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2014-15 Project 55 Fellows On the Path To Civic Leadership
2014-15 Project 55 Fellows
On the Path To Civic Leadership
Anne Brown is originally from West Barnstable, MA. Anne majored in Classics at Princeton Uni-versity and studied Latin and Classical Greek.
She is very interested in education, public policy, and law. She is looking forward to the opportunity to learn more about education and civic engagement through Princeton Project 55. In her free time, Anne enjoys reading literature and spending time outdoors.
Anne Brown ’13 Community Day Charter Public School
Amali Gunawardana, the youngest of three girls, was born in New York and grew up in NJ. Amali majored in Psychology at Princeton Uni-
versity and also received a certificate in Jazz Studies (for vo-cals). She plans to pursue a career in medicine. She is enthusi-astic about all types of public service - especially education and medicine - as well as philanthropy. She is incredibly passionate about helping others, and loves working with children, which makes her P55 fellowship a perfect fit!
Amali Gunawardana ’14 Community Day Charter Public School
BOSTON
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Matt Gwin was born in the Chicago area, but moved when he was young to rural Ohio , where he grew up on a small family-run 9-hole golf
course. He majored at psychology at Princeton, and he is spe-cifically interested in how to use psychological and decision-making research to inform better programs, businesses, and ser-vices to improve people's lives. He speaks Swahili, and traveled to East Africa three times during his Princeton career, first for an immersive summer Swahili program and later for senior thesis research. Matt is a scratch golfer and also enjoys basketball and baseball. He enjoys writing, hunting, and playing guitar. He is very excited about his Princeton Project 55 fellowship with North Lawndale Employment Network.
Matthew Gwin ’14 North Lawndale Employment Network
CHICAGO
Katrina, an Alaska-grown transplant to the Chi-cago area, studied public policy and environ-mental science at Princeton. She is passionate
about energy efficiency and grateful for the opportunity to work with Elevate Energy in this area. She enjoys reading, baking, and running, although for her "running" is often just an excuse/means to explore the surrounding area, rather than an intense workout. She is looking forward to exploring the trials in and around Chicago.
Katrina Hall ’14 Elevate Energy
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Jake Jackson hails from Cincinnati, Ohio, and looks forward to moving back to his Midwestern roots. Jake was a Woodrow Wilson School major
at Princeton, and has focused mostly on international relations and policy, specifically on human rights and development. He recently has taken an interest in domestic policy, particularly education policy's ability to have large positive effects on the US, and can't wait to dive in to it at Chicago Public Schools. For fun, Jake loves a good book, watching a movie or a football game, and playing with his dog in the park.
Jake Jackson ’13 Chicago Public Schools - Office of New Schools
Caleb is a Class of 2014 Politics major at Prince-ton. His hometown is a tiny town called Metropolis about five hours south of Chicago. He is interested
in pursuing a career in journalism or perhaps politics and policy. He enjoys hockey and baseball and is excited to be living in Chi-cago, one of his favorite places.
Caleb Kennedy ’14 Illinois State Board of Education
Chelsea Mayo, hailing from Columbia, Maryland, has varied interests including literature, the arts, and psychology. She graduated from Princeton as
an English major. She aspires to become a practicing child psy-chologist or counselor. She is excited to contribute as a Prince-ton Project 55 fellow to a public service organization committed to doing difficult but important (and inspiring) work. Chelsea is eager to continue encouraging and empowering children and adolescents through academic, social, or emotional support, now and in the future. In her spare time she loves to paint and draw, though she craves more opportunities to explore new places and cultures in the US and abroad.
Chelsea Mayo ’14 Umoja
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Sheng Zhou was born in Beijing, but grew up in the northern suburbs of Detroit, MI. Sheng ma-jored in Chemistry at Princeton and strongly believes in the power of science, business, and
policy to expand access to care. He is excited to play a small role in delivering healthcare in inner-city Chicago and learn more about how hospitals operate. Beyond his academic interests, Sheng is also an avid photographer, foodie, and musician.
