Fellow Bio:

Morgan is an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major from Atlanta, GA. At Princeton, she was on the crew team and studied abroad in Panama and Kenya. Following graduation, Morgan returned to Mpala Research Centre, Kenya, where she worked on experiments looking at wildlife-livestock interactions. Next, from the bush to the big city, Morgan headed off to London for her MSc in Population and Development at the LSE. She has racked up quite a collection of photographs from her travels and is looking forward to adding many, many more when she returns to Kenya! Morgan is excited to head back to Mpala to catch up with old friends, watch elephants from her front porch, and to finally learn Swahili!

Alumni Update:

Molly is currently in NYC, finishing medical school at Mount Sinai – she will be starting residency at Cornell in NYC for pediatrics this summer. After her time in Kenya, Molly decided she wanted to become a doctor. Molly spent a few years working/post bac before she entered medical school, and now she can say she is almost finished! In the meantime, Molly has also gotten married and had two beautiful sons – Jack who is almost 19 months and Charlie who was born in March 2014! So overall, busy but great times! She is still so happy for her fellowship that has given her the direction to go to medical school and find her passion!

Alumni Update:

Mikia is a Private Sector Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank’s innovation laboratory, the IDB Lab. Her work focuses on project origination, client-relations and monitoring support for IDB Lab funded projects in The Bahamas Country Office

Fellow Bio:

Hailing from Nassau, Bahamas, Mikia graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas. During her studies, she held various leadership positions on her college campus, pursued internships, and gained invaluable diverse experiences across the United States and the world. Most notably, she participated in a fully-funded study abroad program in Rwanda and Uganda, concentrating studies on peace, reconciliation, and sustainable development. While in Rwanda, she received the distinct opportunity to work with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), in conjunction with the World Bank. She was a part of the Strategic Investments team, which led the negotiation of strategic investments on behalf of the Government of Rwanda. At Philander, Mikia was also selected as an inaugural fellow for the University of California’s Summer Institute of Emerging Managers and Leaders Program, which was held at the UC, Berkeley Haas School of Business, in which her team placed 2nd in a sustainable business model competition. Upon graduation, Mikia joined the Operations team of Credit Suisse in Nassau, Bahamas, where she rotated on three transaction processing desks – Treasury and Issuance, Wealth Management, and Structured Products, and settled transactions/resolved cash reconciliations across a broad spectrum of asset classes. As a Social Investment Fellow at Global Partnerships in Kenya, Mikia is excited for a fresh new path in pursuing her passion of bridging business and social impact to uplift communities in the East Africa Community.

Alumni Update:

Maya completed her MA in International Development from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in May 2019. She is starting work as a Senior Consultant at Athena Infonomics, a development consulting firm that focuses mainly on water and sanitation and urban development in Africa and South Asia.

Fellow Bio:

Maya is a Politics major with a certificate in African Studies, from Seattle, WA. At Princeton, she enjoyed playing rugby, leading Outdoor Action backpacking trips, and cooking with the International Food Co-op. She loves to travel, and studied abroad in Ghana and South Africa. Her summers have been spent planning a school-based deworming program with Deworm the World in New Delhi, and interning in the data department of Obama for America. Maya wrote her senior thesis on refugee voting rights, and looks forward to learning more about refugee issues at the International Rescue Committee. She is also excited to explore Kenya, learn Swahili and meet new friends in Nairobi.

Megan, a New Jersey native graduated from the University of Southern California with a major in Psychology and a minor in International Relations. As an undergraduate, she was awarded funding to participate in a summer research trip in Iceland, Norway and Finland where she studied the impact of climate change in the Arctic region. In her junior year, Megan spent a semester studying at the University of Cape Town, where she developed a deep interest in economic development and public policy. Following her semester abroad, she interned at Ubuntu Pathways, a South Africa based non-profit that provides comprehensive health, household, and educational services to people in Port Elizabeth’s townships. After graduating, Megan worked as the director of a research lab that studies non-democratic politics. In this role, she used computational social science methods to explore propaganda in Gabon and Congo, as well as to analyze patterns of corruption in autocracies.  Megan is thrilled to be joining The BOMA Project in Nanyuki, Kenya. She looks forward to gaining a more nuanced understanding of international development and income generation, learning Swahili, and exploring Kenya’s natural beauty!

