Alumni Directory Display

Alumni Update:

Nina is currently serving as a Special Projects Officer at the Akilah Institute, a Kigali-based higher education campus and online school for women in East Africa. In the fall of 2021, she will begin her studies as a dual Master of Social Work and Master of Social Policy candidate at the Brown School in Washington University, St. Louis. 

Fellow Bio:

Nina graduated from the University of Virginia with degrees in English and Arts Administration. At UVA, she worked primarily in the arts community as a producer of student theater, co-chair of the Student Council Arts Committee, and as an Arts Mentor to local elementary-aged students. Her thesis focused on the representation of death in children’s literature, which she supplemented with a self-published children’s novella. After graduation, Nina moved to Memphis, TN, where she has spent the past two years. There, she worked as an assistant fifth-grade English teacher at a Title I public school and implemented mental health procedures to support her students suffering from trauma and anxiety. She additionally worked as an Urban Fellow for the City of Memphis to foster summer literacy among youth. Currently, Nina is finishing up a service year at The Well, a pediatric wellness center, where she teaches nutrition, movement, and mindfulness to children. For fun, she dabbles as a lounge singer, attempts to cook, and loves to explore the Delta region. Nina is excited to pursue her interest in the intersections of educational and health equity at More Than Me and can’t wait to meet her wonderful new students.

Tabitha graduated from Princeton University with an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major and a Korean Language and Culture minor. She is originally from Nungua, Ghana but grew up in New Jersey and speaks Ga, Spanish, Korean, and English. Broadly, she is interested in access to healthcare and education. While at Princeton, she served as an Advising Fellow and Head Advising Fellow for a non-profit called Matriculate where she coached high-achieving low-income and first generation high school seniors through the college application process. She has also volunteered at JFK Medical Center and shadowed at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. Tabitha is also interested in the effects of environmental toxins on health and completed a Senior Thesis about the role that mercury exposure can play on gene expression. She is very excited about her work as a Program and Operations Fellow at Young 1ove in Botswana where she can put to use her interests in healthcare and access to education while also learning about Setswana language and culture!

David is from Cooperstown, North Dakota. He graduated from the University of Denver with bachelor’s degrees in International Studies and French. While at DU, David served as a Resident Assistant and was a member of Model United Nations and Model Arab League. In fall 2013, David studied at the University of Strasbourg and interned at the International Institute of Human Rights where he assisted in its Research Center and translated official documents. The following spring, David attended the University of Tunis-Carthage where he studied Arabic. During his senior year, David served as a Public Achievement Coach, leading a high school class in the creation, planning, and implementation of a community-organizing project. He wrote his honors thesis comparing the cases of constitution-making in Tunisia and Egypt. David spent two summers at the National Student Leadership Conference working for its Politics and International Diplomacy programs. At NSLC, David led groups of high school students through 11-day sessions, facilitating small group discussion and directing interactive career simulations. As Head Team Advisor, he trained and managed staff in the implementation of the youth leadership development program. David is looking forward to building relationships with the KF students and exploring Zambia’s beautiful natural wonders.

Lucy, a native of Hunan, China, graduated summa cum laude from Bowdoin College with High Honors in Political Philosophy, a second major in Mathematics, and a minor in Computer Science. Lucy became passionate about international development, and particularly about funding issues and private-public partnerships, through her volunteer experience teaching English in Longshan Village in China, as well as her professional experiences in making resource allocation decisions in both public and private sectors. As an undergraduate, she interned as an analyst for Bowdoin College’s $1 billion endowment, and was the student representative on Bowdoin Trustee’s Financial Planning Committee. She was a part of Bowdoin’s Common Good Grant Program, in which competitively selected committee members raised funds and wrote grants to Maine non-profits after evaluation and site visits. Following graduation, Lucy worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch as a research analyst, where she learned about useful market tools in improving the economy and consumer welfare. She conducted and published research on central bank policies, the US housing market, homeowner behaviors, bank regulations, securitization, and made investments recommendations to institutional investors. In her free time, she helps to educate prisoners through writing, enjoys rock climbing, skiing, watching soccer, and is an avid pianist. As a fellow, Lucy believes in African Leadership Academy’s mission in educating young leaders for the future of African development, and looks forward to applying her prior experiences with funding and markets to help ALA become more financially sustainable.