Sheng Zhou ’14 Lawndale Christian Health Center
The eldest of three, Alexandria Perry was born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in Canton, Ohio. She stud-
ied Anthropology and African American Studies at Princeton Uni-versity, graduating in 2013. In her spare time, Alex enjoys read-ing and watching television. She is inspired and amazed by vari-ous art forms and creative expressions. Her most recent and de-veloping interest is poetry. She is excited to contribute and learn as much as she can during her fellowship with the Better Boys Foundation. She is still trying to truly grasp issues of race, class, and identity and hopes her fellowship experience will be an inte-gral part of this learning process.
Alex Perry ’14 Better Boys Foundation
Maddy Woodle is excited to start her second Princeton Project 55 fellowship at the National Equity Fund, where she will be working on community development in distressed neighbor-hoods. This past year, she had a crash course in education pol-icy and state politics at the Illinois State Board of Education. Originally from Bellport, New York, Maddy studied Politics and African Studies at Princeton. As an undergraduate, she studied abroad in South Africa and Ghana and led backpacking trips through Outdoor Action. For fun, Maddy enjoys running, hiking, baking, and finding good falafel.
Maddy Woodle ’13 National Equity Fund, Inc.
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Damali James, a 2014 Woodrow Wilson School graduate with certificates in African American Studies and Latin American Studies,
sees her life through movement. Born in Canada to Jamaican parents and living in Florida and California in her younger years, Damali studied and worked abroad for several months during her Princeton career. While on campus, she danced with the Black Arts Company: Dance. Her passion for social justice and civic engagement have guided her studies while her inclination toward exploration has led to professional development. Through her Project 55 fellowship, she hopes to move forward bridging the gap between interests and professional development.
Suchana Costa graduated from Princeton with a B.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Suchana was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, grew up in Arlington, Virginia, and has thor-
oughly enjoyed traveling to as many cool places as she could during her time at Princeton. She most recently conducted re-search in Panama to study the impact of herbivory on symbiotic N2-fixers in young recovering tropical rainforest. Though she will miss going abroad to study strangely specific topics, she is ex-tremely excited to learn about and to contribute to solving the nation's housing crisis through her Project 55 fellowship.
Suchana Costa ’14 Housing Development Fund
CONNECTICUT
Damali James ’14 Housing Development Fund
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Sally Butler hails from Toronto, Ontario. At Princeton, she majored in English while pursu-ing a certificate in Global Health & Health Policy.
Her passions are medicine and writing, and her goal is to com-bine both as she pursues a career that she hopes have a consid-erable impact on health and quality of life. Beyond medicine, her passions include sports, travel, and cooking. She was on the Varsity Women's Ice Hockey Team at Princeton and hopes con-tinue playing hockey in New York. She also loves all things Ca-nadian, including (but in no way limited to) the great outdoors, maple syrup, Don Cherry, and snow.
Sally Butler ’14 Reach Out and Read of Greater New York
Moriah Akers grew up in small town Appalachian Ohio and is brazenly pursuing big city life. She fancies herself an adventurous spirit open to try-
ing anything and everything at least once! She loves (but knows little about) opera and has been having an intense affair with rich food for twenty-one years. She is very enthusiastic about work-ing with the recruitment team at Achievement First and looks for-ward to wholeheartedly dedicating her talents to the pursuit of equal educational opportunity.
Moriah Akers ’14 Achievement First
NEW YORK
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Sarah Craig, the oldest of three children, is from Bethesda, Maryland. She majored in the Wood-row Wilson School at Princeton University and received a certificate in Environmental Studies.
Sarah is interested in law and public service, and she hopes to attend law school after her fellowship with Princeton Project 55. On the side, Sarah enjoys running, singing, and playing la-crosse.
Sarah Craig ’14 New York County District Attorney’s Office
A native of Los Angeles and lover of people as well as the hustle and bustle of city, Chloe Che-ney-Rice is excited to be working at Association to Benefit Children in New York City. Chloe ma-
jored in Sociology at Princeton University and minored in African American Studies as well as dance. She is thrilled to continue her passions in public service and dance in New York for her year as a PP55 Fellow.