Caroline received her BA in International Studies from American University’s School of International Service, concentrating in peace and conflict resolution in Sub-Saharan Africa. While in school, Caroline interned with the international NGO, Search for Common Ground, the Department of State, and she spent time volunteering with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Before leaving Washington, DC, she will finish a fellowship with The Nexus Fund, an organization dedicated to supporting the global community to end mass atrocities. Caroline has traveled to Rwanda to study healing and justice after genocide, and she has studied Swahili in Zanzibar, Tanzania as a 2013 Boren Scholar. In 2014, Caroline was named a Harry S. Truman Scholar, and she hopes to dedicate her public service career to promoting transitional justice and reconciliation programming in the Great Lakes Region. Caroline is thrilled to have the opportunity to return to East Africa, and she looks forward to navigating the city of Nairobi and supporting the International Rescue Committee’s mission of helping those whose lives have been shattered by conflict or disaster to gain control of their futures.

Originally from the Netherlands, Marlotte has spent the majority of her life in the United States and now calls Rockwood, Tennessee home. She graduated in May 2015 from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she double majored in Psychology and Child Development and double minored in European History and Environmental and Sustainability Studies. While in school, she interned for EnvironmentAmerica, Urban Green Lab, and the Houston Zoo’s Conservation Department, and designed her own research study focused on children and adults’ perceptions of helpful and harmful environmental actions. She also assisted on a research program investigating long-term cognitive effects of chemotherapy and radiation in Hodgkin’s Lymphoma patients. In her free time, Marlotte loves any and all animals and enjoys cooking, any outdoor activity like hiking, sailing, or swimming, and discovering new places. She is excited to explore Kenya, learn Swahili, and work for the World Agroforestry Centre. Following this fellowship, she plans to pursue a PhD in Environmental Policy and Management.

Alumni Update:

Marielle is the Impact Manager at Women Win, a multi-dimensional women’s fund with two main areas of work: Girls’ rights through sport and play, and women’s economic resilience. She is responsible for Women Win’s monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning practice. Marielle is also the co-founder of RefugeeForce, a social enterprise that develops the skills and careers of Refugees while bringing talent and diversity to the Salesforce ecosystem.

Fellow Bio:

Marielle graduated with a degree in History and a minor in Poverty, Social Justice, and Human Capabilities. While pursuing her degree, she captained the club soccer team, volunteered her time with mentally disabled adults in Houston, and studied public health in Copenhagen, Denmark. Through past internships, Marielle has studied Swahili in Kenya, researched family planning in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and built rainwater harvesting systems in Lesotho. Marielle is excited to return to Nairobi to gain experience in the field, brush up on her Swahili, and run the Lewa half-marathon next summer!

Maggie is from Harvard, MA and majored in Anthropology and earned certificates in African Studies and Environmental Studies. While at Princeton, Maggie spent a summer abroad in Tanzania studying Kiswahili at the University of Dar es Salaam and teaching ESL. She also worked in Southwest Kenya in the summer of 2012 and undertook anthropological fieldwork in Arusha, Tanzania for her senior thesis in 2013. She also had the amazing opportunity to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in June 2013 with friends and family. She has loved all her time in East Africa and is very excited to be going back through PiAf. Outside the classroom, Maggie was a D1 varsity athlete on Princeton’s rowing team, which took up most of her free time. However, in any spare time, she loves reading, watching bad reality television, and adventuring with her friends. While in Kenya this year, Maggie hopes to improve her Kiswahili, climb Mt. Kenya, meet lots of amazing new people, and contribute to the community through her work at Nyumbani Village.

Alumni Update:

Luke is finishing his L1 year at Yale Law School this year. His focus is on refugee and human rights law as it relates to migrant and displaced communities

Fellow Bio:

Luke is a Political Science and Religious Studies major from Cairo, GA. At Yale, he was a direct assistance coordinator for the Yale Refugee Project, co-coordinator of Yale’s anti-genocide advocacy group, and a paralegal for the Yale Law School Community and Economic Development Clinic. In his summers, Luke studied abroad in Prague and India, served as a research assistant in Sudan, and worked as a paralegal for the American law firm representing the Republic of Sudan. He enjoys learning languages, faking accents and naps. While in Kenya next year, Luke hopes to get a bike and see where it’ll take him.