Avi Rao is a junior at Yale, majoring in global affairs and history with a concentration in international and diplomatic history. He grew up between New York City and a small town in Dutchess County called Clinton, where he lives on an apple orchard. Avi’s multicultural background — being Jewish, Indian, Peruvian, and Venezuelan — inspired his love for international politics and history, as well as a lifelong interest in studying South America. He’s particularly interested in how international ideologies developed in Latin America during the Cold War as phenomena independent from the great powers. Avi developed a deep interest in global macroeconomics after taking his first economics class at Yale. Much of his summer work has focused on the relationship between geopolitics, macroeconomics, and public markets. At Yale, Avi has proudly served as the 182nd chairman of the Independent Party of the Yale Political Union, Speaker of the Yale Political Union, and vice president of the Alexander Hamilton Society. He also gives campus tours for the admissions office and visitor center. Outside of Yale, he enjoys cooking, eating, telling people about his apple orchard, hanging out with his twin sister Clio, rooting for the New York Jets, and hiking the Northeast.