Olivia graduated from Columbia University with a BA in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) and Environmental Science. She wrote an honors thesis on stand-up comedy in East Africa entitled, “Laughing with Redykyulass: Critical Comedy in Moi’s Kenya.” She speaks French and Spanish fluently, and is currently focused on improving her Swahili and Turkish. Before college, Olivia spent a year in Paraguay living with a local family and volunteering full-time at a daycare for low-income children. Olivia has also had the opportunity to spend two summers in Africa, during one of them she studied Swahili in Kenya after being awarded a FLAS language scholarship. At Columbia, Olivia has been a member of GlobeMed in which she has organized fundraisers for global health issues and learned about grassroots global health organizations. Olivia also worked as a research assistant at the Earth Institute throughout her undergraduate career. In her first role, she assisted with the development of a systems thinking framework to enable African policymakers to choose relevant anti-malaria interventions. Her most recent project involved examining maize yield variability in African smallholder farms. Olivia is excited for work with the WFP as well as exploring Kampala and picking up some Luganda!

Alumni Update:

A couple of years ago, Chinook switched from a career of commercial helicopter piloting to being a high school teacher. Chinook works in a small rural school in BC and is halfway through her Masters of Arts in Education.

Neha Dubli graduated with degrees in Anthropology and Public Health. While at NYU, she was part of a social justice group called, Project Reach, a member of Be a Change maker Reynolds Scholar Program and started her own non-profit. Since graduation, Neha has had the chance to work with Feed Projects, and is currently working with GBCHealth. GBCHealth is the global business coalition on global health, and the private sector for the Global Fund. In Uganda, Neha is looking forward to having new African adventures like those she experienced in Ghana. She is eager to learn new local languages, traditional recipes for her food blog and endless adventures with new friends.

Nava graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in Religion and African Studies. Following graduation, she served as Program Assistant at the World Faiths Development Dialogue, an NGO working at the intersection of religion and international development. At WFDD, she co-wrote a report on religion and international family planning, spearheaded and organized a conference with Ashoka: Innovators for the Public on religion and social entrepreneurship, and designed and executed a study on faith-inspired alternative care for Kenyan orphans and vulnerable children.  As a student, Nava worked and conducted research in Uganda and Kenya and started an initiative to sell social enterprise products on Princeton’s campus. She is excited to go back to Uganda to promote and protect children’s rights and development, learn Luganda, and have a chance to do some of the “touristy” stuff!

Alumni Update:

Abby is continuing her work in College Access as a Partnership Coordinator with CollegeSpring. Her work focuses on ensuring the successful implementation of their program in underserved schools across New York City.

Fellow Bio:

Abby graduated from Franklin and Marshall College, a Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude with a joint major in Government and Psychology and a minor in Africana Studies. Born and raised in Nigeria, she migrated to the U.S in 2007. Prior to undergrad, her experiences as an immigrant led her to become interested in issues regarding education, human rights, immigration, and refugee policies. During her time at F&M, she volunteered with the ESL classes held for middle school refugee students. She continued her work with this population in Lancaster through an internship at the Refugee Center near F&M. In her role she helped plan and recruit refugee students for the English summer immersion program. She also helped with planning and facilitating workshops for refugee parents. In her senior year of college she conducted research on the human rights conditions in Mali and Guatemala. Her research allowed her to put together an evidentiary packet and legal brief on behalf of an asylum seeker from Guatemala. Morufat is excited to continue to learn more about the field of education, immigration, and refugee policy making during her time in Uganda as a Princeton in Africa Fellow.

