Alumni Update:

Mariah is finishing her second year of her MPH at UC Berkeley, where she is studying Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She is interested in environmental epidemiology and how environmental issues disproportionately impact vulnerable populations, including those on the African continent who are and will be most impacted by climate change.

Fellow Bio:

Based in Chicagoland most of her life, Mariah graduated in 2014 with majors in Environmental Science and International Studies and a minor in Global Health Studies. At Northwestern, she was involved in GlobeMed, a student-run nonprofit dedicated to promoting health equity; was a board member of an organization that hosts an annual human rights conference for students; was a community health volunteer with a student group that mapped health assets in north Chicago; and was a tutor and mentor at a before-school program at an elementary school. She received a departmental award for her senior thesis on the microbial ecology of certain indoor environments and the interactions between microbes and humans in those spaces and is publishing her research through the Biosciences Division at Argonne National Laboratory. She spent her junior spring near Cape Town, studying public health and development. She currently works at Chapin Hall in Chicago, a policy research organization dedicated to using data to benefit children, families, and their communities. Mariah is thrilled to be returning to South Africa and is looking forward to exploring the southern Africa region, living somewhere with mountains again, and working in the South African health sector.

Alumni Update:

Meg is in her second year at Columbia Law School, where she is focusing on international human rights and criminal law. Last summer she interned at AdvocAid, a holistic defense organization for incarcerated women in Sierra Leone.

Fellow Bio:

Meg is from Memphis, Tennessee and graduated from the University of Virginia in 2015 with degrees in Global Development Studies and French. She lived and studied one summer in Rabat, Morocco, and spent a semester in France studying the French language and working in an international arbitration law firm. She studied Francophone geopolitics, history, and immigration while in both countries, and her senior thesis joined these interests through an exploration of cultural identity, legal rights, and the intersection of race, religion, and politics within France. She interned in the Special Victims Unit of the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC, seeing a localized perspective on the US criminal justice system. While at UVA, Meg was the student member of the University’s Board of Visitors, providing a student voice on issues ranging from financial aid to issues of racial and gender equity. She was also an elected representative to the school’s Honor Committee and served as co-editor of a weekly civic engagement newsletter.

Led by his interest in the power of media to influence culture, Malcolm majored in Culture and Communication with a minor in Latin American Studies at Ithaca College. While studying abroad in Quito, Ecuador, Malcolm volunteered with Chicos de la calle, a local non-profit organization that provides academic support to school-aged street vendors. This experience grew his interests in economic development and youth-capacity building. He later returned to Ecuador and traveled to Ghana as part of Ithaca College’s Martin Luther King Scholar Program to develop a comparative case study on regional disparities in economic development and social mobility. Back in Ithaca, NY, Malcolm served as an English tutor to Guatemalan migrant workers and interned with the Committee on U.S.- Latin American Relations (CUSLAR) at Cornell University. After graduating, Malcolm returned home to Phoenix, Arizona where he managed casework for constituents as an intern in the Office of U.S. Senator John McCain, before moving to Beauvais, France to teach English and U.S. Culture in a public high school. He enjoys swimming, playing the piano and dancing bachata, and is beyond excited for his new adventure in Rwanda with the UN World Food Programme. He looks forward to studying Kinyarwanda and learning more about development through food security.

Lauren is a recent graduate of the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, where she earned a Master of Public Health with a focus on community health and development.  In her graduate thesis, Lauren assessed the implementation of governmental food and nutrition support programs for women in India and learned the importance of national health system efficiency and accountability. Prior to her MPH, Lauren pursued a B.A. in Political Science at Rice University, with minors in Global Health Technologies and Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities. While at Rice, Lauren created low-cost, high-impact global health technologies for use in resource-constrained settings, some of which she field-tested in Swaziland in 2010. Lauren is excited to return to Swaziland as a PiAf Fellow with a broadened understanding of global public health and an opportunity to make data-driven recommendations to optimize utilization of national health resources.

Born in Nagasaki, Japan, Kelsie split her childhood almost equally between Japan and New Jersey; but having spent the last seven years in Washington, DC, the District now feels like home. Kelsie graduated from Georgetown University in 2012 with a BSFS focusing in Global Health. Outside of the classroom, she volunteered as an EMT with Georgetown´s student-run ambulance service and served as Executive Director of the world´s largest student-run Model UN conference. After graduation, Kelsie served as an AmeriCorps volunteer in a medical clinic for homeless men and worked as a federal consultant assisting with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. She is currently living in Chile, teaching English at a public high school through an initiative conceived by the Chilean Ministry of Education and supported by the UNDP. Kelsie is passionate about access to health care, health education, and education as a tool for poverty eradication. She is also passionate about baking, music, sunshine, quotes, crafting, and hiking. She is very grateful and excited for the opportunity to further explore her interests while serving as a Princeton in Africa Fellow, and she can´t wait for the adventures, learning, and new friends that await her in Tanzania!

