Alumni Directory Display

Alumni Update:

Jing is currently living in western Kenya, where she is doing a year-long clinical research fellowship. Her work is based around looking for ways to improve malaria diagnosis and treatment at rural government health facilities. This has been Jing’s first time back to Africa since her PiAf fellowship. After this, Jing will be returning to Philadelphia for her final year of medical school.

Fellow Bio:

Jing is a Woodrow Wilson School major from New York City. At Princeton, she was a member of the Tigressions, an all female a cappella group, and the Cap & Gown Club. She is a pre-med student interested in global public health and has interned with the Children’s Hospital of NY as well as the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative in Nassau, Bahamas. Having traveled to Tanzania last summer on a Princeton trip, she is excited to return to Africa for a fellowship with the IRC and hopes her high school French will help her pick up some Krio.

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Lyla Renwick-Archibold is a recent graduate from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in computer science and brain sciences. Through her experiences studying human rights and technology in Amsterdam and interning at a startup in Cape Town, Lyla developed an interest in the misuse of technology and how they affect society. She has continued to pursue this interest by spearheading a research project at the McKelvey School of Engineering about the toxicity of AI chatbots. She is interested in pursuing a law degree and working on developing global regulation to lead to equitable technology development and usage, and is excited to be a fellow working on STEM education in Tanzania.

Alumni Update:

Kate is currently working with the Clinton Health Access Initiative on their Global Vaccines Delivery team, based in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Fellow Bio:

Kate hails from Chicago and graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 2013, majoring in African Regional Studies with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. During her time at Georgetown, Kate studied in Paris, Rwanda, and most recently Ghana, where she spent a semester at the University of Ghana in Legon. She coupled these experiences with work at DC-based development organizations like the Rwandan Embassy, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the Global Environment and Technology Foundation. After graduation, Kate returned to Chicago and began working at the South African Consulate on business and trade development projects. Kate is excited to join the Village Enterprise team in Kenya and Uganda and leave Chicago’s cold weather behind.  She is eager to try new East African dishes and learn how to speak Swahili, while hopefully playing as much soccer as possible and making new friends in the process.

Alumni Update:

After finishing her fellowship with WFP Malawi, Bridget took a position back in the US with Save the Children as a Program Coordinator in the Department of Child Protection and HIV/AIDS in Washington, DC. It’s been interesting going from the WFP-UN culture to the INGO world, but in a refreshing and exciting way. Bridget’s experience in Malawi has been invaluable to her work with Save because she is able to approach her work with the context of program implementation on the ground. While it’s nice to have hot showers again and steady electricity, Bridget is eager to find her way back to Africa.

Fellow Bio:

Bridget majored in Government with a concentration in International Relations and received a certificate in African Studies. She calls the rocky shores of Maine home. While at Smith, Bridget was a student liaison for the Government department, chaired the student curriculum committee, was involved in student government, and played in the orchestra. Throughout her time at Smith she worked as a social-justice community organizer in the Northampton area. She studied abroad in Arusha, Tanzania where she also spent the summer working as a research assistant at the Nyerere Center for Peace Research. She speaks Swahili and is very excited to learn Chichewa, another Bantu language, while working in Malawi next year.

Zara graduated in 2015 from Davidson College where she majored in Political Science and minored in Economics. Her senior honors thesis explored the role of ethno-federal arrangements on economic development in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia. During her time at Davidson, Zara attended the Rift Valley Institute’s Horn of Africa field course in Jinja, Uganda and interned for Spark Microgrants in Musanze, Rwanda, where she created a resource guide for facilitators covering various topics relating to international development. She also spent a semester at Sciences Po in Paris and had the opportunity to travel to Colombia to study the country’s internal conflict. Most recently, she interned for the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, where she researched child labor issues within mining and cocoa farming sectors in various West African countries.  She is excited to spend the upcoming year working with the African School of Economics and specifically its Institute for Empirical Research in Policy Economy, using her French, and integrating into Beninese culture.

Fellow Bio:

Cat Richardson ’08 is a Comparative Literature major from Princeton, NJ. At Princeton, she pursued a certificate in poetry with the Creative Writing program and studied French and Japanese. After studying abroad in Paris her Junior spring, she is excited for a longer commitment in Ghana and can’t wait to start her year there.

Lauren graduated from the University of South Florida with degrees in International Studies and Africana Studies. Interested in social justice, she mentored at-risk youth and refugees, interned for the Florida House of Representatives, developed a documentary awareness campaign about urban violence, and directed the USF alternative breaks program, leading service learning trips in the USA, Jamaica, and Costa Rica.  Lauren’s senior thesis documented contemporary homelessness in Tampa. Additionally, she conducted research on women’s microfinance in India and the informal economy in Panama. Lauren spent a year in Tanzania as a Boren Scholar, attaining advanced proficiency in Swahili. She was also selected as a 2014 International Speaker at the Indian Student Parliament in Pune, India, where she presented on income inequality and social justice to an audience of 10,000 people. Lauren is excited to explore southern Africa, play soccer, pick up some Setswana, and learn about education and development in Botswana.

India is from Bellevue, WA and is a 2014 graduate from Pitzer College of the Claremont Colleges. At Pitzer, India created her own Global Health major and graduated with honors in Spanish. Through studying abroad twice, once in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and later in Botswana, she developed a strong interest in public health and pediatric care. As a former member of the Pomona-Pitzer women’s soccer team and previous Soccer Without Borders coach, India is excited to explore athletics in Botswana. India is thrilled to return to Gaborone to work with the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative, and hopes that this experience will enrich her understanding of international health and pediatric epidemiology. After her PiAf placement, India will pursue a MSPH in International Health: Global Disease Epidemiology and Control at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Michael Rivera is an applied language professional, educator, and artist whose work blends intercultural communication studies and social impact. An English teacher since 2018, he has lived and taught in Taiwan for the Ministry of Education, in Benin for the African School of Economics, and in Côte d’Ivoire as a Fulbright fellow. He is pursuing an MA in Second Language Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, with a focus on sociolinguistics and language revitalization in the Philippines and other multilingual communities. Beyond teaching, he enjoys learning new languages, writing and blogging, and making and performing music.

Sophia graduated with a Communication Studies major, International Studies minor, and Civic Engagement certificate. At Northwestern, she participated in various service and human rights-oriented student groups such as the fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, Northwestern University’s Conference on Human Rights, Amnesty International, and NU Bahá’í club, and served as a volunteer shift leader for Campus Kitchens. She was a member of both the Indian fusion dance team Mirch Masala and club rugby. Outside of school, she served as a volunteer at the Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago, and interned for non-profits like WorldChicago, the Baha’i Office of Public of Affairs in D.C., and IDEAS Association in Paris. Her interests include drawing and painting, cultural and interfaith activities, belly-dance, and travel. Inspired by her study abroad experiences in Madagascar and Paris, she hopes to continue seeking out new adventures and to pursue a career in international development. She is looking forward to learning as much as possible from all the new people she will come across through living and working in Johannesburg next year.