Alumni Update:

Ruba was the Outreach Coordinator for Princeton in Africa from February to September 2021. She is currently based in London, where she is attending The London School of Economics to get her master’s in international development and health.

Fellow Bio:

Ruba Idris is a recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Health Services, Certificates in Health Services and African Studies and a Minor in Economics. She is interested in foreign affairs, health and development and intends to pursue a Master’s Degree in International Development, and later in the future, a Masters of Public Health. Ruba originally hails from Sudan and her cultural duality as a Sudanese-American has provided her with a deeper cultural understanding of countries in the global north and the global south. She plans to return to the African continent where she is interested in translating economic and entrepreneurial potential present within the young population into concrete skills while reducing the health issues that impact the population and its productivity. She aspires to work for various organizations focusing on development such as USAID, the World Bank and the United Nations. Ruba is passionate about working with people from different backgrounds, exploring various cultures, examining and understanding trends and links within developing nations, and understanding holistic paradigms of development. These interests are portrayed through her panoply of courses, which encompass language, economics, health and history, amongst other topics, and the various activities she has participated in such as study abroad, research and student organizations. During her 4 years in undergraduate school, Ruba worked to cultivate her leadership skills through different leadership roles in student organizations, which include her positions as president of the African Students Organization and the vice president of Model African Union. She has also expanded her cultural competency and deepened her understanding of development through her study and work abroad in Tanzania, Ghana, and Honduras, and through her research work with local African communities. Other than academia, Ruba is also very passionate about fashion and owns a T-shirt business that aims to spread knowledge about the continent of Africa. She hopes to one day incorporate Fashion into the economic development of the continent by cultivating a robust fashion industry. Ruba is a critical thinker and loves to learn and improve her personal skills. She enjoys being mentally challenged and strives to understand other points of views. She hopes to develop into a well-rounded individual who can mold to any sector within the development realm.

Stuart Malcolm ’08 is a chemistry major from west Vancouver, BC Canada. Most of Stuart’s time at Princeton was spent either doing lab work sadly or competing joyfully for Princeton University’s Springboard and Platform Diving Team. As a diver, he attended the NCAA Championships and Olympic Trials. Stuart enjoys the outdoors, sports, medicine and anything to do with Princeton. After his sophomore year, he worked in a hospital in Paris and is looking forward to a more involved and challenging post at the BSM/Baylor College of Medicine Pediatric AIDS initiative in Lesotho next year.

Ryan is originally from the Central Coast of California and majored in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with certificates in Global Health & Health Policy and Latin American Studies. Over the past few summers, he has served as a community outreach intern for TropicalClinics in Kenya, conducted his senior thesis research on Chagas disease in Colombia, served as a Global Impact Fellow for Unite For Sight in Honduras, volunteered as a humanitarian worker with infant and youth programs in Uganda, studied abroad in Spain, and interned with Camp Hapitok in California. He also spent a semester studying abroad in Panama for a tropical biology program. While at Princeton, Ryan served as the Founder/President of the founding TropicalClinics for Rural Health chapter, as Co-chair of the Community House Executive Board, and as Co-founder/Co-president of the Princeton Quest Scholars Network. He was also a member of the Quadrangle Club and the Episcopal Church at Princeton. Ryan is tremendously grateful for and humbled by the opportunity to serve in Lesotho next year, and is excited to learn some Sesotho, have lots of hiking adventures, and make meaningful contributions to BIPAI’s impactful pediatric AIDS programs.

Alumni Update:

Neal is currently living in NYC.

Fellow Bio:

Neal is a Biochemistry major from Pittsburgh, PA. While at Northwestern, he captained the men’s ultimate frisbee team and designed global head education curricula for GlobeMed, a nonprofit that pairs college students and grassroots health organizations. In addition, he has written for the Atlantic and spent a summer helping to update a community health worker program in Liberia. Next year, Neal looks forward to learning about public health, picking up some Sesotho, and exploring Lesotho – be it on foot, bike, or pony.

Fellow Bio:

Michael (Princeton ‘11) is a Woodrow Wilson School major from Fargo, ND. At Princeton, he was Academics Chair of Whitman College Council, a member of Princeton Chapel Choir, and a member of Cloister Inn. He enjoys water sports, including swimming, kayaking, rowing and water tubing. Like many North Dakotans, he is an avid sportsman, enjoying fishing, hunting, and hiking. Through Princeton, Michael worked on health policy at the Center for Rural Wealth, University of North Dakota, and studied abroad at the University of Cape Town. While in Lesotho, Michael hopes to learn more about the psychosocial factors surrounding HIV/AIDS, make new friends form Lesotho and all over the world, and bike through the Drakensburg.

Alumni Update:

After completing her fellowship, Lillian moved to Dublin, Ireland, where she is currently completing her Master’s in Public Health. Next year, she’ll be returning stateside to start medical school in New York City.

Fellow Bio:

Lillian is an English and Biology double major from Newtown, Pennsylvania. At Columbia, Lillian was Co-President of GlobeMed, volunteered at Harlem Hospital, and assisted with research on children’s psychological resilience and inner city pediatric asthma. Last summer, Lillian worked in Uganda with her GlobeMed chapter’s partner, Gulu Women’s Economic Development and Globalization (GWED-G for short), where she helped design an HIV/AIDS prevention project and became interested in the power of stories for health and development. Next year, Lillian hopes to do lots of hiking, explore Lesotho’s hip-hop and culinary scenes, and pick up some Sesotho.

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:

David graduated from Harvard Medical School in 2013 and is completing an internal medicine internship. Then, he will start his Anesthesiology, Critical Care, & Pain Medicine residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital. He and Devan Darby (also a PiAf 2006-07 Fellow) got married in June 2014 in Virginia.

Fellow Bio:

David graduated from Princeton in 2006 with degrees in Geosciences and African Studies. He worked with the Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric HIV/AIDS Initiative in Lesotho from 2006-07. He then worked with Dr. Christopher J.L. Murray at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington and the Harvard Initiative for Global Health on a World Bank-funded road traffic injuries project and the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010, which was published in the Lancet in December 2012. He graduated from Harvard Medical School with his MD in 2013, and will be pursuing Anesthesiology, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital. His interests include health system management, health metrics, peri-operative systems, trauma care, critical care, pediatric, acute pain, and regional anesthesiology, and global health.

Fellow Bio:

David Cape ‘07 is a history major from Vancouver, Canada. He will be working at the Baylor/BMS clinic in Maseru, Lesotho. His position, which the organization defines very flexibly, will include HIV/AIDS education and outreach in and around the capital. At Princeton, David rowed for lightweight crew, took pre-med. courses, and studied ancient Greek. He is applying to medical school to begin (he hopes) in 2008.

Fellow Bio:

Christina ’10 is an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. While at Princeton, she was an RCA for Butler College, an Eco-Rep, a volunteer GMT with the Turn W Squad, and earned a certificate in Neuroscience. During her free time, she enjoys jamming to music in her jammies and playing the tabla in drum circle. Through Princeton, Christina worked at the Krokobite Community Clinic in Ghana, volunteered at Madre Teresa Orphanage and CAASALT in Salvador, Brazil, and studied abroad in Beijing, China. While in Lesotho next year she can’t wait to fall in love with new foods, music, and maybe picking up a bit of the local language.