Alumni Directory Display

Janhavi was born and raised in India and graduated from The George Washington University (GWU) with a master’s in international affairs in 2018. During her graduate study, she worked with Search for Common Ground (SFCG) in Yangon, Myanmar for a summer, supporting research and advocacy efforts for peacebuilding programs in the country. Janhavi credits this experience with propelling her into the world of international relief and development and has since conducted research on youth civic engagement in Myanmar in partnership with the US Agency for International Development (USAID). She has also consolidated refugee resettlement casework from Uganda for submission to the US and Canada with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) and analysed US and UN policy frameworks for humanitarian access and assistance in Yemen, Syria and South Sudan at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Additionally, through an internship at the International Peace Institute (IPI), she supported research efforts focused on Protection of Civilians (POC) mandates in UN peacekeeping missions and the effects of sanctions regimes on humanitarian action. Janhavi drew from these experiences in informing her approach to her most recent role as well, as she wrote weekly editorials on foreign policy, international security and development, and humanitarian affairs for a digital publication (Statecraft) in India. As crises evolve to become more multifaceted and complex, she believes it is more necessary than ever to continue strengthening her understanding of international development and humanitarian response efforts in hopes of supporting impactful, innovative, and sustainable solutions.

Nicole, a native of New Jersey graduated from Seton Hall University cum laude with a degree in Finance and studied at the pre-legal institute at Seton Hall Law School. Nicole started her career in health industry consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers, based in New York City, where she strengthened her professional skills, researched developments in patient access, and worked with global pharmaceutical organizations on business strategy development. At Seton Hall, she led service projects in New Jersey, Colorado, and El Salvador, primarily serving the homeless population, prisoners, and young adults. Following graduation, Nicole served as a Board of Regents member, mentor for college students, and financial literacy instructor. Nicole visited South Africa for the first time in 2017 and she is grateful to return to the region to work for the Clinton Health Access Initiative on the Sustainable Health Financing team in Mbabane!

Alumni Update:

Samantha is currently a Research Associate with FHI 360, where she does global public health research, primarily qualitative and quantitative research on family planning in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Fellow Bio:

Samantha Archie is a young professional in international development, specifically interested in monitoring, evaluation, and research with a gender focus. Samantha developed her passion for international development during her study abroad experiences in Guatemala, Tanzania, and Uganda while pursuing a degree in International Relations and Global Health at the University of Southern California. In 2016, she was awarded the prestigious Boren Scholarship to study Swahili and intern at an agricultural microfinance organization in Arusha, Tanzania. In her senior year, she returned to East Africa to conduct her own independent mixed methods research project for her honors thesis, which aimed at understanding what contributes to gender differences in entrepreneurship program outcomes in Northern Uganda. Since graduating from USC, she has worked at Women for Women International, where she performed data analysis to test the effectiveness of WfWI’s programs in conflict regions and Innovations for Poverty Action in Monrovia, Liberia, where she oversaw the implementation of a market access intervention connecting farmers with agricultural goods dealers. Samantha is very excited to embark on her next endeavor as a Women and Girl’s Protection and Empowerment Research Fellow at International Rescue Committee-Sierra Leone.

Matt, a native of Colorado and Minnesota, (Princeton ’16) graduated from Princeton University with a degree from the Woodrow Wilson School in Public and Foreign Affairs. During the summers, Matt did a French immersion program in Chicoutimi, Quebec. He also interned for the US State Department in Paris, France and the US Global Leadership Coalition in Washington D.C. Following graduation, he worked at Deloitte Consulting. While there, Matt worked on several proposals aimed at bringing increased energy generation to countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, among several other federal projects. In his free time, Matt enjoys hiking, snowboarding, and photography. Matt is excited to travel to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania as the International Rescue Committee’s Supply Chain Operations Fellow.

Alumni Update:

John is currently living in Lancaster, PA. He sells raw milk at a farmer’s market and works on a small organic produce farm.

Fellow Bio:

John studied political science at Princeton with a concentration in international relations. He is from Brooklyn, NY, where he returned after graduation to work for Raymond James as an assistant financial advisor. At Princeton, John played rugby, studied abroad in Cape Town, and held a summer internship at the International Action Network on Small Arms in London. John also taught English in Taipei, Taiwan, and Tianjin, China. John wrote his thesis on counterinsurgency strategy and looks forward to surveying victims of armed conflict in Northern Uganda.

