2015 Scholars
Agree Ahmed:
Agree Ahmed is currently studying International Relations and perhaps Economics. After witnessing 9/11 occur while he was away on vacation in Kurdistan, Agree saw that politics ripples across borders and became fascinated with diplomacy. He is particularly interested in two fields: the intersection of international affairs and digital technology, and the study of genocide. In high school, Agree started his school’s policy debate team, which soon became nationally renowned. During his three years of national circuit policy debate, Agree argued in favor of Gas-Turbine-Modular-Helium-Reactors (the pinnacle of Generation IV nuclear technology), heroin-inclusive opioid assisted drug addiction centers (the harbinger of the failed international drug war), and an end to US military and police presence in Iraq (where he was born in the Kurdish region and left at the age of 4). To this day, Agree blames his scribbly shorthand, love of postmodernism, and bullet-point argumentation on his days in debate. On the weekends when Agree wasn’t traveling across the east coast to attend debate tournaments, he conducted his school’s marching band as its drum major. In 12th grade, Agree’s incredible teacher introduced him to the glorious world of economics, where all decisions are made on the margin. Agree went on to teach himself macroeconomics and international trade in order to compete in the Economics Challenge, where his team of 4 won the title of Maryland State Champions and ranked 9th in the national competition, out of a pool of 1500. He has since taken an active interest in the ethicality of economic systems and the economics of ethical systems. He spent the summer before his freshman year in Kurdistan, where he started a project on genocide recognition that attracted the attention of the chief prosecutor of Saddam Hussein and Chemical Ali during the Anfal trials as well as the Minister of Anfal and Martyr Affairs in the Kurdistan Regional Government. Agree currently mentors inner city youth in the Boston Urban Debate League and is working on myriad projects related to his interests. He was also one of 9 freshman to take EPIIC in 2011-2012, when he spent the year exploring Conflict in the 21st Century. His work culminated in a panel on Youth, Technology and the State, which he had the honor of moderating. When his nose isn’t crammed in a book, Agree likes to paint with pastels, hike, and maybe even play saxophone. He's fluent in Kurdish and conversant in Arabic and German.
Munir Atalla:
Munir Atalla is a freshman hoping to major in Cognitive Brain Science and International Literary and Visual Studies. According to his Wikipedia page, Munir’s birth was foretold by a swallow (African not European) and heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow that extended from Jerusalem, his ancestral homeland, to Houston, the city of his birth. Shortly thereafter, Munir moved to Amman, Jordan, where he spent a happy childhood. He graduated from the American Community School on the stone steps of Jerash. Munir owes several different role models and mentors for the blueprints of his character, but none of them more than his mother. His intellectual idol is the thinker Edward Said, and his artistic idol is the poet Mahmoud Darwish. Munir hopes to graduate in 2015, work in a big city, write a paperback, and fulfill at least one prophecy.
Valerie Cleland:
Valerie is originally from the great state of Oregon, but has lived on 3 continents so far. After being an exchange student in Costa Rica, she attended a United World College (UWC) in Wales where she completed the IB program before coming to Tufts. Her time at UWC was an entirely transformative experience where she was surrounding by international peers from over 80 countries. She fell in love with the ocean and the incredible potential of uniting an international community for a cause. At UWC, she was involved in creative writing, marine environmental service, and peer counseling.
She hopes to major in Environmental Science and either IR or Geology. At Tufts, she is doing the Tisch Scholars program as well as the Tufts Idea Exchange, rowing women’s crew, the Tufts Mountain Club, Tufts Wilderness Orientation, and is doing an internship for an environmental start up called Rising Green. She is looking for ways to combine her passion for the environment into different disciplines.
Beyond academics, she’s spent her summers backpacking the northwest, interning on political campaigns, and working at a youth leadership seminar. For the summer of 2012, she has been selected to go to the Swiss Alps to work with famous eco-explorer Mike Horn as well as doing an internship with Environment America. She loves being outside, cooking, great conversation, travel, and dreaming up different adventures.
