Alumni Update:

Sangeeta and her husband are proud new parents! Their son, Sebastian, was born on November 10, 2020. He is healthy and growing, and he has the best laugh ever. 

Alumni Update:

Sarah took a few months off after her fellowship ended in September to see family at home in the States and travel in South America and Europe. She then started at Vera Solutions (a social impact consulting company) in Mumbai; she’s happily enjoying working there alongside PiAf alum Josh Wunderlich.

Fellow Bio:

Sarah studied International Relations and African studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Though she grew up in the suburbs of New York City, while at Penn she came to appreciate Philadelphia and became heavily involved with the Philly-based NGO Power Up Gambia. Additionally as an undergrad she spent a summer and semester abroad in Botswana working on HIV/AIDS and TB studies with the Botswana-UPenn partnership, and a summer in DC interning for Save the Children. While in Tanzania, Sarah hopes to become more involved with HIV/AIDS programming while putting the Swahili she has studied for two years to good use!

Samantha Mendoza graduated from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas with a degree in English Writing & Rhetoric and minors in English Literature and Global Studies. She mentored students through leadership development programs and writing courses, and as student Body President, she co-founded a program that raised awareness about college sexual assault. She spent a summer studying Peace and Conflict in Uganda and Rwanda, and another summer leading a group of students to volunteer at the an orphanage for HIV-positive youth in Capetown, South Africa. Samantha then earned a prestigious Fulbright fellowship to teach middle-school English in South India. She spent her weekends mentoring high school students through the college application process and taking a 6-hour train to volunteer at a non-profit in Bangalore. Samantha has just completed a Master’s program in Magazine, Newspaper, and Online Journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications to pursue her goal of becoming an international journalist. She currently reports on community issues in Syracuse, New York, and writes about women’s rights, feminism, and politics for a national audience. She will spend the summer interning at NBC Studios before moving to Monduli, Tanzania for a one-year role as the Scholarship and Communications Coordinator at the Indigenous Education Foundation of Tanzania.

Alumni Update:

Ruby is currently the Internship Coordinator at Generations Ahead, an organization that empowers young parents, in Traverse City, Michigan.

Fellow Bio:

Ruby graduated from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan in 2017, focusing in African Development and Policy. At the University of Michigan, Ruby was the co-president of the Roosevelt Institute, a student-run policy think tank. Through Roosevelt, she led an initiative to increase the university’s procurement from local women- and minority-owned businesses and published a policy on reforming regulations for Michigan charter schools in the national 10 Ideas Journal. She was also president of the Advisory Council for the Global Scholars Program (GSP), a living community focused on global social justice. Ruby has interned with the Niger Delta Partnership Initiative in Washington, D.C., the Department of State at the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania, and local political campaigns in her hometown of Traverse City, Michigan. While working at the Embassy, Ruby loved traveling to speak with students about higher education and testing out her Swahili on her very patient co-workers. She is extremely excited to return to Tanzania and work with IEFT. Ruby loves reading by the lake (any lake), her dog, Rosie, and hosting game nights with friends.

Fellow Bio:

Pinto ’10 is a Sociology major from Princeton, NJ. He also earned an African Studies certificate. At Princeton, he was the house manager of the Princeton Terrace Club, treasurer of the Black Men’s Awareness Group, and an active member at the International Relations Council. While in Tanzania next year, he hopes to learn Swahili, spend some time in the Indian Ocean, and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Paley, a native of Maine, graduated from Connecticut College with a degree in Human Development and International Relations. At Connecticut College, she was a scholar of the Honors Program in Community Action and Public Policy. Throughout her college career she volunteered in local schools creating curriculum around youth development and leadership. Paley was an intern at International Planned Parenthood, where she worked on the Direct Marketing team writing reports for donors about the organizations women’s reproductive rights programs in indigenous communities in Latin America. She was also an intern at Human Rights Watch, where she helped coordinate their annual dinners in 24 countries. After graduation, Paley worked at Oxfam America, an international organization fighting to create lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and social justice. While at Oxfam, in addition to her job in fundraising, she was the Gender Advisor for her team, where she worked with staff to implement gender goals and ultimately contributed to the creation of a gender strategic plan for the next four years. Prior to the fellowship year, Paley had never been to Africa. She is excited about exploring Dar es Salaam next year and learning Swahili. She is grateful for the opportunity to pursue her passion of international development in the public health sector during her fellowship at CCBRT. 

Morgan is from Boston, Massachusetts and graduated with degrees in Social Policy, African Studies, and Global Health. Both in and outside of school, Morgan pursued opportunities that expanded these studies beyond a purely academic, classroom setting. She had the opportunity to study abroad in South Africa and learned about the country’s system of public health and development. Throughout her time as an undergraduate, Morgan also taught health and sexual education workshops to freshmen in Chicago public schools, and worked with Jumpstart to provide literacy and language skills to preschoolers from low-income families. Beyond the university, Morgan interned in both government and non-profit public health-related settings, working at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health and at Oral Health America. In her free time, Morgan practices yoga—and actually hopes to become certified as a teacher—and loves to be outside as much as possible, whether it is biking or running, hiking or sailing. She also loves exploring new places, listening to new music, trying new foods and meeting new people. Morgan is thrilled to work in Tanzania at IEFT, as it is an opportunity for such novelty and an opportunity to grow and apply her academic pursuits.