Ren Birnholz, who holds a 3.99 GPA and is in the Honors program, has a long list of accomplishments while they have been at Northeastern, and are a semi-finalist for the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Fellowship in India for the 2023-24 cycle. Ren has a combined major in cultural anthropology and theater.
Ren is president of NU Sexual Health, Advocacy, Resources, and Education , student program manager of the LGBTQA+ Resource Center, member of the Anthropology Student Association, director and actor of Silver Masque, an RA in university housing, and a sexual health advocate of NU Mutual Aid. They have dedicated their time to the Northeastern and Boston communities in countless ways. For co-ops, Ren was an assistant teacher and substitute K–8 teacher at Brookline’s Runkle School, and served as a diversity officer at the Boston Public Schools headquarters. They also led religious school services for 20–60 elementary school students at Temple Israel of Natick.
At SHARE, Ren initiated and actualized a wellness vending machine with emergency contraceptives on Northeastern’s campus shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned, established the Expand STI Testing Campaign through the Planned Parenthood Generation Action network, and founded and chaired Northeastern’s 2021 Wellness Week and Sexual Health Pop Up Coalition. Liza Weinstein, department chair of sociology and anthropology, says, “This remarkable leadership on reproductive justice, gender, and LGBTQA+ eventually led to Ren’s selection last fall as one of just 75 college students nationwide who was invited to Washington, D.C., to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris.” They participated in a round-table discussion that raised many critical issues, including the perspectives of non-binary and transgender people regarding abortion access and reproductive health.
Dean Weinstein spent a month with Ren in India last summer at Asholka University. “Ren became involved in LGBTQA+ student groups on campus and developed a rich collaborative research project on gender identity and presentation of self in public space,” she says. “They demonstrated a deep level of comfort, despite this being their first time in India.”
Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts Dani Snyder-Young says Ren was her research assistant who examined the digital performance landscape in the pandemic summer of 2020. She says, “Ren is an authentic and confident leader who goes out of their way to find opportunities to support and contribute to their communities.”
Ren says their most significant achievement was transforming NU SHARE into an activist powerhouse that led them to represent Northeastern at the Reproductive Rights Roundtable with Vice President Harris.
After graduation, Ren plans to pursue a doctoral degree in sex education with an emphasis on supporting LGBTQ+ and BIPOC students.
Ren is an authentic and confident leader who goes out of their way to find opportunities to support and contribute to their communities.”
Dani Snyder-Young, Assistant Professor of Theatre Art