SEBASTIAN BURDUJA MPP/MBA 2011 was just four years old when Romanians overthrew longtime dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, whose regime was marked by repression and abuse. Today, Burduja serves as Minister of Energy in Romania’s democratically elected government, where he works to improve people’s lives, advocate for freedom, and fight corruption.

“I was a kid when the revolution happened, but my parents and grandparents talked to me about … what it means to live in an unfree society,” he said in a 2018 documentary. Burduja took these lessons to heart. He came to the United States for college at Stanford, where he cofounded the League of Romanian Students Abroad (LSRS), an organization that connects the Romanian diaspora and empowers them to shape the future of their home nation. LSRS has endured: With 14,000 members, it leverages its influence to transform new generations’ ideas into concrete projects that advance progress in Romania.

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