French Explains:
An exploration of YouTube as a Medium for Change
As stated in my YouTube bio, FrenchExplains is a channel meant to educate the broader public on all things political, cultural, economic, and philosophical for free. I don’t hold all the knowledge in the universe on such subjects, but I aim to come close to doing so in order to share it all with the audience.
FrenchExplains actually began as Gendered Realities, a channel that mostly focused on gendered violence and injustice within an American context. After spending almost a year of finding what my purpose is through higher education, I reoriented the channel to focus on broader sociopolitical and economic topics. Every video is crafted carefully and takes at least two weeks just to draft; I take great pride in the quality of everything I upload. This is a continous project that began in 2022.
Resistance: A Student-Run Talk on Campus
On Nov. 10th, 2025, two peers and I planned and hosted an alumni focused talk on campus. From the budgeting to the panel questions organization/writing, the other students and I managed to generate a panel between two 5C alumni: Attorney Jordan Rabani-Jenkins (Pitzer 16”), and Destiny Rivera Gomez (Scripps 24”). Jordan as per her title is an immigration defense attorney for the nonprofit Immigrant Legal Defense Center in Santa Barbara, California. Destiny is a grassroots advocate and serves as a board member for Gente Organizada, a community political and economic empowerment organization based in the city of Pomona, California. Between Destiny and Jordan’s differing yet inextricably connected experiences and perspectives, 5C students were able to witness and later participate on a productive conversation covering the state of immigration law and policy in the U.S. today; they spoke about the history of immigration reform as we know it from two different sides of the coin, the impacts of the 21st century’s legal system on families, and what 5C students could do— both professionally and personally.
Although this beautiful talk lasted an hour and a half, its preparation did not. Our team spent around two months planning ahead in order to make sure that the panelists were compensated properly, that the spaces were fit and ready for our use, and critically, to make sure that our outreach carried to as many of the people who needed it most as possible, regardless if they were students, staff, or faculty. I can confidently say that we exceeded our goals that night, and we continue to be incredibly grateful to the panelists for giving us their limited and precious time for an evening.
“You guys need to remember that victories are won by united fronts. Unite yourselves, and utilize the resources— because you are so privileged to even have them— that you get at these schools to the fullest. ”
— Destiny Rivera Gomez, SC 24”