2012-2013 EPIIC Colloquium Members
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SAMA ABDUL-AZIZ Sama Abdul-Aziz is an Iraqi-American from Wayland, Massachusetts majoring in Biochemistry. At Tufts, Sama has been involved with the Tufts University Refugee Assistance Program, TURAP, and is a member of the Arab Student Association, ASA, and Pre-Dental Society executive boards. This summer, Sama worked alongside three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, where she researched internal conflicts and their implications on overall well-being and health. In August, she traveled to Zambia with an NGO run through the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Options for Children in Zambia, which has provided dental treatment to Zambian villages and orphanages for the past six years. There she studied the relationship between improved oral health and improved overall health and quality of life. This year's EPIIC topic combines Sama's passions and experiences in a meaningful manner. Sama is excited to apply the knowledge she learns from EPIIC beyond her undergraduate career, into dental school, where she hopes to bridge the gap between the public and private sectors in dentistry. |
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KAYLEY ABELL-HART Kayley is a Tufts undergraduate (class of 2015) majoring in International Relations with a focus on global health. She also studies Arabic and loves all languages, including English, in which she is an avid writer of fiction in any form. She is most interested in addressing inequities in health and health as a human right. |
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KIRA AMBROSE A Canadian based in Orlando, Kira played varsity and club volleyball throughout her high school career while publishing a periodical and performing occasional reporting services for the online volleyball hub, Prepvolleyball.com. She came to Tufts for the International Relations program, and stayed for the dazzling adventures in Boston, a double major in Peace and Justice Studies, diverse, intellectual atmosphere, changing seasons and the vegetarian food in Dewick. Kira loves to explore unfamiliar territory, be it Boston, a new restaurant or a new language. After school, she hopes to go into journalism, international law or business; so long as she can travel, meet interesting people and have an impact on the world she’ll be happy. |
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ZOE ATLAS Zoë Atlas is from Berkeley, California. She is pre-med and majoring in International Relations with a focus in global health, nutrition, and the environment. Her primary hobby is music; she plays piano, violin, and guitar, and enjoys writing and playing with friends. She also spent several summers working at the Aspen Music Festival & School in Colorado. Zoë is very interested in holistic health and nutrition as it relates to primary health, and worked with local organizations in the bay area to design an elementary school program to teach children about these issues. She is very excited about EPIIC as an opportunity to delve deeper into her chosen field and learn more about the areas in which she has less expertise. |
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MAALIKA BANERJEE Maalika Banerjee is a senior pre-med student, double majoring in Community Health and English. Born in San Francisco, she grew up in the Boston area, primarily in Newton, Mass. She fell upon the field of Public Health by accident - taking Community Health 1 her freshman year - and she has since become an enthusiast, passionately pursuing the field both domestically and abroad. Most recently, she spent a semester studying in Durban, South Africa, developing an independent project on community-based comprehensive HIV/AIDS care in a rural setting. At Tufts, she enjoys working side by side with low-income clients as a LIFT advocate, engaging students in dialogue as a Writing Fellow, performing Indian classical dance as the captain of Pulse, and facilitating science education for middle school students in Jamaica Plain, Mass. In her free time, Maalika likes consuming frozen yogurt, reading the Sunday New York Times Magazine cover-to-cover, and playing Bananagrams. |
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AVERI BECQUE Averi Becque is a senior majoring in International Relations with a concentration on Latin America. Growing up in a small town on the coast of Maine, she knew that she wanted to have lots of adventures and felt that Tufts would be a good place to do that. She has thus far had the good luck to intern at a Mexico City NGO focused on public health, road trip across the U.S. on a Greyhound bus, participate in community development projects in Guatemala, volunteer as a health educator in Boston Public High Schools and spend a summer studying in Havana, Cuba. In Cuba she conducted research on the relationship between family planning and gender equality on the island. While there she also immersed herself in learning about U.S.-Cuba relations, the development of Cuba’s revolutionary social welfare programs, and the political and economic changes that the country has continued to experience since the fall of the Soviet Union. Always seeking to better understand the complexities of the world, a program like EPIIC is something that Averi simply cannot resist. |
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STACEY BEVAN Stacey Bevan is a sophomore majoring in International Relations and Biology with a minor in Child Development. After spending her childhood in the southern United States, she was excited to attend Tufts University, where she is involved in Residential Life, Tufts Student Resources, tutoring with Breakthrough Cambridge, a local community church and the Tufts Mountain Club. Stacey’s passion for global health originated on a trip to Drăgănești-Olt, Romania, where she interacted with children and families living in abject poverty. She is particularly interested in how health is related to environmental degradation, political climate, education, economics and local culture. Stacey is honored to be part of the EPIIC program this year, as it strives to apply knowledge to practical change in the global community. |
