Alumni Directory Display

Alumni Update:

Keir is living in Maryland and working at the environmental consulting firm SSPA (www.sspa.com). Prior to this Keir was a Princeton postdoc at Mpala Research Center for two years. And before that he did his PhD research in Namibia at Gobabeb Training and Research Centre. Keir and his wife Natasha just had another little girl, Cora Ann, who joins her 4 year old sister Emma.

she/her/hers

 Haby Sondo is a Burkinabe-American woman from The Bronx, fueled by her passion for international development in Africa, travel, and storytelling. Growing up in a culturally diverse environment fostered her love for immigration and cultural immersion. She completed her undergraduate studies at Boston University where she majored in International Relations & minored in Political Science. Haby’s awakening to the world outside of New York City occurred while living abroad in The Dominican Republic and France. During these experiences, she gained a profound appreciation for the complexities Black immigrants face globally and has since searched for opportunities to include their realities in global migration discourses. These experiences ignited her desire to create two travel blogs that offer an authentic glimpse into the experiences of Black Women traveling globally. With a focus on unconventional travel experiences, Haby shines a spotlight on underrepresented travel destinations. In her professional life, Haby has worked as a Business Immigration Paralegal; her leisure time is spent traveling, blogging, biking, hiking, and exploring cuisines from around the world. With a bold vision for the future, Haby aspires to pursue a career at the intersection of her passions for immigration, law, and international development, using her voice and digital content to inspire Black Women and People of Color to pursue global travel opportunities. She is confident that her Princeton in Africa Fellowship at Food for Education in Nairobi, Kenya will provide her with the tools and knowledge to make a meaningful impact in the world.

Nika recently completed her M.A. in African Studies at Stanford University, where she focused on issues surrounding international development, education, and visual representation in Sub-Saharan Africa. She received a B.A. degree with distinction in International Relations (specializations in Africa and Social Development) and a minor in Creative Writing at Stanford in 2015. She studied in Cape Town during her junior year and worked at a community resource center for people affected by HIV/AIDS in Nyanga. She returned to Nyanga that summer to conduct two independent, community engaged research projects. She created a preliminary monitoring and evaluation report and a photovoice project, which explored the social dynamics of unemployment by giving youth cameras to capture and narrate their experiences. The next summer, she worked at the Baylor Pediatric Aids Initiative in Gaborone, Botswana, extending the regional scope of her photovoice project, which was exhibited at the largest contemporary art gallery in the country. Nika has published articles for the Stanford Daily and for the Los Angeles Times. She enjoys writing nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. Nika is a passionate writer and next year looks forward to improving her Xhosa, telling stories, and advocating for others to have the opportunity to tell theirs.

Alumni Update:

Kelly received her MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business in 2018, where she focused on social impact and emerging markets. She now works in management consulting at Deloitte in San Francisco.

Fellow Bio:

Kelly is a Culture and Politics Major and African Studies minor who grew up all over the world in the United States, the UK and Russia. At Georgetown University, she engaged in various activities including serving as Secretary of the African Society of Georgetown and student tutor at the African Immigrant Refugee Foundation. Kelly studied abroad at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and spent summers interning in Ghana and Kenya, fulfilling her love for traveling and meeting new people. While in Rwanda next year, Kelly looks forward to making new friends, using her Kiswahili while picking up French and Kinyarwanda, dancing up a storm and going on some exciting trips around the region including finally climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Michelle is originally from Philadelphia and majored in Human and Organizational Development with a concentration in International Development. During her time at Vanderbilt, Michelle co-founded two service organizations, mentored homeless, refugee and at-risk youth, and served as a Resident Advisor. Her work with an anti-child trafficking organization in India and a girls’ education fund in Kenya sparked her interest in international development. She was then able to study abroad in Shanghai and intern with a global health organization, Seva Foundation, out in Berkeley, CA, and those experiences solidified her interest in the international development field. Michelle is incredibly excited to work with the International Rescue Committee in Liberia and continue to explore different facets of international development. She feels that her time in Liberia will greatly impact her worldview, and she is looking forward to travelling, meeting new people, being challenged, living near the ocean, and absorbing Liberian culture.

Fellow Bio:

Anthony (Harvard ’10) is a Sociology concentrator from Sandy, UT. At Harvard, he was involved heavily in the African languages department and various volunteer work in the U.S. and abroad. He earned a secondary field in African Studies and a language citation in Swahili. He also studied abroad in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania during the summer and fall of 2008. Outside class and extracurricular activities, Anthony enjoys playing acoustic guitar and singing. While in Burundi next year, he hopes to gain fluency in several languages, get involved with local musicians, and travel to other East, Central, and South African countries.

Alumni Update:

Since his teaching fellowship at Maru a Pula, Christopher has continued to work in education. First, on the policy side as a senior aide to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick in Boston, then as a manager in Education First’s (EF) non-profit arm running homestay programs for international students in the US. He currently works as the Assistant Director of Development and Alumni Relations at a small boarding and day school. Christopher always loves meeting up with other fellows and asks to please not be a stranger if you’re in the Boston area.

Fellow Bio:

Chris is an American history major from Middletown, Delaware. At Bates, he was his class representative to the President’s Advisory Committee, a council member of the Bates Outing Club, and organized a forum for students entering Bates after taking a “gap year”. Before studying at Bates, Chris took a year off and worked in the office of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Chris has also led commercial hiking trips for high school students in the Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone, the Tetons, New England, Tanzania, and studied abroad in East Africa. While in Botswana next year, Chris looks forward to teaching and learning in the Maru-a-Pula community, and many memorable adventures throughout southern Africa.

MK graduated from Ursinus College in 2015 with a degree in environmental studies and biology and minors in peace and social justice and applied ethics. At Ursinus, MK was a part of the Bonner Leader Program, through which she worked very closely with several community-focused environmental organizations. MK also had the opportunity to conduct ecology research in Costa Rica, volunteer in Jamaica, and study abroad in Cape Town, South Africa during her college career. Upon returning from Cape Town, MK interned with the Institute on Science and Global Policy (ISGP). While at ISGP, MK helped plan and facilitate an international conference at Cornell University titled Food Safety, Security, and Defense: Focus on Food and the Environment, which allowed her to connect her interests and gain experience in the field of international aid and agricultural development. After graduating, MK moved to Hong Kong where she worked as a Visiting Service-Learning Tutor at Lingnan University’s Office of Service-Learning. MK is beyond excited to continue working with students in an academic setting through her fellowship with The Rwanda School Project and to share her passion for agriculture and environmental sustainability.

Madison is from Frenchtown, NJ and graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in Public and International Affairs with a minor in Global Health Policy. Growing up in a rural community, she has been interested in the field of development since a young age, specifically in health and agriculture. At Princeton, this interest was expanded to the international sphere when she interned at Mpala Research Centre in Kenya. Although she was working on an ecology project studying the local zebra population, this experience launched her interest in rural development. Following this experience, she worked with Community LIFT to research the impact of grassroots-based, community-member-led development in Memphis, Tennessee through qualitative survey collection. This project solidified her interest in leveraging investments to make positive social change. She also has strong competencies in grant writing, having worked in a government-capacity building with Emerging Public Leaders; research, having helped in drafting Rural Investments to Protect Our Environment’s white paper; and R, having assisted in the first analysis of International Care Ministries’ Uganda program. During her academic career, she mentored middle and high school students through a digital exchange program, worked to promote reproductive health on campus, and was a teaching assistant to a junior seminar that examined democracy and development promotion through USAID. Madison is excited to work with ILRI and continue to deepen her knowledge of agriculture development.