Gabrielle Edelin was 10 when she decided she wanted to become a judge. She had just watched her godfather preside over a criminal trial in Los Angeles when he asked if she wanted to try on his robe. According to the story her mom loves to tell, Edelin replied, “No, I’m going to earn that one day.”
Edelin, who has served as a class president for the past three years, graduates in June with degrees in history and psychology. This fall, she will begin a dual master’s program at Columbia University and the London School of Economics and Political Science, with plans to enroll in law school. Her father, who passed away during her first year at Stanford, was a lawyer, and Edelin sees the law as a powerful way to make an impact, including in the Black community.
“I’m trying to give back to the people who have poured so much into me,” she said. “I wouldn’t even be sitting here without those communities.”
Edelin grew up in Fairfax, Virginia, in a family that prioritized education. Her grandmother was a sharecropper who worked her way through college and graduate school, then taught in public school for decades. She was also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the oldest sorority for Black women in the country. When Edelin arrived at Stanford, she knew she wanted to join. “My grandmother still rocks the pink and the green at 94, and I’m hoping to as well,” she said.
Edelin said of her time at Stanford, “I kind of grew into my own. I learned I can be true to myself. I can have a big personality; I can speak up.”
Edelin is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the country’s oldest Black sorority, founded in 1908. She is a legacy member, following her grandmother, who was also a member.
Edelin and her roommate have a quarterly tradition of hiking at the Dish and using the two-hour walk to reflect on the previous term and set goals for the next one.
As a “Psych One” TA, Edelin led exam reviews and discussion sections for a mix of frosh, sophomores, and seniors, a role she said felt like coming full circle given how much her own “Psych One” TA supported her during a difficult first year at Stanford.
“The community that I found here has surpassed any level of expectation that I could have possibly imagined,” Edelin said. “I feel like I’ve found my people.”
An avid hiker, Edelin appreciates having access to the Stanford Dish’s nearly 4 miles of hiking trails and has developed an interest in nature photography.
In a social psychology course her first year, the assignment was to break a social norm. Edelin chose to sit uncomfortably close to strangers in the dining hall. On her second attempt, a girl complimented her shirt, and they ended up talking; they’re still friends. “It showed me how psychology makes social situations so much less scary,” she said. “Everybody just wants human connection.” By senior year, Edelin was teaching two sections of Psych One as a TA. “I try to make psych as interesting and as fun as I feel like it is,” she said.
Edelin also completed internships around the country and abroad: in Congress, through Stanford in Washington; at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, where she helped create a traveling Afrofuturism exhibit; and at the Vabamu Museums in Estonia, where she gave tours of KGB prison cells.
“History has really grounded me,” she said. “Everything we are living through is something that somebody else has gone through before.”
At Stanford, Edelin said, “I kind of grew into my own. I learned I can be true to myself. I can have a big personality; I can speak up.” She made lifelong friends on campus, “the best, silliest, wackiest group of people you’ve ever met.” They have a standing weekly froyo run and a 100-item senior-year bucket list to finish before graduation.
“People here just really want to make the world a better place. I’m so lucky to be surrounded by them.”
Writer
Rebecca Beyer