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ALEX BODEN Alexandra Leigh Boden is a freshman at Tufts, coming from West Morris Mendham High School in New Jersey. She intends to major in biology and is considering minoring in both community health and computer science, while following a pre-med track. Outside of academics, Alex is also a sabreuse on the Tufts fencing team and currently working on a project that sends school supplies and classroom aid to an underprivileged school in West Bengal, India. After Tufts, she hopes to pursue a career in medicine and work with international health organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and conduct clinical research. |
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SAM CANTOR Sam Cantor is a senior majoring in Political Science and minoring in Music. Sam also takes science classes and will finish the Pre-Med track by the end of this year. Sam was raised in West Hartford, CT to a pleasantly loud family where he began to observe the world with particularly wide eyes. Along with his general curiosity, both in class and out, he began to develop a passion for music and was deemed particularly noisy by his (already pleasantly loud) family. As life pressed onward, he found himself travelling: visiting many parts of the US, spending a summer in Israel, singing a cappella in Thailand and Singapore, and studying for a semester in Argentina. These experiences have allowed Sam to expand his conception of identity, place and purpose. Sam has explored in town as well, spending three semesters teaching health workshops in Boston-area public schools. Sam enjoys making and listening to music, reading books, moving around outdoors and writing about himself in the third person. Sam aspires to a life in which all of his passions, be they personal, intellectual, artistic, or otherwise, are accessed and explored. He plans to work hard to make sure other folks have the tools and resources to do this as well. |
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HANNA EHRLICH Hanna Ehrlich is a sophomore on the pre-vet track, majoring in biology and community health. A right-outside-of-Chicago native, she has spent most of her suburbia life surrounded by dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, turtles, bearded dragons, and the occasional tarantula. During summers at home, she usually swims in Lake Michigan and volunteers for various social justice organizations in the city, including a labor union and environmental justice group. She hopes to someday meld her enthusiasm for both animals and human rights, perhaps by attaining a combined DVM/MPH degree. At Tufts, Hanna is part of the IGL’s BUILD India and also volunteers in an after-school learning center for kids in public housing. This past summer, she traveled to South Korea to research Alzheimer’s disease treatment in a neuro-medical institute. Hanna enters EPIIC with particular interest in zoonosis and epidemiology, but she is confident that alongside the sharp decline in her social life will come a greatly amplified awareness for many issues in global health. |
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JACK EIDSON Jack Eidson is a sophomore intending to major in Environmental Studies and Quantitative Economics. Born and raised in Atlanta, Jack attended Wesleyan School, where he ran cross country and edited the newspaper. While in high school, he also developed passions in politics and environmental conservation. At Tufts, Jack has been able to pursue these, both in the classroom and through extracurricular activities including Tufts Wilderness Orientation, the Sustainability Collective, and Eco-Reps. He spent this past summer working in Washington, DC at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). While it was a great summer, Jack is very excited to be back at Tufts and is looking forward to spending the year exploring global health through EPIIC. |
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SHANA FRIEDMAN Shana Friedman is a sophomore from Los Angeles, California who is majoring in Computer Science. She is fascinated by the intersection between technology and healthcare and interested in disparities in food, nutrition, and agriculture distribution and policy around the globe. Through EPIIC, she is excited to explore these interests and delve into a wide variety of issues related to global health. When she is not taking classes related to programming or politics, Shana studies German, as she hopes to spend a semester abroad in Germany, writes and edits for the Tufts Daily, and adventures through Boston where she loves nothing more than discovering everything the city has to offer. |
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SARAH GLASS Sarah Glass is a junior studying Clinical Psychology at Tufts University. She has a variety of experience in the field of both physical and mental health. She volunteered at a hospital for six years, assisting nursing staff in patient care, and this summer she shadowed a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist. She assisted doctors in the room during sessions and learned proper diagnosis and prescriptions after each appointment. She also created a tutoring organization in California at a K-6 school for struggling students with developmental disabilities. She was the head photojournalist and photo-editor of her school's newspaper, and she is very interested in helping others, expanding the field of mental health, music, and the country of Iceland. |