Alumni Update:

After returning from Uganda, Michaela worked at an International Affairs NGO in Prague, facilitating informal business talks between South and North Korea at that time. She later moved to Oxford in England, where she stumbled upon a job in technology transfer for Oxford University. She then did her Master’s in Geneva, Switzerland, including a semester exchange at the Fletcher School in Boston. Following her graduation she finally moved back to Slovakia (initially for a year or two) and ended up loving it. She’s a co-founder of the biggest startup event/competition in Slovakia, called the StartupAwards.SK which is now in its fifth year. She works full-time as an investment manager at Neulogy Ventures, the first regulated seed and VC fund in Slovakia. Unfortunately, due to their investment restrictions, no investments in Africa yet, but it’s in the works! She is in regular touch with her friends and adoptive family in both Uganda and Kenya. She also helps fund an orphanage in Nairobi and works as a part-time dilettante advisor to her TV news reporter brother, who travels to East Africa frequently to cover development aid projects run by Slovak NGOs.

Alumni Update:

Since his fellowship Mike has revisited Africa a number of times for work and study. His most recent trip was last March to Kenya to study the country’s aviation industry as part of research for his thesis at Oxford, from which he graduated in July with a master’s in African Studies. He’s also passionate about government innovation, which is the focus of his current work at Bloomberg Philanthropies in New York City.

Fellow Bio:

Mike Scharff ’08 is a politics major from Far Hills, NJ. At Princeton, Mike was president of the Princeton Nassoons, Princeton’s oldest all-male a cappella group. Mike was also a member of the University Glee Club, and performed the leading role of the Count in the Department of Music’s production of The Marriage of Figaro. A devoted camper, Mike looks forward to his experience working with the International Rescue Committee in Uganda.

Originally from Toronto, Canada, Meredith graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, majoring in International Political Economy with a Certificate in International Business Diplomacy. While at Georgetown, Meredith interned for the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Parvati Swayamrojgar microfinance in India, the Independent newsmagazine in Uganda, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the US-India Business Council within the US Chamber of Commerce, and the international brokerage firm Auerbach Grayson & Co. She has studied abroad in Durban, South Africa and Pune, India. While in Uganda this year, Meredith looks forward to returning to her favorite Kampala restaurants, traveling in East Africa, and learning about infrastructure development in frontier markets through her work with eleQtra.

Meital Kupfer graduated in 2017 from the George Washington University with a BA in International Affairs, focusing on International Development.  Meital spent a semester in Kampala, Uganda. During her time in Uganda, Meital spent two months in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement as an Education Intern for Action Africa Help – Uganda. There, she also conducted an independent case study on the structure and quality of Kyangwali’s education system. She has interned for Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro in Washington, D.C., focusing research on paid maternal leave and trade agreements for legislative assistants. She was an Advocacy and Government Relations Intern for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), tracking congressional legislation, writing memos, and advocating for refugee resettlement in the field of government relations. She was a  Protections Intern at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Washington, D.C. handling asylum seekers’ cases. She was a Virtual Student Foreign Service intern for the USAID Economic Growth office in Kampala, Uganda, proofreading communications and conducting strategic stakeholder analysis on donors.  Lastly, she was an executive board member of the No Lost Generation chapter at GW, a campus initiative partnered with the State Department aimed at providing quality education for refugee youth.  In her free time, Meital enjoys hiking, reading, and going to concerts. She is looking forward to returning to Uganda as a Fellow!

Alumni Update:

Meghan is continuing her work in sustainable supply chains, as the Avocado Category Lead at Equal Exchange, a fair trade importing business. She is based in Boston and travels to Mexico and Peru to meet with their small farmer suppliers.

Fellow Bio:

Meghan graduated with degrees in International Relations and Economics. While at Tufts, she expanded upon her academic understanding of international development as a member of BUILD: India, a student-led sustainable development group. Meghan traveled to India twice to plan and implement a community composting toilet project and to conduct research about the role of microenterprises in community development. Since graduating, she has served as a researcher at the Center for Green Buildings and Cities at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She investigates patterns and motivations of the sustainability and transparency of corporate policies. Excited by the intersection of food and agriculture, sustainability, and small business, Meghan is excited to be joining Village Enterprise as a Monitoring and Evaluation Fellow. She is particularly looking forward to being able to work directly with producers and to the challenge of gardening in a new climate!