The Dissident Project is welcoming a new speaker class for the 2024-2025 school year. These incoming dissidents from countries including the People’s Republic of China, Iran, Cuba and Russia will take their testimonies into highschools across the country to share with the next generation of American students what it was like to live under totalitarian regimes.
Next week, our dissidents will be joining us in New York City for our Dissident Training Summit. Over the course of the summit, our new class will enhance their public speaking skills, film social media content, deepen their understanding of our program and learn how to effectively share their unique stories with student audiences across the nation.
We look forward to seeing how their stories will impact young Americans in the effort to dispel the allure of authoritarian ideologies. Here are our incoming dissidents for the 2024-2025 school year:
Alvin Hailin
People’s Republic of China
Alvin Hailin was born and raised in Beijing, but he and his family never held a Beijing "Hukou” — a registration in a caste-like system restricting Chinese citizens from freely moving and living within their own country. This eventually stimulated Alvin to attend an international high school in Beijing and prepare for admission to American universities.
During high school, Alvin learned to secretly use a VPN to access the Internet beyond the Great Firewall. This allowed him to discover facts hidden by the Chinese government and understand freedom and democracy through observing Taiwanese elections.
In the fall of 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Alvin began his studies at UC Santa Barbara but had to complete his entire freshman year remotely from China. During this time, he experienced the Chinese government's increased implementation of digital authoritarianism under the guise of pandemic control. In April 2021, Alvin's WeChat account was suspended after he criticized President Xi Jinping's incompetency in a group chat with nearly 200 members. Subsequently, local police officers threatened him, stating that he and his family would face severe consequences if he continued to express dissent against the Communist Party, the Chinese government, and their leaders.
Upon arriving in the United States, Alvin joined Young Americans for Freedom, aspiring to share his story with more Americans. He also became a Christian while overcoming his traumas. Alvin plans to graduate from UC Santa Barbara with a double major in Applied Mathematics and the History of Public Policy and Law in the spring of 2025. He intends to apply to law schools and become a lawyer in the future.
Alvin Guo
People’s Republic of China
Alvin "Chenhao" Guo is a defector from Communist China. He was an underground Christian, sharing Christianity and political criticism, and helping people evade Internet censorship as a high school student. He defected from Communist China after becoming a conscientious objector in 2018 at the age of 19.
Having witnessed the absolute deprivation of individual rights, rule of terror, and unrestricted oppression, Alvin sees America heading in a similar direction. He loves America and does not want it to become like Communist China. As a student leader on college campuses, he has been writing articles for multiple influential media outlets, organizing demonstrations, exercising freedom of speech, and working with legislators to protect American freedom. Alvin Guo recently graduated from Brigham Young University and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). He is the current president of the Utah College Republicans and a member of the College Republicans national board.
Alvin is an educator, entrepreneur, and advocate of capitalism who believes in “Faith & Flag.”
Eliza Volkova
Russia
Liza is currently a senior at the GW School of Business and already owns and operates her own business. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and has previously lived in Moscow, Russia. She graduated high school at the age of 16 and found a passion for entrepreneurship. Before becoming a student at GW, Liza organized conferences in Moscow to promote her education startup, Campus Education. She is an official member of the Youth Council of the World Liberty Congress.
Shay Khatiri
Iran
Shay Khatiri is a vice president and senior fellow at the Yorktown Institute, where he studies the geopolitics of Eurasia. Trained as a military strategist at the Johns Hopkins University, SAIS, he has been widely published in prominent journals and newspapers on issues ranging from foreign policy to American patriotism. He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Golbon Marandiz
Iran
Golbon, a cybersecurity student and community activist from Seattle, has recently brought Ladies of Liberty Alliance (LOLA) to Washington to fill a gap in the libertarian community. She is a passionate advocate for free speech and free markets. As a former political and religious refugee exiled from Iran, Golbon is now a fervent champion of liberal ideals. She currently serves as a data analyst intern at the American Heart Association, a student at the University of Washington-Seattle, and the chapter leader for LOLA.
Janna Blanter
USSR
Janna left the USSR in 1976 as a teenager, but the memories of the horrors she experienced remain vivid. She recalls bread lines, family members in gulags, and a pervasive fear of authority. Now, Janna serves as an adjunct faculty member and a board member for an oil drilling company, drawing on her past to educate and inspire others about the importance of freedom and human rights.
Gabriela Blanco
Cuba
Gabriela Blanco was born and raised in Havana, Cuba, under the communist regime that has ruled for over 6 decades now. Her family experienced the consequences of this terrible system firsthand; from having her great-grandparents’ business stolen and nationalized, to being separated from her father for over 10 years. At 23 years old she moved to the Cayman Islands by herself, where she lived for 7 years. In 2019 she came to the United States and was reunited with her father and siblings after nearly a decade apart.
During her journey she accepted Christ as her savior, and alongside her husband they traveled the country as testimony speakers for the Gideons International, an organization devoted to spreading the gospel around the world. She is also actively involved in ministry and her local church community in Austin, Texas.
Gabriela holds a master’s degree in Event Management from Falmouth University in the UK, has extensive experience managing large events of 30,000+ attendees and is currently a Project Management consultant for the largest sports field construction company in the US. She is also a mother of one. Her family and her faith remain her biggest passions, both directly impacted by the Cuban authoritarian regime. Gabriela is a voice for freedom, God, and family values and the effects of communist and socialist practices on family and life.