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ERICA GOLDSTEIN Erica Goldstein is a senior with a double major in Engineering Science and Biology. Her passion for global health, especially infectious disease and women’s health, has been shaped largely by her experiences at Tufts. Originally drawn to medical advances during her time as an assistant music therapist for children with special needs, she did biomedical research at the Columbia University Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Lab. Later, she received an Empower Fellowship through the IGL to work at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) as an international intern on armed conflict, health, and human rights. PHR imbued her with the conviction that everyone has a right to healthcare. To better understand where she could best fit in to the diverse, interdisciplinary field of global health, she attended the Organization for Tropical Studies’ Global Health Program in Costa Rica, doing fieldwork ranging from administering epidemiological surveys, through providing health education, to collecting mosquito larvae to identify dengue hotspots. Outside of global health, Erica has been involved in BUILD, a sustainable development program in Guatemala, and the Millennium Campus Network, a national network of students fighting poverty. She hopes to go to medical school after a gap year. Erica is very excited to be a part of the EPIIC community this year and to delve even deeper into the field of global health. |
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HADLEY GREEN |
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CHRISTINE GREGORY Christine Gregory is a sophomore in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from Lincolnshire, Illinois. Although currently undeclared, she plans to double major in Spanish and Community Health. This past summer, Christine combined her interests in Latin American cultures and public health by interning at an NGO, Projeto Caravela, in Itajuba, Brazil. With the organization, she focused on integrating people with disabilities into society in addition to de-stigmatizing disabilities among members of the community. Christine is looking forward to further exploring the global health field through EPIIC. |
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ERIN GRIFFARD Erin Griffard is a junior Community Health and Latin American Studies major originally hailing from Boise, Idaho. Erin is an avid skier, recently tried skydiving, and loves to travel. For the past several years, Erin has worked with an organization called Amigos de las Américas on youth leadership development programs across the Americas. Most recently, Erin served as the Associate Project Director for the AMIGOS program in Boaco, Nicaragua. Erin also worked on an Empower Fellowship through AMIGOS, developing plans and infrastructure for a multimedia education and technology center in the town of Teustepe. On the Tufts campus, Erin serves as Project Coordinator for Health Horizons International, a community health organization focusing on improving access to primary health care and availability of chronic disease treatment in the northern region of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Erin’s work with AMIGOS and HHI has produced a strong interest in the correlation between youth leadership development and positive health outcomes, especially in areas or populations with little access to quality health care systems. |
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SARAH HARTMAN Sarah Hartman is a senior at Tufts studying Community Health and Anthropology. She was drawn to EPIIC this year because of her past work in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. She has been traveling to Haiti for years to work on various health and education projects in the Central Plateau region, including a needs assessment and latrine pilot project, which she co-led while partnering with the community over winter break. She spent last spring in the northern region of the Dominican Republic volunteering for Health Horizons International, carrying out public health research for a chronic disease prevention program and shadowing community health workers. She has learned so much from the daily struggles and joys of people in both countries, and feels blessed to have had these opportunities. Through EPIIC, she hopes to explore questions such as "What is the role of the government versus non-profit organizations in providing preventative and biomedical care to communities?" She hopes EPIIC will sharpen her knowledge and her skills so she can push for more effective and equitable health interventions worldwide. In addition to global health, Sarah loves dancing, hanging out with her friends and family, and learning from other people. |
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DANIEL HEALY Daniel Healy is sophomore majoring in International Relations. Born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., Dan is intensely interested in issues of urban development, urbanization and poverty. After his freshman year at Tufts, Dan spent a summer studying abroad and doing research in Havana, Cuba, where he observed drastically different approaches to societal issues like economics, governance, and, especially important to this year’s EPIIC topic, health care. Dan was drawn to the theme of Global Health and Security by an interest in American issues of health such as obesity and nutrition, and he is excited to explore more global themes through EPIIC. |
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MAYA ISAACSOHN Maya Isaacsohn is a senior from Cincinnati, Ohio. She is majoring in Art History and Community Health and is also filling her premed requirements. She hopes to continue her education after Tufts at medical school with the possible study of infectious disease. Throughout the past three years at Tufts, Maya has been involved with the Timmy Global Health and The Sharewood Project. For the past two summers she has been doing basic science research in the department of cardiovascular medicine at the Harvard Medical School. Maya enjoys the idea of exploring health and the practice of medicine from all angles and consequently is really excited to be participating in EPIIC Global Health and Security this year. |
