Alumni Update:

Since her fellowship year Vicki has gotten her master’s at LSE in Human Rights and returned to Uganda, where she worked as human rights researcher with the Ugandan NGO the Justice and Reconciliation Project in Gulu. She spent a brief period in New York working for the Polyphony Foundation on a classical music and peace-building program in Israel, and is now in Washington, DC working for the Justice, Rights and Public Safety unit of the World Bank’s Governance Global Practice..

Fellow Bio:

Vicki graduated Harvard in ’07, and was a government concentrator. She is from Tustin, CA and spent the past three years working in New York City for the Human Right Institute at Columbia Law School. While at Harvard, Vicki also pursued a secondary field in anthropology of human rights and was an avid Mode UNer. She traveled to Rwanda in the summer of 2006 where she conducted research on post-genocide reconciliation measures of youth. While in Uganda next year, she looks forward to learning and writing about the work of the International Rescue Committee, and traveling around the country.

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!

Fellow Bio:

Veda ’10 hails from the small island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. He came to Princeton thinking to major in Mechanical Aerospace Engineering but is actually graduating in Politics, with a certificate in Political Economy. Veda has always been very involved with the international community at Princeton. Between his sophomore and junior year, Veda spent a year off in Mauritius, where he founded the Young Volunteers Association. Back in Princeton, he explored the field of Social Entrepreneurship and interned at Ashoka in Washington DC  last year. While he is sad to give up on French theater, which he has been doing for the last five years, he is really excited to go work with the young folks at the African Leadership Academy and be the world traveler and the citizen of the World that he wants to be.

Fellow Bio:

Tiffany ’09 was an Anthropology and French double-major at the University of Virginia. She is a Liberian-American who lived throughout Africa during her childhood. At the University of Virginia, Tiffany was an active member of the organization of African Students and her fourth year participated in a year-long academic internship program in which she worked for a local nonprofit organization. In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis, reading, and cooking dishes from all around the world. UVA alum, Tiffany spent the past year working for two NGOs: Africare (in Washington, DC) and the American Jewish World Service (in New York City). While in Uganda, next year, Tiffany looks forward to getting acquainted with the local culture and food, and learning a lot about herself in the process.

Alumni Update:

Theresa successfully defended her PhD on insectivorous bat communities in the northern Namib Desert (northwestern Namibia) in April 2019 and has started a 2 year postdoctoral fellowship on pollinating bats in the New Mexico bootheel. She hopes to work on grant applications to continue research on bats in Namibia.

Fellow Bio:

Theresa ’10 is an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major at Princeton University. She originates from Ocean City, NJ, and has two younger sisters. At Princeton, Theresa was a member of the Women’s Rugby team, an Outdoor Action Leader, and a student manager in the Butler/Wilson dining hall. She spent a summer volunteering in a geriatric clinic in Cusco, Peru, with Awaiting Angels in 2007. Through Princeton, she studied abroad in Panama during the spring semester of 2009 and in Kenya for her senior spring semester of 2010. Theresa conducted her thesis research on crocodilian diets in the Peruvian Amazon during the summer of 2009. In Kenya next year, Theresa looks forward to picking up some Swahili and hopefully conducting more field research while learning more about the field work conducted in Mpala.

Fellow Bio:

Sarah is an alumnus from Swarthmore College who special majors in African Studies and minors in Environmental Science. She is from Cape Cod, but has always had a deep love for Africa. She studied abroad in Kenya with the School for Field Studies and later in Ghana through NYU. Sarah joined the Peace Corps in Cameroon after graduating in 2007. In Cameroon, she lived in a remote rainforest village promoting sustainable agricultural development and teaching English at the local high school. After completing  her service, Sarah came home to the US where she ate a great deal of cheese, enjoyed hot showers and worked as a field operations supervisor for the census while planning her return trip to the C.A.R.

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.

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!

Alumni Update:

Two years ago, Molly moved to central Maine with her husband, and has since started a new role as Chief Operating Officer for Maine’s Medicaid program.

Fellow Bio:

Molly ’10, from West Chester, PA, concentrated in the Wilson School at Princeton University with a certificate in Environmental Studies. At Princeton, she was president of the Triangle Club, the director of Manicure for the Cure, the vice president of Oxfam Princeton, and an active member of Greening Princeton and Tower Club. She spent her summer studying abroad in France, working at the Pennsylvania Governors School for International Studies, and working at the Millennium Challenge Cooperation. While in Dakar next year, Molly looks forward to improving her French, learning Wolof, and maybe seeing an elephant or two.

Alumni Update:

Mgbechi is currently a 3rd year medical student at the University of Iowa’s Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. Since her fellowship year, she has been working hard to finish medical school in hopes that she might return to the continent very soon! Mgbechi’s first published short story titled “Rabid Morula Seed” was conceived during her time in Botswana and is one of the stories that gained her an acceptance to the Iowa Writer’s Workshop for an MFA in fiction in the fall of 2014.

Fellow Bio:

Mgbechi completed her senior year in 2010 at Princeton University as a pre-medical student and Anthropology major with certificates in Creative Writing and African Studies. She is the eldest daughter of Nigerian parents and lives in Millstone, NJ.  Mgbechi is also the former president of Akwaaba, the Princeton African Student Association and received the Ward Prize for an internship with the New Yorker Magazine’s Function Department. While in Botswana next year, Mgbechi looks forward to finally connecting her dreams for Africa and global health with on-the-ground experience, and to forming new friendships with wonderful people (kids and grown-ups!).