Alumni Update:

After earning an Ed.M. degree in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Sarah returned to her fellowship organization to work remotely as a Program Manager. She is delighted to be back on the team at ASE!

Fellow Bio:

Raised in Seattle, Sarah Pollnow graduated as the Middlebury College class of 2014 Salutatorian with Highest Honors in History and an award-winning thesis. A lover of languages, she minored in French and spent a semester studying in Bordeaux. She also earned a minor in Secondary Education en route to becoming a state-certified Social Studies teacher in 2015. During the summers, she pursued teaching opportunities in Kentucky and Massachusetts. After graduation, Sarah continued exploring U.S. education while touring nationwide as a National History Bee intern. She then moved to Germany to serve as a 2015-2016 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. In her free time there, she assisted with a youth theater project based on local history, volunteered with refugees, and studied at the Technische Universität Berlin. Her passion for teaching next led her to Japan for a year as a JET Program Assistant Language Teacher, during which she developed curricular resources with the support of a grant from USJETAA and U.S. Embassy Tokyo. She is excited to immerse herself in Beninese culture and grow as a professional this year at the African School of Economics.

Philile graduated with a BA in Global Affairs and French. She speaks French, Intermediate Mandarin Chinese, siSwati and Zulu. She was born and raised in Swaziland, and intends to return to work in education policy or the non-profit sector in southern Africa. Through various fellowships at Yale, she has been able to travel to Paris, Beijing, Shanghai and London for intensive language study and research. She has previously interned for the Alliance Française office in Mbabane, Swaziland where she tutored French students. She has also volunteered as a language and reading tutor in various care centers in Swaziland such as the SOS Children’s Village. She has most recently interned at Africa Health Placements in Johannesburg, South Africa as an Educational Entrepreneurial Project Initiator where she drafted a business model and training program for a new education initiative that was launched at the beginning of 2016. Philile is thrilled to be joining the African School of Economics in Benin where she will be a research assistant, and she looks forward to learning more about Francophone West African culture and speaking lots of French.

Alumni Update:

Katie is finishing her first year of a joint MBA-MA in International Studies at Wharton and the Lauder Institute in Philadelphia. This past year she helped organize the Wharton Africa Business Forum that brought in hundreds of participants and speakers from all over both the US and Africa to engage in the question of “The Inflection Point — What is Africa’s Onward Growth Model?” She will be interning this summer at Morgan Stanley in New York.

Fellow Bio:

Katie ’10 is a French major from the San Francisco Bay Area in California. She is also earning a certificate in African Studies from Georgetown University. At Georgetown, Katie enjoyed being a tour guide, a peer advisor, an orientation ambassador for international students, and a tutor in a local elementary school. She also was a WAGE fellow (Women Advancing Gender Equity) and interned at several women’s development NGOs in DC. Katie’s studied abroad in Paris,      France and spent a summer working in Peru at a girl’s orphanage. While in Benin next year, Katie looks forward to experiencing life in West Africa, exploring its amazing music and meeting tons of new people.

Fellow Bio:

Jen is a double major in French and International Relations from San Luis Obispo, CA. While at Scripps she played an active role in her campus’ Peace and Justice Coalition and FACE AIDS chapter, and helped organize and coordinate an on campus food rescue program. She studied abroad in Paris and has spent her summers working at The Carter Center and in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the State Department. Jen is really excited about the opportunity to live in a francophone West African country and can’t wait to explore the region and meet new people.

Alumni Update:

Ibilola is working as a Senior Associate in the West & Central Africa and Haiti region at Chemonics International. Her work focuses on project management of activities across West Africa & the Caribbean. She works primarily in DC, with travel to Nigeria, Mauritania, and Haiti.

Fellow Bio:

A Nigerian raised in California, Ibilola graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, with a BSFS in Culture and Politics and a minor in African Studies. Passionate about the continent, Ibilola has integrated her love for African affairs into her personal and professional life. During her junior year, she spent a semester abroad in Lomé, Togo, where she interned for the Political-Economic bureau at the US Embassy and led English conversation classes at the local university. On return, she interned for the US Chamber of Commerce’s Africa Business Center, as well as the State Department’s Africa Regional Media Hub. At Georgetown, she served as President of the African Society of Georgetown, and helped plan and conduct Georgetown’s second annual Africa Business Conference. She also wrote articles on business, democracy, and diplomacy in West Africa as a reporter for The Caravel, Georgetown’s only international affairs newspaper. Ibilola is excited about the opportunity to work with ASE in Benin, and looks forward to improving her French and learning more about Beninese life!