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ALLISON JEFFERY Allison Jeffery is currently a sophomore, about to declare an International Relations and Spanish double major. A native of small-town Hillsdale, NJ, she is excited to be a member of this year’s colloquium because it is the perfect combination of her two academic interests - global health and international security. Outside of EPIIC, Allison is a member of the IR Director’s Leadership Council, the Institute for Political Citizenship, and the Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES). This summer she studied demilitarization in Panama as a member of the ALLIES Joint Research Project and interned with the Vermont Attorney General's campaign. In her free time, Allison enjoys crime dramas, exploring Boston, and planning future travels. |
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LINDA JIANG Linda Jiang is a sophomore from Baltimore, Maryland double majoring in economics and community health. On campus, she is active in the Asian American Center and Leonard Carmichael Society. Becoming fluent in Chinese, traveling to every corner of the world, and participating in a flash mob are just a few of the things on her bucket list. After Tufts, Linda hopes to go on to medical school and get her feet in the global health field. |
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ANNA KANTER Anna Kanter is a senior studying Political Science and Community Health. Her interest in global health has flourished over the years thanks to many incredible people, organizations, and opportunities. She has been a volunteer for Peer Health Exchange, an organization that trains college students to teach health workshops in public high schools in Boston for four years. She has taught workshops including Pregnancy Prevention, Drugs, and STIs & HIV. For one semester of her junior year, Anna spent time in India studying public health and researching the political landscape that has influenced changes in policy regarding maternal and child health issues. This past summer she worked with Children’s Health Fund in New York City, researching childhood obesity interventions. Anna loves hiking around outside with wonderful people, the changing seasons, and cooking with music and friends. She is absolutely thrilled to be a part of the EPIIC community this year. |
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ELIZABETH KEYS Elizabeth is a junior at Tufts double majoring in economics and community health and is on the premed track. She is from friendly Cincinnati, Ohio and holds dual citizenship from the United States and the United Kingdom. She grew up loving to read Shakespeare and dancing tap, ballet, jazz, and hip hop. Elizabeth plays the bassoon, saxophone, piano, violin, and oboe, and enjoys conducting. Outside of class, Elizabeth sails on Tufts varsity sailing team, serves on the board of The Sharewood Project (the only free healthcare clinic in the Boston area), and is an acquisitions editor for the TuftScope journal. She works as a research assistant studying tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in European Union and United States policy. Elizabeth greatly looks forward to the entire EPIIC experience and the dynamic, pioneering individuals whom she will meet! |
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TARA KOLA Tara Kola is a sophomore majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Chinese. She was born and raised in Saratoga, California, but moved to Bangalore, India at the age of 13. Being deeply integrated in both Western and Eastern culture kindled her interest in differences in the perception of the relationship between the body and the mind, and the individual and the environment. A primary area of interest in global health is medical anthropology, and the place of indigenous health systems and practices in an increasingly Westernized medical landscape. She is also interested in health informatics, particularly the use of computational methods in medical decision-making, and understanding the interconnected causes of disease. In the future, she hopes to work on improving preventative, proactive care in societies focused on responsive attention. At Tufts, she is also a Synaptic Scholar, and enjoys climbing mountains in New Hampshire, running as means of urban exploration, and discovering the foods, books, and histories of Boston by foot. |
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MARCUS LARSEN-STRECKER Marcus Larsen-Strecker is a senior at Tufts University majoring in International Relations, and Asian Studies, and minoring in Chinese language and literature, and Studio Art. Marcus is from Brookline, Massachusetts, but he has spent significant time abroad. Most recently, Marcus spent the spring of 2012 as a student in Taipei, Taiwan, and the summer of 2011 teaching math and dance in rural schools in Inner Mongolia and Ningxia, China as a Luce and Fulbright scholar through Hamilton College’s ACC field studies program. Following graduation, Marcus hopes to further his interest in Chinese language and Asian Studies, while incorporating the skills and knowledge he acquires this coming year from the EPIIC global health colloquium. |
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LINDSAY LEBEL Lindsay is a senior studying Community Health and Arabic at Tufts, and is in the five year BA/MPH program. A summer in the French Alps nurtured a wanderlust that led Lindsay to Fez last fall, where she studied Arabic, examined Morocco's system of traditional medicine, and drowned in mint tea. Her research on traditional/alternative medicine continued in India, Argentina and South Africa through the spring semester. Lindsay's favorite place is still her home in Maine, where she spent this past summer gardening, learning carpentry from her father, printing a 250-page fieldbook of her travels, brewing kombucha and exploring herbalism and the healing powers of tea. She is so grateful to be a member of EPIIC this year and has no doubt that her reentry to the Tufts community will be as adventure-laden as her departure. |
