HOW ARE THEY MY BEST FRIENDS?

The students sat next to her every day.

They studied together.

Shared meals.

Talked about classes.

Complained about homework.

Became friends.

There was only one problem.

Many of them came from the country she kept hearing about on the news.

China.

As a student at an international high school on Long Island, Nikki Quartuccio was surrounded by classmates from around the world. Many were Chinese students studying in the United States.

The experience created a question she couldn't shake.

"If China is our enemy," she remembers thinking, "how are they my best friends?"

Years later, that question still shapes the future she is working toward.

This summer, that curiosity will bring her to Princeton's PPIA Junior Summer Institute.

Beyond that, she plans to pursue graduate school and is exploring opportunities that could allow her to spend a year abroad, gaining the international experience and perspective she hopes to carry into a career focused on global affairs and public service.

Learning To See a Bigger World

Nikki's interest in China did not begin in a classroom.

It began with people.

At The Stony Brook School, an international boarding school she attended on scholarship, students came from around the world. Chinese students represented one of the largest international populations on campus.

The school encouraged students to study Chinese.

Nikki signed up.

What started as a language requirement became something more.

She began learning not only the language, but also the perspectives of classmates whose experiences differed dramatically from her own.

"They helped me realize how much more complicated the world is than people think," she said.

Those conversations stayed with her when she enrolled at Pepperdine University.

She initially planned to study political science.

Then international affairs caught her attention.

Then economics.

Instead of choosing between them, she pursued both.

Today, Nikki sees herself operating at the intersection of the two.

"International relations is often very idealistic," she said. "Economics is very practical. I want to be someone who can bring those two together."

Along the way, she continued studying China and its language, history, politics, and role in a rapidly changing world.

But she believes there is a limit to what can be learned from afar.

"You can read about a country forever," she said. "Living there is completely different."

She hopes to someday spend time studying abroad, gaining firsthand experience that will deepen her understanding of different cultures, perspectives, and approaches to global challenges.

Understanding different perspectives was one thing.

Understanding how those perspectives shape international rules and institutions was another.

When the Law and Justice Don't Always Agree

When a professor invited Nikki to represent Pepperdine at an international law moot court competition, she jumped at the opportunity.

The case centered on an international oil spill dispute and required students to argue opposing sides using real international laws.

As she prepared, Nikki found herself wrestling with a question she had never fully considered before.

One side argued the law was clear.

The other argued that the law itself had been written in ways that favored more powerful countries over smaller ones.

For the first time, she was seeing international law move beyond textbooks and into real-world consequences.

"You realize these laws affect real countries and real people," she said.

The experience left Nikki thinking about a different set of questions:

Who writes international rules?

Who benefits from them?

And who gets left behind?

"I realized a lot of these systems often work best for the people who already have power," she said.

It is a question that continues to shape the future she hopes to build.

Looking For The Right Path

Nikki does not pretend to have every answer.

In fact, one of the reasons she applied to PPIA is because she is still exploring the best path forward.

Law school?

Policy school?

International fellowships?

Some combination of all three?

What she knows is that she wants her career to matter.

"I don't want to just get a degree and then not know how to make an impact," she said.

That desire has shaped much of her college experience.

As a first-generation college student, Nikki became involved with Pepperdine's First Wave Ambassadors, helping strengthen support, resources, and community for first-generation students.

She worked with university leaders to improve opportunities and create a stronger sense of belonging for students navigating college for the first time.

She also pursued opportunities beyond campus, interning with organizations focused on humanitarian assistance and international development while helping women entrepreneurs in developing countries learn new tools to grow their businesses.

In every experience, the common thread remained the same.

Creating opportunities.

Expanding access.

Helping people navigate systems that often feel inaccessible.

The Future She's Working Toward

This summer at Princeton, Nikki hopes to leave with more questions answered than credentials earned.

She wants a deeper understanding of where her interests in law, public policy, and global affairs might lead.

She wants to learn from people who have already walked those paths.

She wants to better understand how policy translates into real-world impact.

Most of all, she wants to determine how she can turn her interests into a career that makes a meaningful difference in people's lives.

The questions are bigger now than they were when she first encountered them in high school.

So is her determination to answer them.

But the question that first emerged years ago in a classroom full of students from around the world continues to guide her.

How do people learn to understand one another across cultures, countries, and competing perspectives?

For Nikki, the search for that answer is just beginning.