A Los Angeles native, Maya Eliahou is an award-winning journalist who lives at the intersection of social media and traditional journalism. A student at UC Berkeley, she’s making the most out of her senior year by serving on the editorial board of The Daily Californian and working on her honors thesis.

Her greatest professional accomplishment in 2018 has been a story she published as a CNN intern that helped inspire members of Congress to begin paying House interns for the first time since 1994. Her greatest personal accomplishments this year have been leading a backpacking trip, finishing a knit scarf and finally figuring out how to make a good salad dressing.