Jaden Richards: Giving Back Through Public Service

Former vice president for the Association of Amherst Students (AAS). Intern with Bloomberg Philanthropies. Two-semester student at New College, Oxford. Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) in the upcoming academic year. Recipient of the college’s John Sumner Runnells Memorial Award and the Crowell Prize. 

Jaden Richards ’25 certainly has more than enough to brag about. As I talked with Richards at Frost Library, however, one thing became absolutely clear: He was one of the most humble, respectful, and intelligent people I’d ever met, brimming with knowledge that went beyond just his history major, whether it was about Persian literature, Dostoevsky, Nietszche, or even a little bit of Shakespeare. 

As Associate Professor of Philosophy Rafeeq Hasan put it, “I’m always deeply impressed by how well-read he is without seeming like it’s for show.” In other words, Richards remains down-to-earth while aiming very high. 

Growing Up in the Bronx

Richards smiled when I asked him to describe his hometown: “It’s a big city, but my world there felt very small.” It was diverse, too — much more diverse than what western Massachusetts has to offer. Just on his home street alone, there was an Orthodox Jewish center, a mosque, and an apartment with an Albanian flag hanging from it.

Both of Richards’ parents are Jamaican immigrants, neither of whom received a college education. However, they instilled a deep value for education in Richards — if there was one thing his parents always bought for him, it was books. “Even if no one really knew what I was reading, they knew it was important,” he told me. Richards described fantasy as one of his favorite genres to read from because he enjoyed reading about worldbuilding and backstory. One of his favorite books is George R. R. Martin’s “A Game of Thrones.” Coupled with his interest in ancient epics such as the “Shahnameh” and the “Iliad,” Richard’s later decision to major in history at Amherst made much more sense to me.

With support from Prep-for-Prep, a gifted education program for students of color, Richards’ intellectual interests eventually led him to Horace Mann School (HM). Discussing HM’s academic intensity, Richards described the school as “UChicago if UChicago were a high school.” At HM, Richards was often baffled by the wealth and prestige that surrounded him, a pattern which continued at Amherst and Oxford. Seeing the money and resources HM was devoting to its students, Richards noted that this was where his deep commitment to public service and government began. He understood that having access to the school’s resources was an incredibly rare privilege, feeling the need to use his position to help as many people as possible. This is a philosophy that still guides him to this day. “I’m not interested in public service just because it’s my interest, but because I feel like it’s a responsibility that someone at a well-endowed institution like Amherst has,” he said. 

When it came time for college applications, Richards’ decision to apply to Amherst was largely pragmatic. He had set his eyes on other schools and had only placed the college on his list because a counselor recommended it for its generous financial aid package. His initial choices, however, didn’t work out. When Amherst did accept him, he didn’t think much of it: “I said ‘cool’ and then put my phone away.” Like many prospective students, Richards “had no concept of what this school was.” 

He eventually had to decide between Amherst and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Amherst had given Richards a better financial aid package, and both his teachers and parents liked the idea of Richards attending the college (the latter because they thought there would be no parties). Trusting the people around him, Richards committed, even if he hadn’t seen any photos of the college. The rest, they say, is history. 

The Rest is History 

Richards’ path to the history major at Amherst was largely straightforward. Recounting his lifelong interest in history, which had been bolstered by his reading and history classes at HM, Richards said that the subject was the one course where he didn’t “fall asleep during class.” History was the one subject he felt he was truly “good at.” Although some of Amherst’s other departments enticed him, such as the classics and political science majors, Richards eventually stuck to what had interested him the most. 

When asked about a favorite course at Amherst, Richards told me he loved taking “Writing the Past” with E. Dwight Salmon Professor of History and American Studies Francis Couvares. The course covers major debates in historiography, the way history as a discipline has been studied: What makes a work of history “good”? What creative control should scholars have over history? “The course was great because it asked some important questions, but it also took you through some of the best works ever,” Richards said. He noted monumental books such as Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem” and Raul Hilberg’s “The Destruction of the European Jews.” 

