Alumni Directory Display

she/her/hers

Eloah is a lifelong learner from the Washington D.C. metropolitan, born in France, and proud of her Congolese and Angolan roots. Her love for exploring the world developed from her extensive time abroad at an early age. She is a recent graduate of American University studying International Studies, concentrating on International Development with youth. She was a part of the School of International Services’ 3-year Global Scholars program. Eloah plans on a career in youth development, and before her enrollment at American, she was a Kennedy Lugar Youth Exchange student in a Department of State exchange program in Ghana. This program sparked her love for youth empowerment as she worked with disadvantaged youth in Accra, helping them seek a better future through education. Through grassroots outreach, she had conversations with youth who experienced educational inequity. Although her time in Accra ended early due to COVID-19, she helped enroll children in public and vocational schools while providing information to stakeholders as the Social Media Lead. Eloah spent last Fall semester studying and interning in Kenya where she worked with the Horn of Africa Youth Network. She believes that the advancement of all youth, specifically African youth, can be reformed by providing opportunities and skills to understand the relevant technology of today. Her involvement in campus life included events coordinator of the African Student Organization and photographer for the Student Union Board and the Yearbook club. In addition, Eloah is always eager to be surrounded by cultures, learn new languages, and spend her free time learning something new (preferably outdoors).

Metasebiya is a global health trainee who is passionate about public health research, community service, and cross-cultural engagement. Metasebiya holds a dual degree from Duke University and Duke Kunshan University in Global Health and Biology. In her home country, Ethiopia, Metasebiya regularly volunteers at the Southern Branch of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society and was part of the emergency response team, assisting their disaster aid relief for internally displaced people and their COVID-19 outreach program. She also led the Ethiopian wing of a Columbia University global study on the globalizability of temporal discounting and the association between financial decision making and economic inequality. For her capstone thesis, she is conducting mixed-method research on the coping strategies of and the mental distress among people displaced by conflict in the Konso zone of Ethiopia, for which she received two institutional grants. In her home university, Duke Kunshan, Metasebiya serves as a resident assistant, building a multinational community of students and providing mentorship and support. She works as a lead teacher for the Medical English Program, a student-led initiative in China that helps medical doctors practice English. She also worked as an intern in her home university’s Global Health Research Center where she researched non-communicable diseases and aging in China. As a research assistant at her university’s Health Values Lab, she researches metrics used to quantify health, their empirical shortcomings and the ethical issues associated with using them to guide health policies.

Alumni Update:

Zach recently wrapped up an accelerated masters degree through the University of Chicago MAPSS program, during which he focused on cultural, moral, and evolutionary psychology and wrote a thesis reviewing psychological frameworks on global variation in nepotism. He is currently training for a two year teaching residency at a charter school in Chicago called the Great Lakes Academy. He will be teaching middle school sciences while taking coursework through the Relay School of Graduate Education, hoping to receive his teaching certification and MA in teaching within two years.

Fellow Bio:

Zach is a recent graduate of the University of Southern California where he completed his degree in Environmental Studies with a minor in Psychology in May of 2017. His time at USC was spent directing the Environmental Core student advocacy group as it worked to green USC’s campus, leading meditations as a Mindful USC Student Leader, and coordinating adventures with USC students and professors via Peaks & Professors. Zach is always hungry for interesting perspectives on complex and urgent social issues and got a glimpse of the many questions surrounding development in Africa while studying abroad at the University of Cape Town in 2016. He has combined his studies in the environment and psychology through a research position in the interdisciplinary field of conservation psychology, and believes there’s good reason to think that our ability to handle the global problems of the 21st century will start with the way we relate to our local communities. Zach is excited to fill a role in the Kasiisi Project’s conservation education programs and can’t wait to have everything he thinks he knows turned upside-down.

Sarah Mathys is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she majored in Anthropology and minored in Government and African Studies. Sarah has worked and studied across East Africa, and is interested in the intersections of spirituality, healing systems, and development work. She spent the spring of 2018 conducting independent qualitative research on the influence of religion on family planning decisions in eastern Uganda, and collected data which informed her honors thesis on the engagement between American FBOs and Ugandan communities. She has honed her project management and monitoring and evaluation skills through internships with The Carter Center, The Baker Trust for Transformational Learning, and now, a Monitoring & Evaluation fellowship with the Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project. In her spare time, she enjoys live music, contemporary art, and trying out new recipes.

Mackenzie, (Tulane ’18) graduated from Tulane University with a double major in Sociology and International Development and a minor in Spanish. She grew up in Los Angeles, CA. Although she loves New Orleans and Louisiana, her passion for travel and global development started at a young age with visits to her grandparents and family in the Philippines. She studied abroad in Argentina, where she backpacked around the country and lived with a host family. While there, she worked at a nonprofit where she tutored teens and completed research on teen pregnancy prevention. In addition, Mackenzie interned with the United Nations’ World Food Programme in Yangon, Myanmar, where she was responsible for communications, reporting, and liaising with donors for Maternal Child Nutrition initiatives. On Tulane’s campus, she has been a part of Sexual Aggression Peer Hotline and Education. She worked on a hotline for survivors, creating programming for students and advocating for cultural and legislative change around sexual violence. Mackenzie also served as a Public Health intern for the New Orleans Children’s Hospital, collaborating with the government on initiatives to combat infant mortality. She aims to work in the international development and global public health field, reducing disparities in maternal-child health and preventing sexual violence.  