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REBEKAH LIEBERMANN Rebekah Liebermann is currently a senior at Tufts, studying International Relations with a concentration in Global Health, Nutrition, and the Environment. She is in her fourth year of studying Arabic and also speaks Spanish and Hebrew, which she hopes to use in future work with refugees. She is the director of CORES, a student group that provides ESL courses, preparation for the U.S. citizenship exam, and other services to Spanish-speaking immigrants and refugees in Somerville from Latin America. She spent her semester abroad in Amman, Jordan and hopes to return to the region after graduation to work on immigrant- and refugee-related issues there. |
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CHRISTINA LIU Christina Liu is a senior and aspiring physician studying Biology from Parsippany, New Jersey. She is involved with the Little Sibling/Big Sibling program and was a resident assistant for two years. This past summer, Christina did leukemia research at the A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children. Her other hobbies include cooking, snowboarding, and playing tennis. |
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QUENTIN LOTT Quentin is a junior from Albany, NY. He is majoring in Biology and is pursuing the premedical curriculum while at Tufts. His main interests in the Global Health arena include perinatal nutrition, environmental health, and infectious disease. He is a board member of the Sharewood Project and is co-director of Sex Talk through the Leonard Carmichael Society. He hopes his time in EPIIC will help him refine his medical interests and allow him to further explore the field of Global Health. |
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JOSH MALKIN Josh Malkin is a senior at Tufts majoring in psychology and community health. He is originally from just outside of Albany, NY. Josh was drawn to EPIIC this year because of the emphasis on global health. He is especially interested in homelessness and food insecurity and how each affects health. He is currently working with the Somerville Homeless Coalition and Shape Up Somerville to institutionalize a local “Food Rescue” operation that will deliver otherwise thrown out excesses to underserved populations. Josh is excited by the opportunities EPIIC has to offer. |
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DAVID MEYERS David is a senior majoring in International Relations and Community Health. During his time at Tufts he has worked on a water project in Uganda with Engineers Without Borders, a health assessment program in the Dominican Republic, community research in Kenya, and with Nyaya Health in rural Nepal. He co-founded the Village Zero Project, a cholera tracking initiative in Bangladesh, and is a co-president of the Tufts Undergraduate Global Health Network. He is also a seeker and former captain of the Tufts Tufflepuff Quidditch Team. |
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JESSICA MUGANZA Jessica Muganza is Rwandan by origin but was born on in Bujumbura, Burundi. Her family then relocated to Rwanda after the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and there she attended primary and secondary school. In 2010, Jessica become one of the first three Rwandans to be admitted at the African Leadership Academy, a prestigious school in Johannesburg South Africa that brings together bright students from all over the African continent to nurture them into the next generation of African leaders. She is passionate about Health care in Africa, especially maternal and child health, and plans to play an active role in the eradication of malnutrition in Africa and in the world. Jessica is currently a freshman at Tufts University where she is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Community Health and International Relations. She is also interested in fashion, drama and cultural dances. |
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BRITTANY NEFF Brittany Neff is a senior from Santa Monica, California, majoring in International Relations and Spanish. Brittany is passionate about travelling the world and engaging in other cultures. She has had the privilege to work, study and live for extended periods of time in Spain, South Africa, and Argentina. Abroad in South Africa, Brittany worked for an organization called SHAWCO, which allowed her to volunteer in health clinics and schools in Khayelitsha, a township beside Cape Town. This first sparked her interest in Global Health and its many dimensions. Through EPIIC, she is passionate about exploring social justice in relation to health, health ethics, and the connection between traditional medicine and biomedicine. When not reading for EPIIC, Brittany can be found leading tours around the Tufts campus or hanging out at the women’s center. She enjoys playing volleyball, frisbee, and playing the guitar. |
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RENA OPPENHEIMER Rena Oppenheimer is a senior from Newton, Massachusetts. She studies anthropology and Arabic, and spends time outside of class working on sustainable development projects with BUILD: India. Rena was fortunate enough to visit BUILD's partner village twice on research and project implementation trips. She spent her junior year abroad in Jordan and South Africa, studying the ways in which new nationalism informs awareness and acceptance of abortion rights in the latter. Rena loves learning languages, bindis, sketching, and squat toilets. She attended Seeds of Peace camp in high school, which radically shifted her worldview and intensified her motivation to engage in the peace process in Israel/Palestine. She hopes to one day put her passion and trilingual abilities to work and help end the conflict. |
