Jahnavi Rao remembers sitting on her parents’ couch in 2016, watching as the election results poured in, while Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. A 16-year-old student at Conestoga High School, Rao was passionate about climate change but had dreamed of being a singer her whole life. She’d even performed at the Kimmel Center as part of the International Opera Theater.

But at school the day after Election Day, after observing her classmates and friends on both sides of the aisle “walking in a daze,” she started on a path that would take her life in another direction entirely.

“The resounding opinion from people regardless of who they supported was that this was the most talked about event of our entire lives,” Rao says, “and it felt like we had absolutely no say. And I felt helpless.”

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