“It’s a course I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” Richards noted.

His interests, however, go beyond just history. Richards’ friend, Andrew Rosin ’25, described his habit of “val-sitting,” recounting one time he saw Richards watching a production of “Macbeth” on his laptop. The most interesting part? He was taking notes for fun. Rosin also recounted a time when he found Richards on Frost Library’s patio reading Nietzsche — and laughing. But Rosin noted that Richards will also take the time to laugh and talk with anyone, even if it means he might spend a little less time learning. 

Things like that “epitomize who Jaden is,” Rosin said. “He’s always been very intellectual, but at the same time, he’s always maintained a humor about things.”

Hasan, with whom Richards has taken “Intro to Political Philosophy” and “Ethics,” noted a similar sense of Richards’ flexible personality: “He’s someone who clearly lives with books and ideas and thinks alongside them.” 

Drama in the Government

Of course, no discussion about Richards’ legacy at Amherst can continue without mentioning his brief tenure as vice president of the AAS, which is where his academic interests in politics and government intertwined with practical application. Richards’ participation in the AAS, however, had begun as far back as his freshman fall, when he was elected as a senator. The following spring, he was elected vice president. Many may recall that his tenure abruptly ended when he resigned later that year in November, citing discontent and frustration with then-president Sirus Wheaton ’23. 

Thinking back to that time of his life, Richards reflected that he had been incredibly ambitious when he campaigned, maybe a little bit too ambitious. “I asserted that I would make Amazon Prime free for all students,” he said, smiling. Despite the loftiness of his campaign ideas, they were founded on a desire to change Amherst for the better. Being vice president of the AAS would allow him to do just that, to break past the AAS’ inefficiency and “deadlocks” over spending. “It was my ticket to doing something here that was quite durable,” Richards said. 

One of his main goals as vice-president was to increase the administration’s engagement with the student body, an issue that still persists to this day. But his efforts took an incredible toll on his well-being toward the end of his freshman year. “I would have office hours for four to five hours a week at Val, with 200 cookies, yelling at people to write down comments,” Richards said. “I was exhausted. I was pushing myself beyond my means.” 

This fatigue intensified during Richards’ sophomore year, when his course load intensified. He had already decided he was going to study abroad by then, which gave him a limited timeline to pursue the changes he wanted to make. “Not everyone was operating with my sense of urgency,” he reflected. This was a source of tension with other members of the AAS, especially after the organization faced a post-Covid budget deficit. According to Richards, these tensions worsened when The Contra published its controversial article, “Recontextualizing Hamas,” (originally titled as “In Defense of Hamas”). The AAS had meetings to discuss the article, but Jewish e-board members felt as though the discussions were antisemitic. “I was deeply embarrassed,” Richards noted. “It was under my watch that students were feeling uncomfortable at these meetings.”

Tensions among AAS members, as well as between Richards and Wheaton, grew increasingly volatile, to the point where insults and offensive accusations were being hurled at one another during meetings. The stress for Richards was becoming too much. Knowing his limits, Richards resigned. 

While Richards made his decision public at the request of the other AAS members, he didn’t expect the gossip and backlash that followed. “People were constantly talking about me,” Richards said. He recalled how a past vice president of the AAS reached out to him, while online his resignation generated buzz on apps like GroupMe. Many online comments contained insults, calling him a liar and misogynist among other things. 

“It felt like I was in a fishbowl,” Richards said. He caught his lucky break at Oxford. 

A Home Away from Home

In a departure from most study abroad experiences, Richards’ time at Oxford consisted of his entire junior year — three trimesters (about two full semesters at Amherst). When asked why he decided to pursue a full year abroad instead of just a semester, Richards stated that he wanted to maximize his time learning about places outside of the United States. He was drawn to Europe, both because it was so incredibly different from the Bronx but also because it was the site of so much of the history and literature he had read. This was a chance to see it all himself.

