Alumni Directory Display

Isaiah graduated as an Ervin Scholar from Washington University in St. Louis in May 2017 with a BA in International and Area Studies, concentrating in Global Development, and a minor in Religion and Politics. On campus Isaiah was  involved with Sigma Iota Rho, an international affairs academic honorary, and the Washington University International Relations Council, which hosts the university’s model United Nations team. He has also spent the last four years working for Development Programs at the university for the School of Engineering and the Siteman Cancer Center on projects including donor outreach and management, third-party event coordination, and report writing. Isaiah spent the Spring of 2016 studying abroad in Tunis, Tunisia where he was able to work on his French and Arabic skills while exploring the causes and effects of the Arab Spring movement up close. The end of his semester abroad was spent researching the effects of state land policy in a small town in rural Southern Tunisia. Isaiah interned with The Carter Center’s Democracy Programs in summer 2016 where he was involved in grants and program management for the Center’s Tunisian field office and a limited election observation mission to Zambia’s national elections.

Elijah graduated from the University of Georgia with majors in international affairs and economics. He spent six months in Kenya working with the African Prisons Project, where he taught law courses and served as a paralegal to death row inmates in three maximum-security prisons around the country. He was an investigative intern at the Georgetown University Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic, where he worked with attorneys to create defense theories for indigent and mentally ill clients. Scott also conducted client intake and legal research at the Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights to investigate claims of education discrimination. In addition to his experience in the legal field, Scott has extensive experience mentoring and educating youth, as he spent over a year facilitating weekly restorative justice trials and leading courtroom etiquette and public speaking trainings for middle- and high-school students with Athens Peer Court. He has researched the intersection of minority rights and conflict in northeastern Kenya and the Xinjiang region of China through the Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai Conflict Studies Center in Cluj, Romania. Scott has studied abroad at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics, and he has conducted independent research on the future of the regulatory structure of Antarctic Treaty in Ushuaia, Argentina and West Antarctica. Finally, Scott was the Operations Director of the Georgia Political Review for one year, during which he managed an eleven-person Editorial Board and thirty-person Writing Staff and planned and organized lectures and debates. He is looking forward to exploring his host country!

Alumni Update:

Oluseyi is currently finishing her first year of graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania where she studies Social Work and Global Public Health. This is a three year program that will result in an MSW/MPH with focuses on health communications and health communications for mental health.

Fellow Bio:

Originally from Lagos, Nigeria, Oluseyi graduated with a BA in Print Journalism and French. Oluseyi is passionate about the study of the African continent in addition to nutrition, global food systems/the policies that govern them, and the intersection of food and politics. During her year in Rwanda, Oluseyi hopes to explore the beauty of a country rich in history and nature, to learn everything she can about agriculture and nutrition from her host organisation: Gardens for Health International, and to sharpen her French language skills while gaining new ones in Kinyarwanda.

Anisha Sehgal, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Global Health. She is committed to working towards the social, political, and economic empowerment of all people and believes in the power of sustainable, high- impact public health initiatives to aid in this objective. Anisha has published research on antibiotic resistance, written blogs on reproductive health policy, and contributed to an accepted grant proposal regarding the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in research activities. As an advocacy intern at Save the Children, Anisha successfully organized an event at the Open Government Partnership Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia. The event brought together civil society organizations and government officials from Kenya and Liberia to discuss and advocate for increased public participation in governance. Most recently, she lived in Tanzania for four months where she interned at the National Institute for Medical Research. While there she designed and conducted a study on the prevalence, drivers, and reproductive health implications of child marriage in Mwanza, Tanzania. Anisha is excited for the opportunity to return to the continent as a Princeton in Africa fellow and looks forward to working for the International Rescue Committee in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Priscilla Takondwa, from Malawi, graduated from Smith College with a BA in African Studies and the Study of Women and Gender. At Smith, she served as President of the African and Caribbean Students’ Association for 2 years and was an inaugural recipient of the BOLD Women’s Leadership Network Scholarship. She is a published author and founder of an educative children’s book series called The Ekari Book Series, for which she won the OZY Media Genius Awards and the Draper Competition for Collegiate Women Entrepreneurs. She was also selected as one of the Hilliard P. Jenkins Fellows at Frontline Solutions, a consulting firm in Washington DC that engages young leaders interested in the intersection of social justice, entrepreneurship, and consulting. She has spoken at several conferences, including The Economist Africa Summit and The African Leadership Network and the AGCO Africa Summit. Recently, she received a TED Global Emerging Leader Scholarship to attend the TEDGlobal gathering. For three years, she contributed to the Huffington Post and her articles have been featured in Ayiba Magazine, which strives to break down African stereotypes and amplify African stories. Priscilla is an alumna of Watson University (’14) and the African Leadership Academy (’13). She enjoys reading, podcasts, and lengthy conversations about postcolonial theory. Priscilla’s PiAf placement is with the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

Fellow Bio:

Sabina Sequeira ‘07 was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. A Woodrow Wilson School major with an emphasis on Latin American studies, Sabina is interested in working on international development projects and issues over the next few years. She’s excited about spending this summer in India with her family for the first time in 7 years, and will be heading to Mozambique mid-August. Sabina loves learning new languages and the beach, so she’s really looking forward to living in Maputo, where she will work with the Lurdes Mutola Foundation.

Mina received her B.A.H. from Stanford University in Comparative Literature with a minor in African Studies. During her time in Palo Alto, she has been deeply involved with the Haas Center for Public Service, serving twice as an African Service Fellow in Accra, Ghana, working as a peer adviser for the Undergraduate Fellowships office, leading sessions for a preschool service program in which Stanford students build relationships with young learners while helping scaffold their early math literacy, participating in and leading an Alternative Spring Break program, and participating on the National Advisory Board of the Haas Center as a student member. Mina’s work at the West Africa AIDS Foundation was transformative and led her to pursue her Master’s in African Studies, which she just received, also from Stanford. She is excited to work with the Kucetekela Foundation in Lusaka, Zambia for the upcoming year and hopes to come away with new strategies for addressing educational inequity in the space of Lusaka. She looks forward to learning about the structure of educational non-profits and cannot wait to meet the students with whom she will be working.

Alumni Update:

Aliya currently lives in Johannesburg. She works as a Director of Investments at Kagiso Tiso Holdings, an investment holding company, and is responsible for the firm’s private equity investments outside South Africa. Aliya moved to Joburg in 2013, after 5 years in Lagos, Nigeria with Africa Finance Corporation, where she also focused on private equity investing across Africa. Aliya has been lucky enough to make it back to Rwanda a few times since her fellowship and has seen Kigali change a lot in the last 10+ years.

Rowan Sharkey is a recent graduate from Denison University with a degree in Data Analytics and Environmental Studies. She is interested in sustainable agriculture-based research in order to further the effort against global climate change. Rowan has carried out research projects in countries such as Germany and Tanzania to help understand topics revolving around urban air quality as well as rural food systems. She loved being able to engage with local communities and develop plans that meet their desires while also promoting environmental awareness. Rowan is deeply excited to be working with Princeton in Africa to learn from others and use her skills to benefit those with similar goals!