Katharine graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a B.A. in Economics. She has always been fascinated by learning about international development. After growing up in Southeast Asia, Australia, and on both the East and West coasts of the U.S., Katharine considers herself a culturally inquisitive wanderer who is beyond thrilled to be returning to the equator. Fully embracing her “liberal arts education,” Katharine confused the masses with a senior honors Economics thesis analyzing education reform in sub-Saharan Africa. As an undergraduate, Katharine was fortunate to gain first-hand experience in social entrepreneurship and microfinance development in East Africa by pioneering a goat-selling enterprise in rural Rwanda and evaluating a microfinance organization in northern Tanzania. She also worked in Washington, D.C., exploring and promoting the role of tertiary education within the context of sub-Saharan Africa. A cello enthusiast and trivia nerd, she is eager to explore Nanyuki, Kenya, as a Monitoring and Evaluation Fellow for The BOMA Project, and to master her Swahili!

Alumni Update:

Julia is beginning medical school at NYU School of Medicine in New York City. She is excited to be pursuing her passion and looks forward to defining her direction within the practice of healthcare over the next few years.

Fellow Bio:

Julia graduated from Princeton in 2016 with a degree in Molecular Biology and certificates in Quantitative and Computational Biology (QCB) and Neuroscience. Before Princeton, Julia took a gap year in which she worked on a dairy farm in Costa Rica, backpacked in Alaska, and interned for nonprofits and research laboratories. While at Princeton, she sang second soprano in the University Chapel Choir, served on the student board of the Episcopal Church at Princeton and on the Faculty-Student Committee on Discipline, and was a member of the club squash and running teams. She worked for the past two years as an undergraduate researcher on a neuroscience project investigating the connection between the cerebellum and cognitive behavior, and hopes to pursue global medicine after her Princeton in Africa fellowship year in Gaborone, Botswana. She is excited for the challenge and reward of teaching and forming relationships at Maru-a-Pula and for the chance to adventure and explore!

Alumni Update:

Jordan is the research lead for Youth Development Labs (YLabs), a public health human-centered design studio that seeks to improve the health and financial futures of young people in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. She uses her background in epidemiology to develop the research, monitoring, and evaluation strategy for each individual project in their portfolio, as well as the general evidence-based framework through which they approach their work.

Fellow Bio:

Jordan hails from Los Angeles and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with degrees in public health and psychology. While in school, she served as a university health worker, a teaching assistant in the Department of Public Health, and a member of the Cal Dance Team. Jordan spent her senior year working in inner-city elementary schools through an urban gardening non-profit organization, which solidified her passion for community health outreach. After graduation, Jordan moved to New York City to pursue her Master’s of Public Health in Epidemiology at Columbia University. During this time, Jordan interned at the Population Council, where she wrote her thesis on access to family planning media campaigns in Liberia. Upon receiving her MPH, Jordan moved to San Diego and worked as an epidemiologist for the U.S. Department of Defense, where she conducted behavioral health research for the military. She also served as a monitoring and evaluation consultant for Project Concern International, supporting their US-Mexico border health initiatives. Jordan is thrilled to continue her career at PSI, where she hopes to use research to inform the development of successful public health programs and to bridge the gap between data and decision-making.

Alumni Update:

Joseph is continuing to work as a secondary science teacher at Maru-a-Pula School in Gaborone, Botswana. He also helps teach swimming, produces a student-run podcast, and trains older students to be peer mentors.

Fellow Bio:

Joe attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating in 2013 with a degree in biology and a certificate in global health. While at school, he conducted pre-clinical research on potential therapeutics for prostate cancer before focusing his studies on public health. He traveled to Kenya to learn from healthcare providers and community organizers about their methods of managing the HIV/AIDS epidemic. While there, he worked as a sexual health educator with HIV-positive adolescents, focusing on opening a dialogue about sexuality, stigma, and relationships between Kenyans and Americans. After graduating, Joe joined Teach For America in Milwaukee, WI to strengthen his teaching skills. He has taught high school science for the last three years in both the public and charter school systems while simultaneously earning a Master’s degree through Marquette University’s Department of Educational Policy & Leadership. He looks forward to moving to Botswana for his first extended trip abroad teaching science at Maru-a-Pula in Gaborone. He wishes to learn more about the role of culturally relevant teaching in an era of global competition as well as the intersections between educational and public health policies.

Jessica graduated with honors from UC Berkeley in 2012, obtaining a B.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies with a concentration in Africa, and minoring in Music. She joined the UC Berkeley Center for African Studies in October 2012, as a program coordinator and a student advisor for The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program. She received the UC Berkeley Staff Achievement Award for her work serving 58 undergraduate and Masters students from all over sub-Saharan Africa on full scholarship. Since the program’s inception, she has played an instrumental role in the design of support services and policy development, both on campus and within the international network of partner institutions. A recipient of the FLAS fellowship in Swahili as an undergraduate, she has studied abroad in Germany, France, and Kenya, and speaks German, French, intermediate Swahili, and some Farsi. She has also spent time in Ethiopia, Zanzibar, South Africa, and Ghana. In her free time, she sings in choruses, dances the salsa and the blues, and directs opera productions. Jessica looks forward to using her experience in scholarship program administration in Zambia, and learning about both the day-to-day operations of a local NGO and some Nyanja!

