Urvi, a native of Delhi, India, graduated from Skidmore College with a degree in Environmental Studies & Film. Her choice of major as well as other endeavors are motivated by her desire to make positive contextual change. While at Skidmore, Urvi followed her passion for conservation as a North Woods steward and an environmental educator at the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park. She used Media as a medium to communicate the importance of these natural ecosystems. In doing so, Urvi discovered her interest in the intersection of storytelling, and conservation. She pursued this new-found passion in Tanzania during her semester abroad, where she better understood the linkages between her theoretical/field experiences and the working world. After her semester abroad, Urvi decided to dive deep into the interconnections between the Sustainable Development Goals. This took her to Washington DC where she interned with the Grameen Foundation, UNICEF, and the Vicente Ferrer Foundation over the summer working on marketing, communication, and grant writing. Preparing for life after college, Urvi will be spending her summer interning at the Rainforest Alliance and Vicente Ferrer foundation before setting off to Kenya. She is excited to apply her skills to creating impactful and effective stories for the BOMA Project in Nanyuki, Kenya.

Fellow Bio:

Tom McKay ’08 is a politics major from Ridgewood, NJ focusing in international relations. At Princeton he was the captain of the men’s varsity squash team which was Ivy League champions and advanced to the final of his sophomore, junior, and senior years. Tom also served as the Vice President the Tiger Inn. Though he has never been to sub-Saharan Africa, Tom is excited to spend next year in Nairobi, Kenya where he will be a program intern for the International Rescue Committee. While in Africa, Tom helps to immerse himself in the local culture by joining a local soccer team.

Alumni Update:

Theresa successfully defended her PhD on insectivorous bat communities in the northern Namib Desert (northwestern Namibia) in April 2019 and has started a 2 year postdoctoral fellowship on pollinating bats in the New Mexico bootheel. She hopes to work on grant applications to continue research on bats in Namibia.

Fellow Bio:

Theresa ’10 is an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major at Princeton University. She originates from Ocean City, NJ, and has two younger sisters. At Princeton, Theresa was a member of the Women’s Rugby team, an Outdoor Action Leader, and a student manager in the Butler/Wilson dining hall. She spent a summer volunteering in a geriatric clinic in Cusco, Peru, with Awaiting Angels in 2007. Through Princeton, she studied abroad in Panama during the spring semester of 2009 and in Kenya for her senior spring semester of 2010. Theresa conducted her thesis research on crocodilian diets in the Peruvian Amazon during the summer of 2009. In Kenya next year, Theresa looks forward to picking up some Swahili and hopefully conducting more field research while learning more about the field work conducted in Mpala.

Fellow Bio:

Stephen is a Civil and Environmental Engineering major from Sayville, NY. At Princeton, Stephen was an Outdoor Action leader, a first aid instructor, and a member of the Princeton Band. In Kenya, he looks forward to learning Swahili, developing a taste for ugali, and adapting to a rural lifestyle.

Stefanie is an Anthropology major from Connecticut, with certificates in African Studies and Dance. She has spent the past three summers traveling and working in Morocco, Spain, Tanzania, and Kenya. In Kuria West District, Kenya, she implemented a magnet theater program to tackle risky health behaviors in the community. Last summer, Stefanie interned at the Mpala Research Center as a Conservation Club teacher, where she designed and implemented lesson plans, experiments, and field activities for seven primary schools in the Laikipia region. In her free time, Stefanie enjoys choreographing, dancing, and drawing. She looks forward to returning to the Mpala Research Center and the neighboring schools, improving her Swahili, and maybe finally seeing an aardwolf.

Alumni Update:

In July 2019, Sophia started medical school at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

Fellow Bio:

Sophia majored in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. After graduating, Sophia worked as the Lead Mechanical Engineer at Uncharted Play, a social enterprise startup dedicated to addressing development issues with innovative and empowering play products. She helped design, develop, and manufacture a line of energy-generating products including their flagship soccer ball, SOCCKET, a jump rope called Pulse, and a variety of lamps. As a student, Sophia traveled with Penn Engineers Without Borders to Mbengwi, Cameroon and Pajomel, Guatemala, worked in a Bioengineering lab, and apprenticed at a vintage motorcycle shop in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philly. While in Nairobi, Sophia is excited to contribute to the sanitation field, explore East Africa, and find a soccer team.

Staci graduated with an Honors B.S. degree in Bioengineering from the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State University. After helping set up and run a temporary medical clinic in Ghana, Staci volunteered in Cape Town, South Africa with One Heart Source, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering children through education. She returned to work with the non-profit for two consecutive years to co-manage and innovate programs. During the summer of 2015, Staci led the health volunteer program and built community partnerships for 2016 expansion. As a student in the Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship Program at Penn State, she integrated her public health interests with the launch of technology-based social enterprises. She conducted a study in Kenya to evaluate handgrip strength as a diabetes-risk screening tool, resulting in a Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology publication. In addition, Staci co-developed a business model to expand an affordable greenhouse venture to Mozambique and contributed to a published manuscript investigating the integration of entrepreneurial and vocational training. Staci conducted further research in Zambia to identify healthcare pathways and evaluate mobile health projects’ potential to reduce gaps in care. Staci looks forward to a challenging, transformative year with Lwala Community Alliance in Kenya!

Sofia graduated from Yale University in 2018, majoring in Environmental Studies with a concentration in in Urban Environment. Throughout university, she was heavily involved with the Yale Refugee Project. Raised in Mbabane, Sofia attended Waterford Kamhlaba UWC. In university, she maintained strong ties to the African continent, returning to work at the Wonder Workshop arts studio in Dar es Salaam, and later as an international volunteer and backhandler at Cheetah Outreach in Cape Town. During her junior year, Sofia studied as an exchange student at Université Paris IV: La Sorbonne, and was granted fellowship funding to return  to Paris the following year to pursue an independent urban studies research project using GIS and interviewing refugees and asylum seekers about urban green space. Sofia has also worked for MAD/Yale Leadership Summit and for the Louisville city government’s Office of Performance Improvement and Innovation. Sofia is passionate about making cities more accessible to marginalized groups.

Shan was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 2016 with a B.A. in Biology and a minor in Music. He spent a semester studying abroad in north-central Tanzania as part of the Wildlife Management Program through the School for Field Studies. While there, he conducted research on land protection strategies in the region and conducted interviews with local communities about human-wildlife conflict. Shan has held internships with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service where he monitored prescribed fire effects and invasive species on a National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota, and at the Duke Lemur Center where he conducted a research project on the response to visual and olfactory cues in Cockerel’s sifakas. At Bowdoin, Shan was the music director for his a cappella group and was a whitewater kayak instructor with the Outing Club in addition to working for the Office of Admissions. Shan is so excited to return to East Africa and to experience Kenya for the first time with Nyumbani Village. While there, he hopes to improve his Swahili skills and to explore the region with other PiAf Fellows!