Jeneice Collins:
Jeneice is from the Bronx, New York, but was born in Trinidad and Tobago. Her hobbies include exercising, volunteering, and shopping. She plans to major in biology and minor in Spanish. Her career goals include becoming an OB/GYN and a professor. She aspires to obtain my PHD, MD and to teach at a medical school. She also wants to return to Trinidad and build a hospital there. Jeneice loves working the public and advocating for human rights. Her interest in social justice issues was awakened during a summer program at Brown University’s Leadership Institute. While there, she learned about social justice issues throughout the world and felt the desire to continue her studies. As part of the program, she was required to do a project proposal. She decided to do her project on human trafficking and developed an attachment to the issue when she saw that it was affecting Trinidad. She wants to graduate being a well rounded person, therefore, she tries to get involved in a wide range of activities. Things that she has done in the past include interning at the Whitney Museum of American Art, volunteering at New York Presbyterian Hospital, participating in the Youth About Business Program at Columbia University and tutoring children through READ Tutoring. Jeneice lives by the quote “everything happens for a reason.”
Carlota Fernandez-Tubau Rullo:
Carlota Fernández-Tubau Rullo is a member of the Tufts Class of 2015 majoring in International Relations, with a thematic concentration on Africa, and in Peace and Justice Studies. In addition to being a Synaptic Scholar, Carlota is a Citizenship and Public Service Scholar at the Tisch College.
Carlota was born in Madrid, Spain, in the summer solstice of 1993. Her commitment to active citizenship and social justice issues began at the age of 14, when she became a mentor to socially excluded children of prisoners and substance-abusing families, in an effort to contribute to the development of their personal and emotional self-confidence. At age 15, hungry for action, hope, and a socially engaged community, Carlota applied for a scholarship to attend United World Colleges. After a rigorous selection process, she was chosen by the National Committee of Spain to attend UWC of the Adriatic, in Italy. There, Carlota was granted the opportunity to live with an incredible group of talented people from over 80 different nationalities and cultures from whom she was always ready to learn about the world.
In the following two years, Carlota facilitated workshops for high school students on constructive engagement in conflict and traveled to United Arab Emirates, where she led community mapping workshops and worked toward achieving healthcare and educational equity. Carlota also volunteered for a non-profit organization in sustainable local projects in Kibera and Murang’a, Kenya, addressing key global issues such as health, education and the eradication of poverty.
In addition, with the purpose of promoting intercultural understanding, combating racism issues, and integrating immigrants into society, Carlota designed, founded and developed a social action project for asylum seekers placed in the detention centre C.A.R.A (Centro di Accoglienza per I Richiedenti Asilo) in Gradisca, Italy. Now, the project continues to expand its work in advocating for human rights, creating a collective conscience and collaborating with families on claims for international protection through the collection and publication of their accounts, stories and histories.
At Tufts, Carlota is an active member of the Refugee Assistance Program (TU-RAP) and a member of the sustainable development group BUILD, Building Understanding through International Leadership and Development. She is also a member of the Institute for Global Leadership's 2011-2012 Program for Narrative and Documentary Practice, an immersive program where students identify specific stories that can act as vehicles to explain larger, complex issues. Her work draws on video, photography and writing to highlight social injustices and advocate for social responsibility. As part of the program, this summer, Carlota will be going to Burma to continue expanding her social documentary work.