Born in Austin, TX, Dylan graduated from Trinity University in 2019 with a degree in Anthropology with a French minor.  After graduating in 2019, Dylan worked as the Security Unit Intern at the NGO CARE in Atlanta, helping write analytical reports and travel advisories for the Sahel and Gulf of Guinea regions of Africa.  Since January 2020, Dylan has worked at Casa Marianella, a shelter for recently arrived asylum seekers, as a French-speaking case manager as well as the donations/operations coordinator. Through this dynamic role, he is responsible for assisting residents to find work, navigating the healthcare system, and locating stable housing.  As a French-speaking case manager, Dylan has worked with clients from primarily West and Central Africa. Currently, Dylan is also working on a documentary film highlighting the daily life of Casa Marianella residents. After completing the Princeton in Africa fellowship, Dylan strives to help build solidarity between the United States and Africa through promoting African history.

Megan has a lifelong passion for wildlife conservation and community service, stemming from her childhood which took her across eight states as well as Italy and Korea. Driven to find collaborative and innovative solutions to biodiversity and development challenges, she links science and advocacy to meaningful action. A graduate of the University of Virginia studying Environmental Science, Conservation Biology, and Global Sustainable Development, Megan has worked with the World Wildlife Fund and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, supporting both terrestrial and marine programs. In collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society, she has helped develop the Marine Ecological Research and Monitoring Aid (“MERMAID”) app to accelerate coral reef data collection and analysis and has led workshops in Tanzania and Fiji to train local scientists to use the tool. She is also a certified Virginia Master Naturalist and is active in citizen science projects, community education, and leading volunteers in environmental projects and advocacy. Megan visited Kenya for the first time in 2017 and she is grateful to return to the country to work for Mpala Research Centre in the beautiful Laikipia County!

Maya is a ‘22 Princeton graduate, studying Civil and Environmental Engineering with a certificate in Latin American Studies. Maya loves learning about other people and places. She was involved with the Princeton Chapter of Engineers Without Borders Kenya team, working with communities in the Kuria West region to implement water projects. Her time in Kuria West inspired her to take an African linguistics course, and she wrote her final paper on mother tongue language education policy in Kenya. Maya conducted an independent research project in 2019, interviewing residents from the Corozal District of Belize about their experiences with changes in their environment. Witnessing the pivotal role mangrove played in coastal communities led Maya to study wave attenuation from mangroves at the Army Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center and inspired the topic of her senior thesis on mangrove restoration, using the case study of Corozal. Originally from Minnesota, Maya likes to spend her free time hiking and talking with friends.

Naomi grew up on Long Island, NY and graduated from Williams College, where she studied Economics and Public Health. She wrote her undergraduate honors thesis on the effects of cash transfer and empowerment programs on maternal and child well-being in Uganda, for which she was awarded Highest Honors and received the Jack Larned 1942 International Management Prize for a student paper of superior quality dealing with developmental enterprises. She also received the Van Duyne Prize in Economics to support her thesis work throughout her senior year. She spent eight weeks as an intern at IPA in Malawi, where she experienced the difficulties that arise when working in a developing country while also assisting with a project that focused on improving the incomes of small-holder farmers. She spent her junior fall in South Africa studying community health and social policy. After Williams, Naomi interned at HealthRight International, exploring how an international health organization manages both grant opportunities and projects in-country. Prior to her fellowship with Princeton in Africa at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Naomi was a Research Associate at the Schroeder Center for Health Policy, based at William & Mary, where much of her work focused on domestic healthcare policy.

Samantha Mendoza graduated from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas with a degree in English Writing & Rhetoric and minors in English Literature and Global Studies. She mentored students through leadership development programs and writing courses, and as student Body President, she co-founded a program that raised awareness about college sexual assault. She spent a summer studying Peace and Conflict in Uganda and Rwanda, and another summer leading a group of students to volunteer at the an orphanage for HIV-positive youth in Capetown, South Africa. Samantha then earned a prestigious Fulbright fellowship to teach middle-school English in South India. She spent her weekends mentoring high school students through the college application process and taking a 6-hour train to volunteer at a non-profit in Bangalore. Samantha has just completed a Master’s program in Magazine, Newspaper, and Online Journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications to pursue her goal of becoming an international journalist. She currently reports on community issues in Syracuse, New York, and writes about women’s rights, feminism, and politics for a national audience. She will spend the summer interning at NBC Studios before moving to Monduli, Tanzania for a one-year role as the Scholarship and Communications Coordinator at the Indigenous Education Foundation of Tanzania.