Oxford proved to be challenging, both socially and academically. There was a newfound independence that was both freeing and daunting.“You did just have to figure things out. If you didn’t plan dinner there wasn’t anything like Late Night. There wasn’t a custodian to clean your bathroom, either.” However, in the same spirit of independence, the college also allowed Richards to engage in tutorials — weekly small group discussions (often with just two to three students and a tutor) taken in lieu of a lecture. They offer the opportunity for individual feedback that might not be possible in larger class formats. “It was a place where I could really see what I was capable of.” 

“I read more and wrote more [in one year at Oxford] than I [had] in the two preceding years I was at Amherst,” Richards said. 

Despite what felt like a breath of fresh air, there were some things at Oxford that Richards found alienating. He mentioned, for instance, Regius Professor of Modern History Hugh Trevor-Roper’s “10 commandments” on writing, which had historically been passed down from Trevor-Roper’s former students (now tutors themselves) to their students and so on. The document eventually landed on Richards’ lap. He recalled how other tutors would reminisce about having read the exact document when they had taken the same tutorial as students. But the secrecy over something as common as a writing tip sheet baffled Richards: “It’s a place built off of exclusion.” To add on, inside jokes at formal dinners were rarely explained to guests or newcomers. Richards began to miss Amherst’s “lack of pretension” and the student body’s more inclusive culture. 

Readjusting for a Final Year

When I asked Richards how he felt about readjusting to Amherst, he admitted it was a strange experience: “I come back after a year, and half the school is new. There was a giant gap in my experience.” But despite this so-called gap, Richards has managed to reconnect with old friends and meet new faculty. 

As is the case for many seniors at Amherst, Richards has spent the majority of his remaining time at the college working on his thesis, which analyzes how rituals and ceremonies in the early American presidency shaped the president’s “soft” power. While this was something he had always wanted to investigate, he didn’t develop this idea until he was at Oxford, where one of his tutorials was on the late antiquity — Roman emperors would have extensive processions and performances dedicated to demonstrating their importance to foreign emissaries, not only as political figures, but religious ones as well. Part of Richards’ research involved visiting the Library of Congress to look at primary materials, such as eulogies for early presidents. One thing Richards noted was how clergymen often compared early presidents such as George Washington to biblical characters in an effort to make the American president appear mythical.

While Richards’ thesis demonstrates his academic merit, it became clear that scholarly excellence was just one part of a bigger picture. The people whom I interviewed viewed Richards not only as upstanding and intelligent, but also as incredibly down-to-earth and funny. Most barely even remembered his resignation — sometimes, they laughed from having to unearth a nearly forgotten memory. They instead recall Richards as someone who embodies what an intellectual should be: smart yet respectful. Someone who is able to pull together multiple disciplines at once, adding important historical context to ground class discussions, all without being rude or pretentious.

After graduating, Richards will head to Washington, D.C. in the fall, as one of two Amherst students who received the Gaither Junior Fellowship this year (the other being Shreya Joshi ’25). The fellowship, which takes only 15 students per year from institutions across the country, is funded by the Carnegie Institute for International Peace (CEIP). Recipients work with a senior associate on a variety of issues related to international affairs. True to his long-held interest in government and politics, Richards will be joining CEIP’s American Statecraft program, which focuses on diplomacy and foreign policy strategy in the United States.

While many might imagine Richards’ interests will eventually lead him down the path of politics and law (Hasan even told me he’d vote for Richards if he ever ran for office), he didn’t express any long-term commitments yet. He said he hoped to continue work like what he’ll do at CEIP, joking, “If you ever see me at Bain & Company, something went wrong.” Whatever career he chooses, though, it’s clear he’ll use his position to help as many people as possible.

“I’m very fortunate to be where I am today,” he said. “It feels like the least I can do is whatever I can for others.” 

But this moment of sincerity could only last so long before Richards broke it with his sarcasm. “Cue the tears.”