Genesis Garcia:
"Genesis Garcia is a rising sophomore here at Tufts most likely majoring in American Studies with a minor in Education. She was born and raised in Providence, RI and it was through her junior and senior year at her private high school, the Wheeler School, that she became interested in issues of social justice by attending conferences hosted by the Association of Independent Schools (AISNE), Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) in San Diego, and being an active participant in Wheeler's Unity & Diversity programs. Being a Latina from a low-income background, she has come to appreciate the privileges she's acquired through prestigious institutions like Wheeler and Tufts and has now dedicated her time to addressing the political, economic, and social inequalities within educational systems and education reform. She is currently an e-board member for the Tufts Education Society (TES) through which she is working on an art exhibit (which will go up May 1st, 2012) using photography to display the inequalities between schools of different environments. It was also through the Tufts Education Society that she was able to attend the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign in Washington D.C. this past December where she joined the fight to make education a civil right. Genesis is also a member of the Association of Latin American Students (ALAS) and a student ambassador for the Office of Intercultural and Identities Programs (ISIP).
As an aspiring teacher and leader of a non-profit organization, she is currently an employee for Tufts Literacy Corps (TLC) where she tutors elementary school children in reading, writing, and math. She is also teaching this summer for "Providence Summerbridge," a program under the national "Breakthrough Collaborative" dedicated to bridging the educational gap for underprivileged middle-schoolers, a program that she attended herself when she was in 6th and 7th grade.
Genesis is also an active member of the Drama community here at Tufts, plays intramural Futsal, runs her own part-time photography business called "Photo Genesis Photography" in Providence, RI, and also sings, songwriter, and plays acoustic guitar."
Arshiya Goel:
Arshiya Goel is a part of the Tufts Class of 2015. She has grown up in many parts of the world including, the UAE, India, Nigeria, Singapore and when she’s not studying in Boston, she visits her family who is currently living in South Africa. She did the International Baccalaureate at the United World College in Singapore. At Tufts, she spends her time dancing with Tufts Tamasha, an all girl Bollywood fusion team. She is planning on majoring in Biology with a possible double major in community health. She’s most interested in conservation biology and ecology, a passion that sprouted from biology field trips to Malaysia. Her interests also include psychology and international relations. Arshiya also loves languages; she has studied French extensively and has also taught herself Korean. Her international experience has led her to become addicted to travelling and learning about new cultures. Her primary interests lie in working with animals and she has volunteered with organizations such as the ‘Free the Bears Sanctuary’ in Cambodia and the ‘Bird Gardens’ in Johannesburg, South Africa. In the future, Arshiya hopes that she can work to combine her interests and do something that gives back to the community, especially at home in Africa.
Wan Hao:
A member of the class 2015, Wan Hao plans to major in two of the three concentrations: Computer Science, Philosophy, and Quantitative Economics. Born in Henan Province, China, he was fortunate enough to explore the rural areas during almost every summer break. Fried cicada was his favorite dish, while he was also fascinated with cooking corn with only bricks, matches and withered grass. In the year of 2006, he embarked on a journey to study in Singapore under a government scholarship. Thanks to this opportunity, his worldview was enriched by new perspectives. It was at that time when he began to favor books by Alexander Dumas, on political paradigms and about philosophy. Yet, at their first glance, people might still regard him as a typical math and science student. He likes to play Chinese Chess. Strategic thinking under stressful competition conditions never fails to stimulate his excitement. While he was nostalgic to leave the warm island, in 2012, he decided to continue his pilgrim in the land of liberty.
Tufts is a perfect green house for him. It is there where he begins to find out the beauty of calculus, where he has realized his wish to explore neuroscience, and where he is currently applying evolutionary model and replicator dynamics to model social behaviors in a dancing party. Besides academics, he enjoys working for the Center of Engineering Education and Outreach as a Research Intern. Together with his bright and inspiring colleagues, he is working on projects that serve to promote engineering education among high school children. At his spare time, he makes video clips. While he does not play any musical instrument, these video clips are his melodies.
He likes to ponder over the future. One of his existent life goals is to travel to the less traveled corners on the planet with some interesting minds. As for career, he doesn't know; hopefully, his work is something that feels like playing chess.