Alumni Update:

After working in Baltimore around community investment for the past five years, he has returned to graduate school at McGill University to pursue a master’s in urban planning where he focuses on neighborhood revitalization and schools. He currently splits his time between Montreal, Baltimore and Philadelphia

Fellow Bio:

Michael Arnst was an International Studies (African Studies concentration) and German literature double-major and is originally from Chaska, Minnesota. While an undergraduate, he interned at the East African Economic Development Center in Minneapolis and studied abroad at the University of Botswana. Since graduating, he has worked in the East and Southern Africa program at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C., and acted as the membership manager for Kabissa, an online network of African civil society organizations. As a dedicated film and music festival junkie, he is excited to explore all the cultural offerings to be found in Cape Town.

Diane Arthur, Ghanaian-American raised in Michigan, graduated from Northwestern University with a major in Human Development and Psychological Services and received a Certificate in Civic Engagement. At Northwestern, she served as Community Engagement Chair of the African Students Association, where she focused on bridging the gap between African students and the larger Chicago African community. She demonstrated a commitment to coaching and mentoring other students towards international exchange and exposure by co-leading the Buffett Institute for Global Studies Fellowship Advisory Board. Her time off-campus included an international development internship in Udaipur, India, where she developed a life skills education curriculum. Diane then spent one academic year studying at the University of Ghana, exploring social work and political science from the Ghanaian perspective. During her final year of university, she interned for Upwardly Global, where she mentored underemployed and unemployed immigrants and refugees towards professional success in the US. Subsequently, she interned with EngageBetween, a boutique multicultural diversity and inclusion consultancy, where she helped to build and facilitate cultural competency workshops. After working as a Change Management Consultant at IT consulting firm Capgemini, she went on to facilitate international internships for study abroad provider, Institute for the International Education of Students (IES) Abroad. These experiences solidified her commitment to working with individuals and communities to pull down employment barriers through higher education, and to see this realized on the African continent. A few of her favorite things include jewelry, blueberry cake donuts, and biking!

Elebetel Assefa is a recent graduate of Tufts University where she studied African History and Philosophy. Raised in Debresina, Ethiopia, Elebetel committed her undergraduate career to investigative research confronting global injustice and inequality, specifically around Africa. As a Gill Fellow, she conducted research on piracy in Somalia, exploring environmental justice, globalization, and exploitation in the Horn. She also examined the role of African universities in sustainable development, focusing on the experiences of female students. As a coordinator for the Tufts with Rwanda Fellowship, Elebetel developed and taught a class about the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi that emphasized issues of indigeneity and citizenship in Africa. She will continue this work as an Experimental College Peer-Teacher by creating and teaching a course on the global 1960s, decolonization, and imperialism. Elebetel nurtures learning spaces that encourage curiosity, self-knowledge, and compassion. She wants to use research and teaching to challenge eurocentric narratives by producing knowledge that centers on the histories of marginalized voices. While at Tufts, Elebetel also worked at a community development agency to actualize programs fighting poverty by examining public policy and working closely with stakeholders to influence economic legislation. She is a founding member of the Ethiopian-Eritrean Student Association and uses her free time to volunteer at local community centers teaching Amharic and mentoring students. Elebetel also volunteers at her former high school, where she tutors and mentors’ English language learners. She enjoys attending book clubs, learning languages, and being the youngest child in her family.

Zuwaina, a native of Wadi Halfa, Sudan, graduated from Columbia University with a triple degree in Economics, Political Science, and African Studies. During her time at Columbia, her passion for social justice and inclusion led her to several leadership positions in the African Students’ Association, the Columbia Admissions office, and more student organizations, earning her the Kings’ College Leadership Award for Inclusion & Diversity. Her love for Law and Policy-making, stemming from her own experiences of injustice in Sudan, led her to research experiences at Columbia Law School and the World Policy Institute. She also spent time at Weitz & Luxenberg, a law firm based in New York City specializing in mass tort cases. Recognizing that Education was her greatest privilege, she also spent time working with Abwab, a nonprofit organization based in Sudan which provides undergraduate students with mentorship opportunities in Khartoum, as well as Audre, a new program in which Columbia students and faculty lead workshops for Harlem fifth graders once a week. Zuwaina is driven by her love for Africa and its people, and will be joining Equal Education in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August of 2019, where she will be working in education reform, law and policy.