Catherine Martinez is a senior at UCLA studying History while concentrating in 20th-century European history. She is completing a departmental honors thesis through the History department about the utilization of populism in politics in Eastern Europe throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. She began thinking about her project as a young adult growing up in a politically contentious time in the United States in the aftermath of the 20th Presidential Election. Her thesis argues that populism is inherent to politics which is extreme and in which division is its sole intention. She examines the conditions in which populism is able to thrive within, and hopes that her work will serve as a guide to students who wish to understand the politically volatile environment in the United States by looking at examples of similar occurrences in Eastern Europe. After graduating from UCLA, Catherine plans on attending law school with hopes to pursue a career in entertainment law.