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ANANDA PAEZ Ananda Páez Rodas is an Ecuadorian freshman born in Japan. During high school, she was a member of the student government, was twice elected Secretary General of her school's Model United Nations, was secretary of the National Honors Society and won an award for her collaboration project with an indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Andes (called Salinas de Bolivar). She also practiced classical ballet, flamenco and won city awards and scholarships for academic excellence. Ananda is very involved in community service, having organized various projects and initiatives that benefited indigenous communities, senior citizens and teenage single mothers in Ecuador. After an inspiring visit to H.H. The Dalai Lama in India three years ago, she decided to study Economics and International Relations in hopes of advocating for human rights in Tibet. |
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EMILY PAINE Emily may not be eligible for Medicare, but she is a senior as far as Tufts University is concerned. As a rising sophomore, Emily studied the provision of clean water by the US military versus nongovernmental entities in post-conflict northern Uganda as part of a Joint Research Project for the ALLIES program. Since then, Emily has begun her life’s-work exploration of community health, a framework that has so many different meanings to people around the world, yet so much power over everyone’s happiness and societal mobility. Throughout her classes at Tufts, semester abroad studying community health in India, Argentina and South Africa, and various research opportunities, she has become increasingly passionate about improving the translation of underrepresented patient perspectives into their given systems of public health. Emily’s decision to take EPIIC this year was undoubted considering the theme and support she has received from the IGL during her time at Tufts. |
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ALICE PANG Alice Pang is a senior at Tufts University, majoring in Philosophy and Political Science. She has lived in Edinburgh, New York City and most recently, Seoul, but she finds home with people all over the world. At Tufts, Alice has been part of the Tufts Community Union Senate, serving as the student representative to the Board of Trustees and as the Services committee co-chair. Her values of environmental sustainability has led her to be involved with a variety of green initiatives on campus, including the project to bring Hydration Stations to campus. Her favorite extracurricular activity is being a big sister in the Chinese Big Brother-Big Sister program, working with Chinese adopted children in the Boston area. Alice spent the Spring 2011 semester right outside of Kathmandu, Nepal, where she was working full-time at a local school – sharing with students the power of story for creativity and learning, while designing and establishing a children’s library for the community there. It was in Nepal where her passion for education in impoverished and troubled areas was ignited and is what she wants to pursue in the future. She also spent time in North Korea this past year, working with disability schools and facilities for children, specifically orphans. Alice also loves modern dance, photography, hiking, literature, picnicking and design. |
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CAROLINE PATTERSON Caroline Patterson is a member of the class of 2013 majoring in Community Health and French. Caroline is from Toronto, Ontario and has devoted her past three years at Tufts to academically exploring the field of health while athletically competing for the varsity women’s rowing team. Caroline has expanded her personal definition of health through a diverse combination of community health courses, pre-medical requirements, and extra-curricular involvement. As a sophomore, she volunteered at Partners In Health and spent her summer working in an Epigenetics Research Lab at the University of Toronto. This past summer, she pursued her international interests through an internship with the Foundation for Sustainable Development in Jodhpur, India where she worked with a local NGO on an HIV education program to increase testing rates amongst female sex workers. Caroline is very enthused about her involvement with the EPIIC program as she hopes it will continue to broaden and deepen her understanding and personal definition of Global Health. |
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ROSE POLLARD Rose Pollard is a junior at Tufts from State College, Pennsylvania. She is majoring in International Relations, with a concentration in Global Health, and minoring in Music. As the chair of Tufts Hillel's initiative Moral Voices, she is organizing a yearlong, campus-wide investigation of Food Justice. She is also on the travel team for the Tufts chapter of Health Horizons International. Rose plays classical violin and fiddles in the Dirty River String Band at Tufts, and works for the music department on the Music Event Staff. Rose is honored and excited to participate in EPIIC this year! |
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LUCY QIN Lucy Qin is a sophomore from Stony Brook, New York. She is interested in studying social inequalities and economic development, which she hopes to focus on through her majors in sociology and economics. This past summer, Lucy spent two months teaching English in rural parts of China and in Beijing, which furthered her interest in education and poverty alleviation. On campus, Lucy is a resident assistant and involved in the Refugee Assistance Program (TU-RAP). She also enjoys reading, writing, adventuring, and trying new food. |