Chloe Cheney-Rice ’14 Association to Benefit Children
Bernice Fokum is the oldest of four children and the daughter of Bernard and Dr. Frida Fokum. She is from Springfield, IL and came to Princeton with a passion for social justice, but was not entirely sure what exactly that entailed. She spent her Princeton years studying anthropology, global health & health policy, and participating in a plethora of activities that included mentoring, Latin dancing, acting, Christian fellowship, and, more than any-thing, service. She committed most hours in her week to serving the communities around her as a Spanish-English translator at the local clinic, tutoring for English as a Second Language. Addi-tionally, she studied abroad in Cuba and Spain and pursued other educational adventures across East and West Africa. She
Bernice Fokum ’14 New York Center for Child Development
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Leora Friedman grew up in Baltimore, Mary-land and is the youngest of three children. She majored in Politics at Princeton, because she wanted to learn about global problems and
methods of solving them through governments and other institu-tions. At Princeton, she gained an interest in social entrepreneur-ship by developing a nonprofit organization she co-founded in 2009 called Music is Medicine (www.musicismed.org). She is also a singer and songwriter herself, loves meeting new people and hearing their stories, and is excited to move to a new city and to learn more about different cause areas through the Rockefeller Foundation's work as well as their inspiring dedica-tion to innovation.
Leora Friedman ’14 The Rockefeller Foundation
Lukas Gaffney was born and raised in Newton, Massachusetts. At Princeton, Lukas majored in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with certifi-
cates in Spanish and Latin American Studies and during his time at Princeton he studied in Spain, Bolivia, Panama, and Colom-bia. Lukas is inspired by children and hopes that this fellowship is just the start of a long career of working with them, ultimately, he hopes, in a medical setting. In his free time, Lukas enjoys backpacking, exploring the outdoors, playing piano, and running.
Lukas Gaffney ’14 New Alternatives for Children
looks forward to bringing all that she has learned through her activities and her travels to her fellowship at the New York Cen-ter for Child Development, where she will be working with one of the most important issues of our time: mental health.
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Molly Gibson grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, and is very excited to be moving to the other end
of the Metro North line this summer. She majored in Compara-tive Literature at Princeton, earning a certificate in African Ameri-can Studies. Having played music in many settings from a young age, she is eager to work with Education Through Music to de-velop high-quality music education programs in New York public schools. A former DJ at WPRB, Molly is always seeking out new music, and looks forward to spending to exploring new venues in the city next year.
Molly Gibson ’14 Education Through Music, Inc.
Lelabari Giwa-Ojuri comes from Los Angeles, California. She majored in Comparative Politics and obtained a certificate in Near Eastern Stud-ies. Before attending Princeton, she participated
in the Princeton Bridge Year Program in Serbia. She is an avid rugby player, novice power lifter and loves to make puzzles. Le-labari is passionate about LGBT activism, interfaith dialogue, conflict resolution and non-profit work. She is extremely excited to work for CASES and learn more about the criminal justice sys-tem and prison alternatives!
Lelabari Giwa-Ojuri ’14 CASES
Imani Oliver is the youngest of 3 children. She and her parents, who are of Jamaican descent, live in Brooklyn, NY. At Princeton, she majored
in Psychology and earned certificates in both African American Studies and African Studies. Research for both her junior and
Imani Oliver ’14 Bard College, Early College Network
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Chideraa Ukeje is a child of many cultures, hav-ing lived in London and Chicago with her Nige-rian family. Chideraa majored in WWS at Prince-ton while completing her pre-medical studies,
which created a nice bridge between her interests in health and policy. Chideraa has wanted to be a Project 55 fellow since she was a sophomore, and is really excited that her desire has been fulfilled. She looks forward to participating in the PP55 fellowship and contributing to public service initiatives.