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 Sei-kashe M’pfunya is currently a second-year MPP student at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs focused on international development in sub-Saharan Africa. At Jackson, she is particularly interested in learning how to refine current philanthropic strategies in the region to better equip non-profit organizations and foundations to fulfill their goals for social impact. She also looks forward to learning how to leverage the arts and cultural sector for public well-being. At Yale, she is a curatorial assistant at the University Art Gallery and volunteers as a remote consultant for the Urban Culture and Heritage Initiative of Mbare, Zimbabwe. She graduated cum laude from Pomona College in 2021 with a BA in International Relations and Fine Art. While at Pomona, Sei-kashe was a resident assistant, creative director of the African Students Association, and founder of the annual Sanbonani! African Film Festival. Sei-kashe brings experience from non-profit and philanthropic sectors in spheres that include philanthropy (Schmidt Futures), art and culture (New York African Film Festival), STEM education (Ingressive for Good), and women (Global Fund for Women). Sei-kashe’s commitment to bringing about public good within sub-Saharan Africa stems from the promise and vitality she sees in her home country Zimbabwe. Sei-kashe plans to work for development organizations that center on sub-Saharan Africa and is excited to start that journey in Kenya

Cameron graduated from Case Western Reserve University with Honors in each of her three majors: International Studies, Political Science, and English. As an undergraduate, she joined a conflict-resolution delegation in Bosnia-Herzegovina to study grassroots peacebuilding efforts, spent a semester studying at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and interned for the political and economic section of the U.S. Embassy in Gaborone, Botswana. Upon graduation, she was awarded two of the highest possible honors for students at CWRU, including the Edward Corcoran Award for outstanding leadership, character, and service as well as the Flora Stone Mather Alumnae Award for outstanding academic performance in the humanities. After graduation, Cameron combined her passion for reconciliation and her love of creative writing by designing, implementing, and facilitating a youth poetry camp for South African high school students with the support of a national $10,000 Davis Projects for Peace Grant. Additionally, she completed French language study and archival research on African immigration in Montpellier, France, funded by the competitive Eva L. Pancoast Memorial Fellowship. Her experiences in storytelling, grant writing, and international exchange inspired her to join International Rescue Committee’s team in Kenya as a Princeton in Africa Fellow.

Fellow Bio:

Janeen (Vassar ‘10) majored in Political Science and French. Her experience growing up in Mumbai, India and later attending the United World College in B.C., Canada sparked her interest in international development. Since graduating, Janeen has been working for a non-profit in Washington, D.C. researching food security in sub-Saharan Africa. While in Senegal next year, Janeen looks forward to learning Wolof, picking up some West African dance moves, and eating Senegalese food. She plans to begin a Masters degree at Tufts’ Fletcher school in the Fall of 2012.

Megan graduated from American University’s School of International Service with a degree in International Studies, concentrating in peace and conflict resolution. Much of her undergraduate coursework and research centered on the nexus of gender and conflict, leading to her senior thesis on girl child soldiers and their reintegration processes. At American, Megan led an Alternative Break program to Rwanda for undergraduate and graduate students to study women and youth development in a post-conflict context. Megan furthered her passion for the region when she studied abroad in Nairobi, Kenya and interned at Peace Tree Network, a local peacebuilding organization. Throughout her undergraduate career, Megan interned with organizations in Washington, D.C., including ILive2Lead, United to End Genocide, and the U.S. Department of State. She also served as President of the School of International Service Undergraduate Council. After graduating, Megan worked at Chemonics International in the East and Southern Africa regional business unit. Born and raised in Mililani, Hawaii, Megan loves going to the beach, hiking, and playing basketball. She is excited to return to Rwanda and its thousand hills, learn Kinyarwanda, and support Resonate’s mission to unlock leadership potential in women and girls.

Alumni Update:

Meghan currently manages the US presence of Gardens for Health International. She is proud to be the only US employee for the organization which is fully locally-led and staffed in Rwanda.

Fellow Bio:

Meghan is from Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Social Studies with a focus field in Gender and Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. While there, she wrote a senior thesis on the challenges of girls’ education in postsocialist Tanzania based on a case study of an American non-profit funded secondary school for vulnerable girls in Morogoro, Tanzania. She had also visited Tanzania the summer before when she spent two months running an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in a rural village outside of Arusha. She has also explored girls’ education organizations in the U.S., having been a Corporate Intern at Girl Rising in New York, where she managed corporate outreach and partnerships. Outside of these interests, she was also the president of her college a cappella group, the Harvard LowKeys, and plans to continue singing in Tanzania. While working for IEFT in Monduli, Tanzania, she hopes to learn even more about interventions in secondary school education in Tanzania while also being able to improve her Swahili, eat as much chapati as possible, and psych herself up to climb Kilimanjaro.