Danielle majored in Political Science and Human Rights, with a minor in French. While at Barnard, she held leadership positions in Columbia’s Amnesty International chapter, and interned at Human Rights Watch in the Africa division and the Foundation Relations unit. She studied abroad in Uganda and Rwanda, and spent a summer in Tanzania researching aid projects to refugees and slum-dwellers. After graduating, she spent a year as an education consultant in Ghana helping high school students navigate the international college admissions process and traveling around West Africa. Since then, she has been taking classes in Boston and working for a public health education and advocacy NGO that promotes effective use of antibiotics.

Alumni Update:

Since his teaching fellowship at Maru a Pula, Christopher has continued to work in education. First, on the policy side as a senior aide to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick in Boston, then as a manager in Education First’s (EF) non-profit arm running homestay programs for international students in the US. He currently works as the Assistant Director of Development and Alumni Relations at a small boarding and day school. Christopher always loves meeting up with other fellows and asks to please not be a stranger if you’re in the Boston area.

Fellow Bio:

Chris is an American history major from Middletown, Delaware. At Bates, he was his class representative to the President’s Advisory Committee, a council member of the Bates Outing Club, and organized a forum for students entering Bates after taking a “gap year”. Before studying at Bates, Chris took a year off and worked in the office of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Chris has also led commercial hiking trips for high school students in the Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone, the Tetons, New England, Tanzania, and studied abroad in East Africa. While in Botswana next year, Chris looks forward to teaching and learning in the Maru-a-Pula community, and many memorable adventures throughout southern Africa.

Christina graduated with honors from Howard University in 2016 with a degree in Political Science, concentrating in International Relations. She is a recipient of the Laureate Scholarship, the second highest academic scholarship offered at Howard. Christina has years of experience working with youth, which began with tutoring underserved students in Philadelphia during high school. Throughout all four years of college, Christina served as a Peer Health Educator and taught a comprehensive health education curriculum to underserved students in D.C. She was an intern at Families USA, a health care advocacy organization. In that role, she supported hundreds of organizations working to enroll Americans  in the new Affordable Care Act health insurance policy. She was also a research intern at the Global Health Policy Center during the height of the Ebola epidemic; she reviewed relevant journals, reports, and other publications for information that supported the Center’s publications and meetings, and much of her work focused on Africa. A passionate student leader, Christina served as the president of Howard University’s Health Professions Society, which plans programs and initiatives to support students interested in pursuing careers in healthcare. She was also co-president of GlobeMED at Howard, an organization committed to global health equity. She has also held positions in student council, the debate team, and the African Students Association.

Berhan majored in International Comparative Studies (ICS) with a certificate in Global Health and a minor in Cultural Anthropology. At Duke, she explored her interest in public health while working as a translator for the Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research and held leadership positions in Future is Now, a mentoring program for young girls in the Durham community. She was also the union representative for ICS concentrators. In her summers, Berhan interned for the Ethiopian Public Health Association, conducted fieldwork on HIV/AIDS stigma in Ethiopia and worked on human rights and gender education in Tanzania. As her region of concentration in ICS is the Arab World she studied abroad in Turkey and Egypt. Berhan is passionate about learning languages and will continue her study of Arabic in Morocco before moving to Botswana. She is ecstatic about her year in Botswana and is looking forward to exploring Gaborone and learning some Setswana.

Anya is a recent Princeton University graduate. She majored in the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs with a certificate in Creative Writing. She wrote two theses—one an analysis of the history of IMF activity in Grenada and Jamaica, and the other a short story collection of Caribbean folktales re-imagined in the present. Her interest in racial and ethnic identities took her to Italy and Poland, where she participated in a seminar that allowed her to study these identities in global and historical contexts. These interests later inspired her to study in South Africa in her Junior Spring, where she took classes at the University of Cape Town and participated in a task force along with other Princeton students. Her junior paper completed as part of that task force discussed the provision of extra-curricular activities by NGOs as alternatives to gang violence in township communities in South Africa. In her spare time at UCT, she was a Tutor at SHAWCO Education in Kensington Township, teaching weekly English lessons to sixth-graders. She spent the summer after her Junior Year as an intern at Jubilee USA in Washington DC, where she was able to explore her interest in the debt crisis in many African countries due to odious debt agreements, illicit financial flows, and Vulture Fund activity. She is looking forward to returning to Southern Africa and to teaching, and is beyond excited that Princeton-in-Africa is giving her the opportunity to do so. She’s especially excited to learn about Botswana’s History and Geography as part of her teaching post at Maru-a-Pula. She isn’t that familiar with it yet, but is certainly up for the challenge!

Fellow Bio:

Annette is a Woodrow Wilson School major with a certificate in Global Health and Health Policy. She is from Annandale, Virginia. While at Princeton, she volunteered as an EMT at the Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad, led Outdoor Action freshmen pre-orientation hiking trips, and enjoyed playing club, IM, and pick-up basketball. Through Princeton, Annette interned with a non-profit organization in a rural village in the Eastern Cape of South Africa where she did research on pain and palliative care. While in Botswana next year, she looks forward to working closely with those affected by HIV. Moreover, she is excited to learn about a different world and hopes to make Gaborone home with new friends and adventures.

Alumni Update:

In April 2014, Agatha returned from the PiAf retreat in Uganda and site visits in East and West Africa. She really enjoyed spending quality time with PiAf’s Fellows and partners! Unfortunately, her days as the Program Manager with PiAf ended in June 2014, as she began medical school in the summer of 2014. Although Agatha was sad to leave, she is looking forward to being an active PiAf alum!

Fellow Bio:

Agatha is an ecology and evolutionary biology major from San Jose, CA. At Princeton, she was the captain of the track and field team, a Butler RCA, and a sexual health advisor. Agatha looks forward to an amazing year in Botswana!