Chideraa Ukeje ’14 New York Academy of Medicine
Ashley Vinson was born and raised in Ewing, New Jersey, just over 20 minutes south of Princeton University, where she majored in Psychology and earned a certificate in Linguis-
tics. While she enjoyed her studies, her goal was never to be in a lab. Rather, after spending her Bridge Year in Serbia between high school and her freshman year at Princeton (her first time outside of the United States), working with Roma children for education and a right to childhood, she realized just how much she wanted to work toward something that involved helping
Ashley Vinson ’14 CASES
senior independent research projects focused on urban educa-tion and teacher training. She wrote her senior thesis on ways that Princeton can improve its Teaching Assistant training pro-grams to benefit students from lower income and minority back-grounds. Outside of her academic life she was a very successful member of the Women's Track and Field team as a Triple Jumper. She is an Honorable Mention All-America athlete at Na-tionals, served as the captain her senior year, and captured 3 school records while on the team (indoor and outdoor triple jump and outdoor long jump). Imani plans to continue her training next year professionally while working with the fellowship, and hopes to qualify for the Olympic Trials, and subsequently Rio 2016.
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SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA
Etienne Gallant was born in Montreal and has lived in Belgium, Paris, Connecticut, Maryland, and finally calls Novato, California home. Etienne majored in Chemistry at Princeton Uni-
versity and studied algal-bacterial symbioses and the toxins pro-duced from such interactions in the lab of Mohammad Seyed-sayamdost. His work in this biochemistry lab has fueled his inter-est in the intersection between research and medicine. Team-work and community involvement are core to Etienne's beliefs, emerging partly from four years on the Princeton University Rugby Football Club as well as three years involved with Engi-neering Projects in Community Service, where he would repair pendulum clocks from the offices of various faculty and staff around Princeton's campus. Etienne welcomes the opportunity to conduct research in the area of healthcare as offered through his fellowship with Princeton Project 55, and strives to continue this sort of work in the future. On the side, Etienne is an avid baritone saxophonist and novice home brewer.
Etienne Gallant ’14 UCSF Breast Care Center
people and their situations, always emphasizing the value of hu-man connection. Her current focus is on incarceration issues, and she is strongly considering following up her fellowship with CASES with the necessary steps to become a permanent teacher in a prison. In her free time, Ashley loves to explore, play board games, slackline (terribly), and is at her core an avid Latin dancer.
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Tess O'Meara is excited to join the Princeton Project 55 community and to work with innova-tive doctors who are redefining the standards
for clinical care and research. Hailing from Dallas, TX, Tess ma-jored in Molecular Biology at Princeton University and pursued certificates in Neuroscience and Portuguese Language and Cul-ture. In the future, she hopes to attend medical school and to study the most pressing health issues in Brazil and other rapidly developing Latin American countries. Tess enjoys dance of all kinds, practicing the piano, and spending time with friends.
Tess O'Meara ’14 UCSF Breast Care Center
Prihatha was born in South India but spent most of her childhood in Pleasanton, California. At Princeton, she majored in the Wilson School with
a certificate in Global Health & Health Policy; she hopes to pur-sue a career in medicine that combines practice with public health research and advocacy. In her free time, Prihatha enjoys reading and writing about current affairs, feminism, and litera-ture; playing tennis; and cooking.
Prihatha Narasimmaraj ’14 UCSF Breast Care Center
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Hailing from the booming metropolis of Acworth, GA, Rachel Buckle majored in psychology with a certificate in gender and sexuality studies at Princeton. She’s excited to gain some insight into the dynamic world of health care reform through
her Project 55 fellowship and apply these insights to a future ca-reer in medicine and public health. In her free time, Rachel en-joys volunteering, doing yoga, cooking, and reading excessive amounts of pop culture criticism.
Rachel Buckle ’13 National Coalition on Health Care
WASHINGTON, DC
As a California native, Evaline Cheng majored in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University where she studied abroad in Panama, volunteered at a rural clinic in Sierra Leone, and
backpacked in Madagascar for thesis research. She is interested in global health and conservation, and hopes to engage with public health and health policy through her Princeton Project 55 fellowship. Evaline loves spoken word and all things related to the great outdoors, including climbing, hiking, backpacking, bik-ing, and dogs. She is always open to hearty laughter, good con-versations, and a training partner for any adventure/endurance races.
