Alumni Directory Display

Alumni Update:

Abigail is currently living in Dallas, TX, finishing her final year of medical school. She will be moving in the fall of 2014 to begin her Ob/Gyn residency at Wash U in St. Louis. Abigail hasn’t been able to go back to Africa since her fellowship, but she has been on a few trips to Haiti and just returned from 5 weeks in Peru. Hopefully she’ll be able to organize something in Africa during her residency!

Fellow Bio:

Abigail is a religion major from Houston with a certificate in Spanish. At Princeton, she was in eXpressions Dance Company and frequently choreographed. Abigail was also a member of the Cottage Club. She loves traveling and learning new languages, so she spent her junior year spring studying in Santiago, Chile. Abigail is pre-med and after her year in Africa she is planning on attending medical school for a joint MD/MPH degree. While in Kampala next year, Abigail hopes to pick up some new African dance moves and have a fabulous adventure.

Alumni Update:

Adrienne is completing her final year of Medical School at Weill Cornell Medical College in NYC. She plans to apply for residency in Emergency Medicine and continues to incorporate global health into her career.

Fellow Bio:

Adrienne is from Ithaca, NY and majored in the Woodrow Wilson School with a certificate in Near Eastern Studies. At Princeton, she participated in Raks Odalisque (Princeton’s belly dancing group) and several international relations and political groups. She also volunteered regularly in Trenton helping ex-convicts to prepare for the GED. She plans to pursue a career in international development and is looking forward to getting her start in Benin!

Alumni Update:

In April 2014, Agatha returned from the PiAf retreat in Uganda and site visits in East and West Africa. She really enjoyed spending quality time with PiAf’s Fellows and partners! Unfortunately, her days as the Program Manager with PiAf ended in June 2014, as she began medical school in the summer of 2014. Although Agatha was sad to leave, she is looking forward to being an active PiAf alum!

Fellow Bio:

Agatha is an ecology and evolutionary biology major from San Jose, CA. At Princeton, she was the captain of the track and field team, a Butler RCA, and a sexual health advisor. Agatha looks forward to an amazing year in Botswana!

Hailing from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sol majored in International Relations and French studies at the University of Pennsylvania. While at Penn, Sol devoted her time to learning about South America’s geopolitical dynamics and the relationship between France and its former African colonies. Throughout her four years, Sol was also a member and co-captain her senior year of Penn’s Varsity Tennis Team. In the summer of 2013, Sol was a research assistant at an Argentine think tank where she conducted evaluative research on a yearlong project that sought to influence the policy agendas of the 2011 presidential candidates. The following year, as an intern at a political consulting firm in D.C., Sol worked on a number of projects focusing on social justice and progressive issues. Before coming to college, she traveled to more than 25 countries in Latin America, North America, Europe and Asia due to her tennis career. Sol looks forward to travelling around the continent, experiencing the Beninese culture, and gaining a deeper understanding of education policy and research in Africa.

Fellow Bio:

Ahmed is a chemical engineering major specializing in engineering management and entrepreneurship. An international student from the island nation of Bahrain, Ahmed is fascinated with languages and etymology. His interest in languages extends to Arabic Calligraphy. Ahmed is also a freelance 3D-modeler and an amateur astronomer. Ahmed has interned at banks and oil companies in Bahrain, as well as Princeton research laboratories in the School of Engineering. He is looking forward to spending a year developing 2iE’s carbon assessment strategy in Burkina Faso.

Ahyeong graduated from Messiah College with a BA in Sociology and Anthropology and minor in Psychology. Her passion for diversity steadily grew as she became exposed to different cultures at an early age. As an international student, she dedicated herself to bringing diversity to the campus through various involvements. As a research assistant at the Office of Institutional Research, she conducted an independent research project regarding prospective international students’ recruitment process in efforts to increase the total international student enrollment. During her academic career, she pursued various cross-cultural experiences. In Ecuador, she participated in the Street Children Project, assisting children with the development of academic and social skills, building nutrition and hygiene awareness, as well as learning English. In Rwanda, she participated both in an internship and independent research project related to child malnutrition and the role of agriculture in rural nutrition. In Fiji, as a field researcher, she explored the sociological impact of clean water and focused on sustainability efforts to maintaining clean water systems. Ahyeong is grateful for the opportunity to work with Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project as a Monitoring and Evaluation Fellow and looks forward to being part of the Nyakagyezi community.

Akinyi Ochieng is a philanthropic adviser and nonprofit board director who identifies, incubates, and scales innovations that advance a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient world. She currently leads strategic planning and operations at the Autodesk Foundation, which invests in nonprofits and startups helping to de-risk innovation and leverage design and engineering solutions to address the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges.

Prior to Autodesk, Akinyi served as Director & Vice President at APCO, where she advised leading corporations, foundations, and nonprofits on their social impact initiatives. She partnered with innovators and changemakers to design and scale programs that support economic mobility and inclusive innovation throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Her clients included global brands such as Visa, BlackRock, Meta, IKEA, Expedia, and Chelsea FC, as well as leading nonprofits and foundations such as Schmidt Futures and Pivotal Ventures. She began her career in the financial services industry, developing economic mobility campaigns and programs at innovative companies including Nova Credit and WorldRemit.

Akinyi holds deep expertise in economic development and food security in Africa, with a successful track record of mobilizing multi-million-dollar public-private partnerships to accelerate sustainable business practices in the region. Her insights on business, culture, and politics in Africa have been featured in Forbes, CNBC, BBC, African Business Magazine, and the World Economic Forum. She continues her commitment to sustaining and developing the African continent by serving as Board Chair of SOS Sahel USA and as a Trustee of Operation Fistula, organizations dedicated to food security and maternal health in Africa. She previously served as co-president of the inaugural PiAf Alumni Board and was a Fellow at Global Shea Alliance in Accra, Ghana during her time as a Princeton in Africa Fellow.

Akinyi holds an MSc in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and a BA (with distinction) in Political Science and African Studies from Yale University. She has also completed certificates in strategic philanthropy and social impact from the University of Cambridge’s Judge School of Business and the University of Pennsylvania. She has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People of African Descent under 40.

Alumni Update:

Akornefa began working at Bates College as an Admission Counselor in 2014. She has had the opportunity to travel across the country for Bates and she is also the geoDean for Africa.

Fellow Bio:

Akornefa is from Madison, WI and studied Music while completing the premed track. At Columbia, she was a coordinator for the Multicultural Recruitment Committee and worked as an intern at the Undergraduate Admissions office at Columbia. She is also an accomplished flutist and performed with the Music Performance Program for students in Music Humanities classes, campus recitals and at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. As a member of the African Students Association, she wrote original songs for their annual showcase and also performed and choreographed for Orisha, a Pan- African Dance group. While in Gabon next year, Akornefa looks forward to perfecting her French speaking skills, having the opportunity to travel around Africa and starting a blog.

Akua’s academic interests include conflict studies, migration, and identity politics. At Yale, these interests led Akua to co-found Yale’s first African development conference and serve as Secretary General and later President of the organization. She also volunteered with the Yale Refugee Project to support a local refugee family in New Haven. Her passion for refugee work (and for travel) took Akua to Geneva, Switzerland where she researched the impact of conflict on refugee communities. During her semester abroad, Akua worked in Paris for the Human Rights League as a legal intern. While in Paris, Akua also interned with U.R.A.C.A, to provide social services to African immigrants in the city. Akua enjoys singing, trying new foods, and reading. She is so thankful for the opportunity to work, live, and learn in Tanzania; while there, she can’t wait to learn some Swahili and pick up some Tanzanian dance moves.