Originally from Orono, Minnesota, Jacob is a graduate of UW-Madison, where he majored in Biology with a certificate in African Studies. During his undergraduate career, Jacob spent a summer interning with the National Marrow Donor Program in Minneapolis, and he returned to Madison to found UW’s chapter of Be The Match on Campus, a student organization devoted to increasing awareness and membership of the national bone marrow donor registry. In the spring of his junior year, Jacob seized the amazing opportunity to spend a semester abroad in Cape Town, South Africa, where he studied Marine Ecology and volunteered at a community health clinic. In Madison, Jacob also spent 2 years in UW’s Central Nervous System Regeneration Lab and later joined UW’s Department of Emergency Medicine as a clinical research assistant examining radiological methods for diagnosing appendicitis. He also enjoyed volunteering at the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin, where he managed the daily food pantry and helped disabled HIV/AIDS patients regain independence. Jacob is unbelievably thrilled to head off to Tanzania to assist with BIPAI’s inspiring social and medical programs, improve his Swahili, and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro!

Alumni Update:

In the fall, Helena started a Masters of Public Health at the Harvard TH Chan School of Health. Her degree is in Environmental Health, with a focus on Climate and Sustainability.

Fellow Bio:

Helena is half-German, half-American and grew up moving around Europe. She graduated from Princeton University in 2016, where she majored in Anthropology and earned certificates in Latin American Studies and in Global Health and Health Policy. In her senior thesis, she studied the intersections between water, political belonging, and health in rural Peru. Her interest in the country stemmed from nine months spent in 2011-2012 working as a volunteer in Urubamba, Peru through Princeton’s Bridge Year Program, where she worked on projects related to community health and youth development. In 2014, Helena was selected as a Global Health Scholar by the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton, which allowed her to conduct her fieldwork for her senior thesis back in Urubamba. At Princeton, she was a peer academic adviser and was involved in student organizations related both to global health and student health. Helena spent a semester studying abroad in Santiago, Chile, and has interned for organizations in Colombia and Panama. She enjoys running, cooking, and traveling, and she cannot wait to hike the mountains around Maseru.  After her year in Lesotho, Helena intends to pursue a career in global health.

Alumni Update:

Gracie Rosenbach is the Rwanda Country Program Manager at the International Food Policy Research Institute, where she collaborates on the start-up and management of the Rwanda Strategy Support Program which supports the Government of Rwanda’s vision for accelerating agricultural transformation and rural development. She is based in Kigali, Rwanda.

Fellow Bio:

Gracie graduated from the University of Virginia in 2015, majoring in Psychology and minoring in French. She then continued for an additional year at UVA to obtain her Master of Public Policy in 2016. Gracie studied abroad for a Summer in Paris, and she traveled on her Spring Breaks on mission and research trips to Haiti and Turkey.  She recently completed an internship and consultancy with the USAID Africa Bureau and Water Office, with whom she partnered to complete her thesis on Water Programming in Rwanda, and traveled to Ghana, Rwanda, and South Africa to facilitate budget trainings. Gracie has also worked to manage and evaluate many USAID programs in Africa and around the world through her internship and consultancy with USAID implementing partners, DevTech Systems and Millennium Partners. She is excited to expand her international development experience by spending the coming year learning about the agriculture development sector and gaining field experience working for Olam International in Kampala, Uganda.

Alumni Update:

Faith’s time as a PiAF fellow gave her the international experience and skills she needed to be an attractive candidate for Graduate school and her career as a Foreign Service Officer. She hopes to spend most of her career working on the Continent.

Fellow Bio:

Faith received her B.A. in International Affairs from George Washington University, concentrating in African Development. At GW, she was deeply involved with the Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service, both as a leader and coordinator of service projects. Faith served as founder and president of the Crown of Glory Hair and Beauty Organization and as vice president for the African Students Association. Previously, Faith interned with Karen Bass (CA-37), where she created briefing papers for the congresswoman’s African subcommittee hearings and assisted with monthly Africa Policy Breakfasts. Faith also interned at the D.C. Mayor’s Office on African Affairs, where she engaged with the city’s African immigrant community and helped coordinate the D.C. African Festival. Faith’s interest in sub-Saharan Africa is reflected in her many trips to the region. She often goes to Ghana to visit family and recently conducted field research on the country’s energy crisis. She spent a semester studying abroad in Dakar, Senegal, where she lived with a host family, took classes in Senegalese language and culture, and tutored Senegalese students in English. Faith is excited to explore the East African culture, learn Swahili, and work with HelpAge International!

Faith originally was born in Korea and grew up in Northern Virginia. She graduated from Dickinson College with her interdisciplinary self-developed major in Global Health in 2016. Faith is passionate about intersectionality between public health and international development. During her time at Dickinson, she explored her academic interest in public health through field research and research assistantships domestically and internationally from Pennsylvania to Japan. She studied abroad in Yaoundé, Cameroon and lived with a Francophone family. In Cameroon, she conducted two field research projects in maternal health, exploring the attitudes, knowledge, and perception on family planning and contraception among Cameroonian women in urban and rural areas. As a service trip leader, she went back to Cameroon in January 2016, working closely with local elementary schools. She is looking forward to exploring a different region of Africa and immersing herself in South African culture. She plans to get her master’s degree in public health after working a few years with public health organizations.