Alumni Directory Display

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. 

Fellow Bio:

Sabina Sequeira ‘07 was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. A Woodrow Wilson School major with an emphasis on Latin American studies, Sabina is interested in working on international development projects and issues over the next few years. She’s excited about spending this summer in India with her family for the first time in 7 years, and will be heading to Mozambique mid-August. Sabina loves learning new languages and the beach, so she’s really looking forward to living in Maputo, where she will work with the Lurdes Mutola Foundation.

Mina received her B.A.H. from Stanford University in Comparative Literature with a minor in African Studies. During her time in Palo Alto, she has been deeply involved with the Haas Center for Public Service, serving twice as an African Service Fellow in Accra, Ghana, working as a peer adviser for the Undergraduate Fellowships office, leading sessions for a preschool service program in which Stanford students build relationships with young learners while helping scaffold their early math literacy, participating in and leading an Alternative Spring Break program, and participating on the National Advisory Board of the Haas Center as a student member. Mina’s work at the West Africa AIDS Foundation was transformative and led her to pursue her Master’s in African Studies, which she just received, also from Stanford. She is excited to work with the Kucetekela Foundation in Lusaka, Zambia for the upcoming year and hopes to come away with new strategies for addressing educational inequity in the space of Lusaka. She looks forward to learning about the structure of educational non-profits and cannot wait to meet the students with whom she will be working.

Alumni Update:

Aliya currently lives in Johannesburg. She works as a Director of Investments at Kagiso Tiso Holdings, an investment holding company, and is responsible for the firm’s private equity investments outside South Africa. Aliya moved to Joburg in 2013, after 5 years in Lagos, Nigeria with Africa Finance Corporation, where she also focused on private equity investing across Africa. Aliya has been lucky enough to make it back to Rwanda a few times since her fellowship and has seen Kigali change a lot in the last 10+ years.

Rowan Sharkey is a recent graduate from Denison University with a degree in Data Analytics and Environmental Studies. She is interested in sustainable agriculture-based research in order to further the effort against global climate change. Rowan has carried out research projects in countries such as Germany and Tanzania to help understand topics revolving around urban air quality as well as rural food systems. She loved being able to engage with local communities and develop plans that meet their desires while also promoting environmental awareness. Rowan is deeply excited to be working with Princeton in Africa to learn from others and use her skills to benefit those with similar goals!

Alumni Update:

Following her fellowship, Victoria stayed on with the IRC Kenya program for an additional year and a half supporting their urban protection programming. She then moved to South Sudan with the IRC and managed both urban and emergency protection programs. As of October 2014, she moved to Southern Turkey, where she is the Protection Cluster co-lead (hosted by the IRC) for the cross-border Syria response.

Fellow Bio:

Victoria Shepard graduated from Colgate University in 2008 with a degree in Peace and Conflict studies, focusing on sub-Saharan Africa. Originally from San Francisco, Victoria has been based out of New York City since graduation, working for NGO International Crisis Group. Having spent six months in Cape Town, South Africa, Victoria is thrilled to be spending the next year (or more) in Nairobi, and is especially looking forward to photographing it all!

Alumni Update:

Since her fellowship, Tisamarie has been enrolled in a joint MD-PhD program at Harvard Medical School in Boston. In 2012, Tisamarie completed her PhD in Health Policy, and in the summer of 2014 she will graduate from medical school and begin her residency training in Internal Medicine and Primary Care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston!

Fellow Bio:

Nina ’10 is a College of Social Studies major from Baltimore, Maryland. During her time at Wesleyan University she was involved in a student led trip to Ahmedabad, India where she wrote grants and taught English at a local NGO SPRAT. She also studied abroad in Mali, which sparked her interest in West Africa. This past year she co-taught a student forum on international volunteerism and local NGOs in the developing world. In her free time, Nina participated in West African as well as Indian dance performances. She loves to dance and looks forward to learning more West African dance while in Cote d’Ivoire. She also looks forward to an exciting year of travel and adventure and is excited to meet great people!

Philile graduated with a BA in Global Affairs and French. She speaks French, Intermediate Mandarin Chinese, siSwati and Zulu. She was born and raised in Swaziland, and intends to return to work in education policy or the non-profit sector in southern Africa. Through various fellowships at Yale, she has been able to travel to Paris, Beijing, Shanghai and London for intensive language study and research. She has previously interned for the Alliance Française office in Mbabane, Swaziland where she tutored French students. She has also volunteered as a language and reading tutor in various care centers in Swaziland such as the SOS Children’s Village. She has most recently interned at Africa Health Placements in Johannesburg, South Africa as an Educational Entrepreneurial Project Initiator where she drafted a business model and training program for a new education initiative that was launched at the beginning of 2016. Philile is thrilled to be joining the African School of Economics in Benin where she will be a research assistant, and she looks forward to learning more about Francophone West African culture and speaking lots of French.