Evaline Cheng ’14 National Coalition on Health Care
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A native of Chagrin Falls, OH, Connor Clegg graduated from Chagrin Falls High School in 2010. While he majored in Politics with a concen-tration in American Politics, Connor also focused
on courses in public policy, history and religion. Connor was a member of the Princeton varsity football team, playing defensive end for two years before taking on a student-manger role after injuries. He joined Cannon Dial Elm Club as a founding member during his sophomore year and served as the inaugural presi-dent until spring of his senior year. In addition to his interest in athletic pursuits, Connor found a passion in politics during his four years at Princeton. In the summer of 2012, he interned for the campaign offices of Vice-Chair of the Democratic Caucus Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY) leading up to the primary and gen-eral election seasons. The following summer, Connor interned for the Chicago-based public affairs firm Jasculca Terman Stra-tegic Communications. Looking forward, Connor would like to work in the policy world, most likely back in his home state of Ohio.
Connor Clegg ’14 American Constitution Society for Law and Policy
Suchita Mandavilli, from West Simsbury, CT, has always loved the big questions, which is exactly what drew her to concentrate in political philosophy while at Princeton University. She is
eager to continue exploring the answers to these questions in a more practical way by delving into the public interest world and learning how to best ensure that others are able to live the good life. She is especially passionate about human rights and women's issues. In her free time, Suchita can usually be found doing crosswords, writing, or reading.
Suchita Mandavilli ’14 EveryoneOn
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Molly O'Neill is from New Canaan, Connecticut and has pursued her love of the arts and humani-ties during her time at Princeton. Concentrating
in Classics with a certificate in creative writing, she was also in-volved in student-run theater and led trips for Princeton Outdoor Action. Inspired by her teaching and leadership experiences on campus, she is tremendously excited to learn more about public service in the education sector. In her free time, Molly loves to read, write, run, and explore the outdoors.
Amber Petty was born and raised in Washington, DC. Amber majored in Anthropology at Princeton and received a certificate in African American
Studies. During her undergraduate career she began studying Portuguese language and culture and was able to study abroad in both Portugal and Brazil. Inspired by her love of culture, Am-ber hopes to attend graduate school, specializing in international
Molly O'Neill ’14 AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation
Aria Miles is from Mitchellville, Maryland. Dur-ing her time at Princeton, Aria majored in Op-erations Research and Financial Engineering.
Her passions for community, youth, mentorship, service, and education come from her upbringing and the work that she has done through Princeton’s Bridge Year Program and in her extra-curricular activities on campus. Aria enjoys learning about new cultures and exploring new places. She plans to teach math and eventually become a school principal. Additionally, Aria likes line dancing and trying new recipes, and she is looking forward to these and all of the other opportunities that being close to the Washington, D.C. area will bring.
Aria Miles ’14 Center City Public Charter
Amber Petty ’14 EveryoneOn
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Daniel Yeboah-Kordieh is originally from Ghana in West Africa. He grew up in Accra, which is still his permanent residence. Prior to Princeton University, he attended the United World Col-
lege, a boarding high school comprised of students from all over the world. At Princeton, he majored in Molecular Biology with an emphasis on bioinformatics. He is a technology enthusiast and hopes to combine his interests in science and technology to help develop low-cost, life-saving drugs in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry. He is thrilled to have the chance to get the right start working on drug development at Aeras as a Pro-ject 55 fellow. Outside the classroom, he is an avid soccer player and an amateur chess player.
Daniel Yeboah-Kordieh ’14 Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation
Cathy Zaragoza was born in Los Angeles and graduated from Princeton in 2012 with a de-gree in Art History and a certificate in Spanish Language and Culture. After graduation she
served in Los Angeles and Washington DC as a site coordinator and AmeriCorps Fellow with a national nonprofit literacy organi-zation called Reading Partners, where she furthered her commit-ment to supporting underserved communities. She has a pas-sion for education and is dedicated to closing the achievement gap through her fellowship with Princeton Project 55. She is also a proud children's book aficionado and a budding indoor-gardener.
Catherine Zaragoza ’12 Achievement Prep
affairs, and begin a career in International policy and cultural re-lations. On the side, Amber is an avid sports fan and loves to contribute to sports blogs.
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Princeton AlumniCorps 12 Stockton Street
Princeton, NJ 08540
www.alumnicorps.org 609.921.8808
Princeton Project 55 Fellowships
are made possible by dedicated area committees and local volunteers, generous donors,
and highly effective partner organizations. Thank you for your shared effort.