Kendall is from Greenwich, CT and majored in Neuroscience with a minor in English. While at Bowdoin, Kendall led numerous student organizations that worked on public health issues on campus, including sexual assault prevention and fostering a healthy drinking culture. Her passion for working with youth populations was strengthened as a mentor for Females Fostering Leadership in Youth (FFLY). Kendall spent a semester abroad in Cape Town, South Africa where she got involved in SHAWCO KenSTEP mentoring program in Kensington Township. Additionally, Kendall has a love for adventure. She enjoys skiing, hiking, rafting, and really anything that gets your heart rate up. Upon returning from Botswana, Kendall hopes to attend medical school and obtain an MD/MPH duel degree. She is eager to get to Gaborone, make new friends, explore Southern Africa, and learn more about the power of peer support for HIV+ adolescents.

Originally from San Diego, California, Kelsey graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in Social Studies, focusing on human rights and humanitarian frameworks in the global south. Her senior honors thesis, “Permanent Impermanence: Identity and Agency in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp, Tanzania,” examined Congolese refugees’ experiences with protracted conflict and prolonged humanitarian aid dependency in western Tanzania, where she conducted 5 weeks of ethnographic research. While at Harvard, Kelsey also received a minor in Modern Middle Eastern Studies and a language citation in Swahili. As an undergraduate, she spent two summers working for a small HIV/AIDS education nonprofit based out of Arusha, Tanzania, and returned to East Africa for a third summer to intern with the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission in Kigali, Rwanda, where she edited the first English-language translation of The History of Rwanda, used across Rwandan schools for civic education. Kelsey is thrilled to continue her work with refugees and looks forward to exploring life in Nairobi.

Kelly earned her BA in Global Studies and Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 2013. As an undergraduate student, Kelly pursued her interests in public health and international development both inside and outside of the classroom. As Executive Co-Chair of the student-run community development organization Nourish-UNC during her senior year, Kelly led a team of over 75 executive board and committee members. Together, they invested $22,977—generated through social entrepreneurship ventures—in three development projects carried out in partnership with community-based organizations in Bolivia, Jordan, and Nepal. During her undergraduate summers, Kelly bolstered her practical experience by volunteering as an educator with World Camp in Malawi, co-leading a development project with the JUVILUS Foundation in Ecuador, and collecting data for a public health study with Nemours in Delaware. Kelly also performed hospital-based public health research while studying in Chile in 2011. Since graduating, she has been working in domestic health policy analysis and advocacy with the National Coalition on Health Care in Washington, DC. Kelly originally hails from Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and is humbled by the opportunity to learn from and contribute to Lwala Community Alliance’s amazing work in rural western Kenya.

Katie grew up in Park City, Utah. She graduated from Dartmouth College in the Class of 2015 with a B.A. in Honors Environmental Studies and a minor in Applied Ethics. In addition to skiing and mountain biking, as a Dartmouth student Katie pursued her interdisciplinary interests in environmental science, environmental justice, and civil rights by conducting research in both the Biology and Environmental Studies Departments and the Ethics Institute.  In 2014, Katie interned in the Civil Rights Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office in Boston and studied abroad in Morocco. Her experience in Morocco and study of Arabic led to her senior honors thesis research on the influences of international politics on Moroccan phosphate mining. Upon her return from Morocco, Katie served as an AmeriCorps volunteer at Teton Science Schools in Wyoming, where she entered the world of environmental education. Katie believes that improving environmental justice across the globe starts with science literacy. In Rwanda, Katie is excited to work with the Rwanda School Project to develop environmental science curriculum and promote environmental literacy. Katie is a potter and a mountain bike racer, and is excited to learn Rwandan art and pottery methods and explore central Africa.

Alumni Update:

Kara is pursuing her master’s degree at Marquette University through the Trinity Fellows Program. She works at Next Door Foundation on advancing emergent literacy and language development through overseeing service-learning students and an AmeriCorps program.

Fellow Bio:

Kara graduated with an Honors B.A. in Environmental Geography, a minor in French Studies, and certificates in Sustainability and Global Health. While at UNI, Kara worked as an Office of Sustainability program assistant spreading awareness on environmental issues, a STEM ambassador promoting STEM careers to K-12 students, and a World Geography teaching assistant mentoring first-year students in academic skills. Her Midwestern agricultural roots led her to guide a team to create an on-campus student vegetable garden and to complete a 100-day real food challenge. Kara sees the world as her classroom and enjoys building meaningful relationships in each place that her travels bring her. Her international experiences are diverse and include teaching English in China, facilitating a design team in Kenya, researching hand washing in South Africa, and studying business culture in Nicaragua. Through these experiences, Kara has developed a passion for combining the environment, education, people, and technology in international development practices. Kara enjoys giving back to communities, spending time with her friends and family, and doing many outdoor activities, such as backpacking, canoeing, and skiing. At Nyumbani Village, she looks forward to sharing cultural experiences with her new colleagues and learning more about global health and sustainability.