time knocking on doors (canvassing) in the 6th congressional district on behalf of the Colorado Democratic Party. When I wasn’t canvassing, I attended events or visited my friend in the campaign headquarters. Though the experience was a […]

  • [Senior Thesis] Just Housing: An Examination of Inequality in John Rawls’ Theory of Justice as Fairness

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    Date of Submission: April 2015 Readers: Alex Rajczi, Andrew Schroeder Department: Philosophy and Public Affairs Abstract How would a housing system work in a just society? How do we account for differences in opportunity according to one’s birthplace? These two questions, both a result of our recent housing crisis, can be addressed through inquiries into policy, economics, […]

  • A Defense and Criticism of Daniels’ Just Health

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    Executive Summary Debates about the Affordable Care Act are usually related to the technicalities of its implementation, petty politics, and occasionally, more fundamental claims about the role of government. This latter claim usually centers on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, or as been the case in recent divisive court cases, certain religious aspects […]

  • Entrepreneurship & the Liberal Arts

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    There is an ongoing tension that exists between the tenets of higher education and the key principles of entrepreneurship. Our role at CIE, as a research institute, is not to fight those tenants, but instead to supplement them. This means we must be honest with ourselves about the challenges entrepreneurs face as students of a […]

  • Summer 2014

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    The weekly flights can be exhausting. The delays, the sitting, the need to remove my shoes. Sometimes when I sit down on my flight I pass out within a couple minutes. Sometimes I continue the work I never really stopped thinking about. The one thing that seems to break up the seeming monotony are the […]

  • The Case for ASCMC Senate Committees

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    (This post appeared in the CMC Forum on February 24, 2014) Last night’s debate in Executive Board about student fees raised numerous questions regarding the way in which ASCMC is run. The clearest issue was that conversations on issues such as tuition increases are surprisingly absent in ASCMC, especially in Senate. While Senate is great […]

  • Finding my Voice Again

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    There were four stages of my departure from India: the first, when I said goodbye to my friends in Jaipur, the second, when my parents arrived for Christmas (thus ending my “abroad” lifestyle), then, my arrival home (with the fortunate opportunity of experiencing my culture shock alongside my family), and lastly, my arrival in Claremont. […]

  • The Trains of Mumbai

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    Wow! What a journey its been since I last updated the blog. I found that, inevitably, almost every study abroad goes through a stretch where they deny their blog- and it appears this was my time. I spent most of the last month and half in Mumbai (or Bombay depending on who you ask.) At […]

  • To Mumbai…

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    I couldn’t have asked for a better last weekend in Jaipur. After hearing about Diwali for the last two months the date finally came and it didn’t disappoint. The city sounded like a war zone and the streets looked like New York City at Christmas time. Children flooded the streets to light off fireworks and […]

  • In Support of Breaks

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    A version of this article was featured in my school paper, the CMC Forum: http://cmcforum.com/life/11132013-letters-to-home-take-a-break My girlfriend says that when we go hiking together she can’t stand the number of breaks I take. I seem to speed ahead – leaving everyone else in the dust – only to pause after 15 minutes to take in the […]

  • Musings

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    Here are some musings I’ve made over the last few months… This reads sort of like a diary entry. I’ll probably come back and amend and add to this list, maybe make some edits, or maybe delete a section or two. The opinions are mine, the take away is yours… Details don’t matter that much: […]

  • Varanasi

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    When I was in 8th grade my family decided to visit my brother in India. He, like I am now, was spending three months studying at an American program in Bodhgaya. Although I made countless memories during my time there, the most vivid experience was my trip to Varanasi. My family woke at dawn and […]

  • A Day in the Life of a Chai Addict

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      *I wrote this post before departing on a recent excursion to North India. A summary of my time there will be posted this weekend! My mother brought up the fact that I have yet to communicate my daily schedule to anyone. I think about daily routine often- I love establishing a routine in my […]

  • An Interview to Remember

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    Recently, as part of my Field Methods and Ethics class, I was tasked with conducting three separate interviews (one in Hindi) of Indians outside of both my program and my home-stay. This assignment was supposed to prepare me for my Independent Study Project, which I’ll be starting in about 4 weeks. For those that don’t […]

  • Sunday Adventures in Jaipur

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  • On the Internet:

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    When my father travelled the world as a part of the International Honors Program, I can’t imagine he spent as much time perusing twitter or the NY Times or really any site on the laundry list of websites I check daily. I’m sure he didn’t spend nearly as much time keeping in touch with his […]

  • A Rough Week

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    This is the story of my week: Wednesday night I started feeling the effects of a fever and by the morning I felt weak, feverish, light headed and was being pounded by a nasty headache. Fortunately, there were two other students feeling sick so on Thursday we all travelled to the doctor for a quick check-in […]

  • A Weekend Away

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    This weekend I travelled to Pushkar with 5 of my fellow students. I’m way too exhausted to communicate this in a shorter way so I guess I’ll just share what happened: We left from the program center after class on Friday excited for the opportunity to explore on our own. We all shared rickshaws to […]

  • Well This Just Got Interesting….

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    One of the more interesting aspects of my time so far in India has been the state of the Indian Economy. As classes have started and we dive into various development and macroeconomic theories, it’s sometimes easy to forget that we are living in one of the most interesting cases of development, well, ever. I […]

  • Walking Far From Home

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    I had a great experience on Sunday. Mr. Mehta invited me to join him on his daily laps around the park. He said he usually walks 10-12 times and he enjoys the fresh air and exercise. Today he wanted company and he thought this would be a good opportunity to speak to me further. We […]

  • Why do I eat paneer? Why do rickshaw drivers try to pass real cars? I chose India, not because it is easy….

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    Orientation Week in India: a week full of rude awakenings and stark reminders of the differences between my home culture and the culture I currently live in. In the past 5 days, our group has gone through countless orientation sessions- from a meeting with a doctor, to a session with a mental health expert, and […]

  • Flight UA82

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    Disclaimer: I arrived in Delhi on the night of August 25th. Since then things have been hectic. Lots of heat and humidity and very little internet. I will add another post this weekend…. On the morning of September 28th 2010 I couldn’t sleep. I know I couldn’t sleep because I can never sleep the night […]

  • Update After Liberia

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    I returned from Liberia over two weeks ago and wanted to take this chance to communicate with everybody about my year so far, as well as ask for some support in finding my next step. With nearly four months until I begin college, I am now turning my attention towards finding a job/internship that capitalizes […]