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JENNIFER SANDUSKI Jennifer Sanduski is a senior majoring in International Relations, concentrating in Economic Development. Hailing from Pleasantville, NY, Jennifer believes that the stuffed jumbo she dragged everywhere as a child was the first sign that she would be a good fit for Tufts. While here, Jennifer has served as the Mental Health Leadership Council Member for Peer Health Exchange, teaching workshops to ninth graders from underprivileged schools across Boston. She continued to look at public health issues halfway across the world in a small village in Tamil Nadu, India through BUILD, a student-led program that promotes sustainable development initiatives in rural communities in the developing world. Focusing on sanitation issues, Jennifer is now a self-proclaimed expert on urine-diverting toilets. Jennifer also spent her junior year abroad, studying both in Cape Town, South Africa and Paris, France. Her favorite part of traveling is the conversations found with strangers on public transportation. She also loves iced coffee. While unsure of where life will lead her after Tufts, Jennifer could not be more excited to actively engage and explore the field of global health security with EPIIC and for the adventures that lay ahead. |
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ALON SLUTZKY Alon is currently enrolled in the BA/MPH program at the Tufts Medical School and is a pre-med senior majoring in International Relations, concentrating in global health. Ever since Alon participated in the 2009-10 EPIIC colloquium on South Asia during his freshman year, he has been dedicated to the Institute’s mantra of thinking beyond boundaries and acting across borders. Outside of classes, Alon is a volunteer at the free clinic run by the Tufts Medical School and is on the executive board of the Tufts’ GlobeMed chapter. After spending time volunteering on a boat clinic on the Brahmaputra River and interning at the Centers for Disease Control, Alon solidified his passion and commitment to forging a medical career that will have a lasting global impact. After a two-year hiatus, Alon is excited to be a part of the EPIIC colloquium again, especially given the topic. |
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JENNIFER STRAITZ Jennifer Straitz is a member of the Class of 2015 planning to major in International Relations and minor in Arabic. She grew up in the town of Sykesville, MD where she developed a love of photography and travel. In addition to EPIIC, Jennifer is involved in the FOCUS community service pre-orientation program, serves on the Directional Staff of The Leonard Carmichael Society, plays bass clarinet in the University Wind Ensemble, and can be seen giving tours of campus on Friday afternoons. She is also a fellow with the Compass Fellowship, an all-freshman social entrepreneurship society. Her interest in global health stems from her experience interning at an NGO that provides medicines to treat neglected tropical diseases in developing countries and works to rebuild health care infrastructure in nations affected by natural disaster, such as Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake. Now, primarily focused on International Security, through EPIIC Jennifer is hoping to learn about non-traditional aspects of this realm, such as bioterrorism. In her spare time, she enjoys learning about the education system of the United States, reading poetry, and exploring the many great places Boston has to offer with friends. |
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SAFIYA SUBEGDJO Safiya Subegdjo is a sophomore at Tufts University, studying International Relations with a concentration in Global Health, Nutrition, and Environment. At the age of four, Safiya lived in the largest archipelagic state in the world, Indonesia. She credits this experience as nurturing her desire for understanding the world around her, especially in relation to environmental issues, health, and religion. During the summer of 2012, Safiya returned to Indonesia and volunteered with the Foundation for Mother and Child Health, where she learned how community organization and public health efforts could reduce childhood malnourishment. At Tufts, Safiya is the Vice-President of Cultural Affairs for the Muslim Students Association and a Co-Leader for the Tufts Refugee Assistance Program in conjunction with The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She is also a regular volunteer at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Safiya is enthused about being a part of EPIIC this year and hopes this experience to be another stop on her lifelong journey for inspiration and knowledge. |
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SHAN ZHI THIA Shan Zhi comes from Singapore, and like most Singaporeans he supports a soccer team that he has no geographical relation to. An avid Manchester United fan, he is also looking to pursue a History and Peace and Justice Studies double major at Tufts. Among his passions in life are food, exercise, reading and sleep, and is able to do at least two of those at the same time. He also serves in the Republic of Singapore Navy, reinforcing his interests in military and security issues. |
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PETAR TODOROV Petar Todorov is a student of chemistry at Tufts University. Originally from Bulgaria, Petar has lived in Massachusetts since the year 2000. A strong interest in the natural sciences has led to his involvement in numerous research projects spanning biophysics, molecular biology and biomedical engineering. Already looking at the world through the lens of science, Petar hopes to expand his scope to the political, economic and humanitarian aspects at the base of current global issues. |