Cynthia graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Political Science and French. She was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and immigrated to the United States at the age of seven. She was raised in Bradenton, Florida. During her undergraduate career, she worked for numerous international non-profit organizations. As the Assistant Executive Director of Rural Empowerment Development Innovations (REDI), she assisted in organizing workshops and forums to help Kenyan female business owners improve their business methods. She also interned for the Development Outlook Consultancy (DOC), where she researched devolution in Kenya as well as education policies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, she served as the Vice-President of Love, Period Inc, which provides girls in Kampala, Uganda with sanitary products so they can attend school. Cynthia then worked as a full-time intern at the Florida House of Representatives, where she analyzed various education policy bills. Her passion for education and research inspired her to start Boulevard to Victory Inc, which is a non-profit organization geared towards empowering high school seniors by providing them with scholarships for college. Upon graduation, Cynthia received a Fulbright grant to teach English in Taiwan for a year. She is fluent in French and Haitian Creole and can speak Swahili and Mandarin. Cynthia is interested in the intersection of education and poverty. She hopes to increase her knowledge of international development, while enhancing her leadership and language skills.

Courtney is a graduate of the American University of Paris and the University of Chicago. As an undergraduate student, she conducted economic research for the US Embassy and the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris, France. Her interest in international development grew after studying abroad in South Africa at the University of Cape Town. Prior to completing her MS degree, she lived in Kenya and Tanzania as a David L. Boren Fellow and a Fulbright-Hays GPA Fellow. She is proficient in French and Swahili. While in Benin, Courtney looks forward to discovering the Voodoo culture, visiting Ganvie, and experiencing the Harmattan.

Corine graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Social Theory and Practice, focusing on arts activism, racial and economic justice, education, and the criminal justice system, and minored in Intergroup Relations Education and Community Action and Social Change. As a facilitator for intergroup dialogue, the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP), bystander intervention programs, and a low-and-high ropes team building and leadership course, Corine worked extensively with groups to cultivate dialogue, empower youth, and engage in justice work. At UofM, Corine was a Ginsberg Community Engagement Fellow, working to connect programs across campus in the work towards positive allyhood practices. They also participated in Semester in Detroit, interning with Alternatives for Girls in Southwest Detroit, spent 5 weeks working in Liberia in Agriculture and Engineering, interned in Izmir, Turkey teaching ESL, and were a student leader for the Center for Educational Outreach. After graduation, Corine worked for the Michigan College Advising Corps for a year as a College Adviser at Ypsilanti Community High School in Ypsilanti Michigan. Their passion for educational access and justice work took them to Porto-Novo Benin for 2017-18 as a Fulbright Scholar/ English Teaching Assistant, working in education, arts activism, and culture in the capital of Benin. Their work with the African School of Economics is both a continuation in the work for creative, welcoming, inclusive and just educational environments and a love of their community in Benin.

Fellow Bio:

Avery (Stanford ’11) is an International Relations major and Economics minor from Minneapolis, MN.  At Stanford, she was co-president of the Stanford Association for International Development (SAID) and involved with FACE AIDS.  She studied abroad in Paris and worked with the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) in D.C.  Avery also spent two summers in Africa volunteering in a Maasai village in Tanzania and interning with Idasa- An African Democracy Institute in South Africa.  In Benin next year, Avery is excited to explore West Africa, learn about the Kingdom of Dahomey and meet new people.

Alumni Update:

Currently, she is working as a consultant for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for West and Central Africa. Her work focuses on a regional research project to assess recruitment and protection mechanisms for migrant workers from the region abroad, primarily in the ECOWAS and Gulf Cooperation Country regions.

Fellow Bio:

Anna graduated in May 2017 with a Bachelor’s degree in Global Liberal Studies (concentrating on Politics, Rights, and Development) and double minoring in French, and Public Policy and Management. Anna has worked for several nonprofit organizations throughout her academic career, from Girl Rising, a documentary campaign to promote girl’s education, to Human Rights Foundation, an organization which supports political dissidents in countries with authoritarian governments. Her interest in development work in Africa was strengthened last summer, which she spent in Dakar, Senegal, interning and conducting research for her thesis on female migration and its’ impact on social and economic development. Anna returned to Senegal for a month last January to finish her research, and was awarded the best thesis overall in NYU’s Global Liberal Studies class of 2017. In her free time, Anna loves to read and hike, she is an avid backpacker, adventurer, and “Couchsurfer”. Lastly, she can’t wait for the fellowship to explore Benin, continue her research, make new friends and practice her French!