Tyler majored in International Relations and History at Claremont McKenna College. Tyler studied abroad in Marseille, France and Fez, Morocco, where he studied French and North African culture and history. Throughout his time at CMC, Tyler worked at the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights, where he wrote a paper on the 2011 Somali famine for the International Network of Genocide Scholars. He set off for northern Tanzania in the summer after his sophomore year, where he interviewed teachers and students about a new public debate program for the Asante Africa Foundation. In his junior year, Tyler wrote a research paper for the CIA’s Historical Collections Division on the role of intelligence in the 1973 Arab-Israeli Conflict, which was presented at a symposium at the Nixon Presidential Library. In the following summer, he interned at the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations. Before his PiAf fellowship, Tyler worked at the Education Advisory Board, where he conducted research on higher education. Tyler is a lover of all things outdoors and cannot wait to enjoy all of the natural beauty South Africa has to offer, and hopefully pick up some isiXhosa along the way.

Priscilla Takondwa, from Malawi, graduated from Smith College with a BA in African Studies and the Study of Women and Gender. At Smith, she served as President of the African and Caribbean Students’ Association for 2 years and was an inaugural recipient of the BOLD Women’s Leadership Network Scholarship. She is a published author and founder of an educative children’s book series called The Ekari Book Series, for which she won the OZY Media Genius Awards and the Draper Competition for Collegiate Women Entrepreneurs. She was also selected as one of the Hilliard P. Jenkins Fellows at Frontline Solutions, a consulting firm in Washington DC that engages young leaders interested in the intersection of social justice, entrepreneurship, and consulting. She has spoken at several conferences, including The Economist Africa Summit and The African Leadership Network and the AGCO Africa Summit. Recently, she received a TED Global Emerging Leader Scholarship to attend the TEDGlobal gathering. For three years, she contributed to the Huffington Post and her articles have been featured in Ayiba Magazine, which strives to break down African stereotypes and amplify African stories. Priscilla is an alumna of Watson University (’14) and the African Leadership Academy (’13). She enjoys reading, podcasts, and lengthy conversations about postcolonial theory. Priscilla’s PiAf placement is with the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

Sophia graduated with a Communication Studies major, International Studies minor, and Civic Engagement certificate. At Northwestern, she participated in various service and human rights-oriented student groups such as the fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, Northwestern University’s Conference on Human Rights, Amnesty International, and NU Bahá’í club, and served as a volunteer shift leader for Campus Kitchens. She was a member of both the Indian fusion dance team Mirch Masala and club rugby. Outside of school, she served as a volunteer at the Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago, and interned for non-profits like WorldChicago, the Baha’i Office of Public of Affairs in D.C., and IDEAS Association in Paris. Her interests include drawing and painting, cultural and interfaith activities, belly-dance, and travel. Inspired by her study abroad experiences in Madagascar and Paris, she hopes to continue seeking out new adventures and to pursue a career in international development. She is looking forward to learning as much as possible from all the new people she will come across through living and working in Johannesburg next year.

Fellow Bio:

Sheila (Princeton ‘11) is an economics major from Ghana. While at Princeton, she pursued a certificate in political economy, and was involved with Akwaaba and Voices of Africa magazine. Through Princeton, Sheila studied abroad in Cape Town, South Africa and interned in Monrovia, Liberia. She looks forward to the prospect of bungee jumping in the coming year and filling up the pages of her passport through travels around Africa.

Sarah, born and raised in rural Vermont, (Barnard ’17) graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College, Columbia University with a degree in Economics. At Barnard, Sarah completed a multi-year internship at EcoHealth Alliance, where she conducted a literature review evaluating the effectiveness of One Health interventions. While there, she was immersed in a multi-disciplinary team composed of scientists, veterinarians, and economists. This served as the impetus for her work at the interface of global health and economics. She has interned at the HIV, Health and Development group at UNDP, where she drafted a guidance note identifying integration opportunities for non-communicable diseases into the programming of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. She has researched the impacts of extractive industries on women as a Research Assistant for Barnard’s Department of Economics. Sarah has also consulted for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where she led a cost analysis of the Department’s responses to Hepatitis A incidents in restaurant food handlers. She has presented her research at conferences, including the 2017 Consortium of Universities for Global Health and 2018 World Bank Land and Poverty Conference and has several publications, including in the journals One Health and Annals of Climate Change.