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JAHNVI VAIDYA Jahnvi Vaidya was born and raised in Mumbai, India. She is a sophomore majoring in Quantitative Economics and is very interested in public health and development. She has discovered a fascination for infectious diseases and parasites over the last year, and is especially interested in efforts for their prevention. She is also interested in hygiene and sanitation initiatives - she is a member of BUILD: India (Building Understanding Through International Learning and Development), through which she is helping introduce ECOSAN composting toilets to a community in southern India. This summer, she interned with the Healthcare/Life Sciences team of Universal Consulting, one of India’s largest boutique consulting firms. Through working on a pharmaceutical project that considered the middle ground between business objectives and distributive justice of the market for medicinal drugs, she has become eager to learn about ways in which businesses can profit from projects that generate sustainable positive social impacts. She hopes to study and work abroad, and then eventually go back home and work in the field of Public Health and/or Developmental Economics. |
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NITHYAA VENKATARAMANI Nithyaa Venkataramani is a senior majoring in International Relations focused in global health studies and with specific interest in South Asia and Latin America. She has co-directed the BUILD Program for Sustainable Development through the Institute for Global Leadership, which has given her the opportunity to research and work on a community-driven entrepreneurship model and other holistic development projects to meet basic needs of the village of Thottiyapatti, India. She has also worked with the founding team of Saathi Pads, a technology development project of MIT graduates, on shaping their business plan for the 2011 Tufts 100K competition. Nithyaa spent this past spring semester studying abroad in São Paulo, Brazil where she was directly enrolled in the local university, PUC-SP, teaching English and volunteering with Saúde Criança, creating collaborative family action plans for financial and infrastructural stability of the home for a child after coming home from significant treatment at the hospital. This past summer, she interned at the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Economic Development Administration of the Department of Commerce. Her work centered on researching best practices of American universities and colleges engaging with entrepreneurship and innovation, and policy recommendations to foster more entrepreneurship activity across the United States. In her free time, she likes to learn new languages, spend time outdoors, and sing with friends. |
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ALEXANDRA WOLLUM Alexandra (Allie) Wollum is a senior studying International Relations and Community Health. She is extremely interested in trying to address inequalities around the world, specifically related to health. She is particularly interested in understanding how to create the political will to support successful health policies with a focus on human rights and social justice. She has worked with the IGL group, BUILD (Building Understanding Through International Learning and Development) working on various sustainable development projects in southern India. She is currently working with Partners In Health on the Community Organizing Initiative, providing a structure for individuals around the country to think about global health and take action. At Tufts, Allie has also worked with the organization LIFT that seeks to combat poverty throughout the nation using college students as advocates and has interned for a non-profit advocating for children’s issues in policy. From Denver, Colorado, Allie enjoys hiking in the Rocky Mountains. She also is an aspiring jazz singer and cooking enthusiast. |
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SUYU ZHANG Suyu Zhang is a senior from Connecticut studying Biology. He was born in China but raised in Sendai, Japan. The first word that he learned in English was "shoes" on the plane to New York City eleven years ago. His friends say his English has not improved much from that day. From a young age, Suyu has found himself standing out in classrooms, but not because he was a good student. Having always spoken a different language, shared a different point of view or held a different colored passport, he had to learn the tricks of international diplomacy quickly and well. Historians say such experiences sparked his interest in global relations and international diplomacy. Suyu's academic interests include history, international relations, and medicine. After graduation, he hopes to work for a health related NGO abroad for a few years, as well as return to his childhood home of Sendai and try to find his home in the aftermath of the tsunami. Outside of the classroom, he is a die-hard Manchester United fan as well as a supporter of the Seibu Lions. In his spare time, he enjoys meeting new people and enjoys anything funny. Suyu believes that the shortest distance between two people is a smile. He is very excited for the year ahead and eager to meet everyone in EPIIC. |
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ALEX ZORNIGER Alex was born in 1993 to Kim and Pete Zorniger in Dayton Ohio. Growing up, he played about every sport he could get his hands on and remains a very passionate fan to this day. He is in the Tufts class of 2015, majoring in International Relations with a concentration in Global Health, Nutrition, and the Environment and a minor in Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies. He is a captain of the Tufts varsity golf team and is the president of the Tufts Thirst Project at Tufts, which is an organization dedicated to promoting awareness about and to fundraising for water crises in the developing world. |