James Kiefner:
James Kiefner is a member of the Class of 2015 hoping to double major in Psychology and Spanish, with a minor in Chinese. He is very interested in human cognition, especially in regards to social interactions, and hopes to concentrate in social psychology, criminology, or forensics.
A graduate of Bishop Brady High School in Concord, NH, he has been taking advantage of New England's natural and cultural beauty for years. He is an avid hiker and kayaker and enjoys the raucous Boston area community. His passion for interdisciplinary learning through experience has led him on many different paths; in high school, he was a Junior Olympian saber fencer and instructor (a passion he continues on the Tufts Men's Fencing Team), a practitioner of several traditional and modern martial arts, a jazz and folk drummer, and an actor (which he also continues to practice in and around Tufts). He also helped coordinate support at the local cold weather homeless shelter for a year, an invaluable experience in terms of community service and social cognition. On the same token, he has traveled to San Jose Villanueva, El Salvador, with San Jose-based Epilogos Charities to work as an interpreter, ESL teacher, and manual laborer.
Since arriving at Tufts in Fall 2011, Kiefner has joined the US Army ROTC based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, been inducted into the National Society of Pershing Rifles in December 2011, and contracted to the US Army in February 2012. Upon graduating from Tufts, he will be commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. Based partly on this passion for serving his country, Kiefner hopes to join the Military Intelligence community and later the FBI, putting his anticipated knowledge of social psychology to good use. He is very excited to explore the varied opportunities offered by the Synaptic Scholars over the next three years.
Tara Kola:
Tara Kola is a freshman at Tufts University majoring in Biology and Computer Science. Having recently moved to Boston from Bangalore, she was heavily involved with TED in India, having volunteered for TED India and INK. She organized TEDxTISB, a youth-focused TEDx that brought together 700+ students from throughout India. She was also on the organizing team of Vivum, India's largest interscholastic youth conference focused on developing youth projects and ideas through a 3-day, high energy series of events, competitions, and panels. With an interest in design, she also co-founded the design firm CMYK Dynamic in high school with a friend currently at RISD. CMYK Dynamic focuses on developing low-cost design solutions for youth initiatives that generally have a lack of access to such services. CMYK Dynamic continues to take on diverse projects. Tara is also a fellow with the Compass Fellowship for social entrepreneurship, and a Student Ambassador for Tufts' Alumni Relations. She currently works at a drug delivery lab under the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program. Her hobbies include running, reading, and exploring Boston's eateries and libraries.
Akshay Savlani:
Akshay Savlani is a member of the class of 2015 and was born in Seoul, South Korea. He attended high school in Singapore at the United World College of South East Asia, graduating with an International Baccalaureate diploma. At Tufts he is planning to major in Economics and Philosophy with a minor in Entrepreneurial Studies. Akshay is an avid scuba diver having spent the last summer working as a dive-master in Bali, Indonesia. This is where his interest in marine conservation and sustainable tourism began. He participated in the PADI Project AWARE program, where he received further knowledge and experience in reef survey techniques and coral gardening. Akshay is also an executive board member of the Tufts Financial Group and participated in the Model United Nations program. He enjoys photography, playing basketball, reading and spending time with friends. His dream job would be to spend time working on a live-aboard dive cruise as a scuba diving instructor.
Yijia Wang:
Yijia Wang is a freshman at Tufts University currently majoring in Quantitative Economics. Born and raised in Hangzhou, China for eighteen years and went to an US university, she has been always interested in US-China relations, especially in the field of economics and social welfare. Passionate in enhancing the living condition of people in rural areas of China, she is hoping to use her social science knowledge of social enterprise and economics to build up a business platform between China and US, improving the poverty in remote areas in China. In her high school years, she has been involved and directed several volunteer trip and lecture tours for Chinese NGO field to raise the awareness of Chinese high school students being active citizens. She enjoys photography, graphic design and also playing accordion in her free times, and one of her most important reasons for going back to China after graduation is that she loves Chinese food.