2009 Scholars

Eyal Amit

Eyal was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and spent the first six years of his life in the States, before his family settled in Haifa, Israel. He received his full education at "Hareali" private school, where he engaged in various activities; competitive sports, music (listening and playing), arts, boy scouts, a field training school program instructor, and of course, spending as much time as possible with friends. Community work, as well, has always been an important factor in his life. His volunteer work and community activities span over the years: between 1993-1997 he was an Activist in the Israeli Scouts youth movement; during that period of time, he was also Young Instructor for Shelach, a mandatory Field Training school program; he was recommended by his school and, after several selection processes, was accepted as a "Young Ambassador" for Israel's Ministry of Education, representing Israeli youth across the US at the beginning of 1998; in the spring of 1999 he traveled throughout Nazi concentration camps in Poland as part of the school program; he was a Big Brother in Kfar Sitrin, a boarding school for disadvantaged youth; and finally, this past summer he joined "Etgarim" organization, which works with disabled children and children with special needs, aspiring to build their confidence through fun yet challenging tasks. He feels fortunate to have contributed in guiding this inseparable part of our society, and will always remember it as a gratifying and educating experience. As a testimony to his commitment and dedication to several of the school's sports teams, he was awarded, at graduation, with his high school's highest award for sports, which is awarded when appropriate (and not annually).After graduation, Eyal was accepted to serve in a special operations unit of the IDF Paratroopers as a combat soldier, and later on as a commander. While in service, he was recommended to advance and participate in officer's course, but due to an injury was forced to give up that dream. He completed three full years of mandatory service and was happy to "be alive and in one piece". Unfortunately, this past summer he was called once more to duty, and given the option not to go due to his status as a student who is temporarily out of the country, he insisted on joining his old friends and chose to participate in combat with his unit. In brief, he admits that the experiences in Lebanon left their mark. Since January 2007, Eyal has been giving lectures about the Lebanon War, discussing his personal story. With the help of the Summer Scholars program and his mentor, Professor Neil Miller, he hopes to make a challenging transition and document this experience. While addressing the humanistic sensibilities, as well as to the mental hardships which a soldier is confronted with while at war, he wishes to record the difficulties in his own personal standing: a commander in the military reserves - and a Tufts student at ordinary times. He will document this experience and will strive to publish it in a suitable platform. Following his discharge, at the age of 21, he enrolled in an acting school for one year and worked as a bartender in Tel Aviv, before moving to Boston, where he today studies as a junior at Tufts University. He is double-majoring in Economics and Psychology, and is interested in the relationship between the two. In addition to being bi-lingual (Hebrew and English), Eyal has studied Spanish, and is considering going abroad on a study program for one semester in Buenos Aires. In his spare time, Eyal enjoys playing and listening to music, an activity in which he has been involved from early age; he plays the classical piano, the jazz guitar, and sings - while occasionally performing. He attempts to include theater in his life as well, and is currently acting in a short student film. Finally, Eyal has served as captain of Tufts' JV soccer program.-top-

Rachel Bergenfield

Rachel Bergenfield is passionate about justice, development and conflict/post-conflict processes. Her pursuit of these fields has led her to explore their nexuses, leading to her current focus on structural violence, transitional justice (in a holistic sense), and human security. Rachel is regionally focused on Africa. Rachel recently (1/2008) returned from northern Uganda, where she was a research assistant on a Fletcher student's work, looking at the relationship between transitional justice and economic development. Rachel studied abroad in Cameroon during the spring semester of 2007. There, she completed a field research project entitled, "Barriers to Justice in Cameroon: Lessons from the North West Province." This entailed spending one month observing in court, trailing legal teams, and interviewing key players such as lawyers, judges, released detainees, and members of the Public. Rachel traveled to Lagos, Nigeria with fellow Synaptic Scholars to investigate increasing Chinese investment in the country, looking particularly at human rights issues and development initiatives (Winter Recess, 2006-07). She spent the summer of 2005 in India at the Centre for Microfinance (CMF). She traveled through the country shooting a documentary on CMF's microfinance initiatives and research, in addition to writing on urban microfinance and editing working papers. Previously, she interned with a social venture fund that invests in initiatives that bridge market access gaps for small enterprises in economically poor countries. Rachel spent last summer (2007) interning in the Office of the Public Defender in New Brunswick, NJ, where, amongst other tasks, she did initial intake interviews for the agency's clients-- people who have been charged with crimes but cannot afford legal representation. Rachel and two colleagues recently won the 100 Projects for Peace award for the summer of 2008. Through this grant, they are enabled to carry out a collaborative, community-driven project that documents local justice and reconciliation processes for war-related crimes in northern Uganda. Rachel also plans to conduct her senior honors thesis research in Cameroon this summer. She deeply anticipates reconnecting with a community of friends that has guided and inspired her in everything that she does. Rachel is deeply interested and concerned by the unintended, negative impacts of international research, volunteering, and development initiatives. She pursues these issues personally and through the Synaptic Scholars Program. Rachel majors in International Relations, focusing on "Global Justice, Conflict, and Cooperation." She is proficient in French and has a minor (undeclared) in Africa in the New World. She is the Senior Editor of Discourse Journal and is engaged with Tufts Collaborative on Africa. She is a former Citizenship and Public Service Scholar at Tufts' Tisch College, where she worked on a workforce integration project with a community of Somali-Bantu refugees in Chelsea, MA (Fall semester, 2006). She was also previously the Chair of the Jewish Women's Collective, the Chair of the Tufts Women's Week 2005 Committee, and a representative to Tufts' Women's Board. She cares deeply about domestic politics and has volunteered or interned on political campaigns: She served on Patrick Murphy's 2006 congressional campaign, managing the first campaign office, leading early organizing and voter outreach initiatives and aiding in National Call to Service policy development research (Summer, 2005). She volunteered and interned on the Kerry-Edwards campaign, both in media and in Get Out The Vote. As the daughter of a trial lawyer, she has learned much by helping in her father and greatest teacher's office, organizing case documents and helping to prepare for trial. Rachel also has a passion for fiction writing. Rachel loves living in cultures that are outside of her own, attempting to integrate and gaining insight from the challenges and surprises that result. The most valuable part of her experiences in Cameroon was living with families, within communities. She tries to keep the history she was born into close to her decisions-- the reality that she is an American who lives in a country founded on slavery and an Ashkenazi Jew who feels a strong connection to her history. She is the oldest of her three siblings in a divorced family, a slot in the world that has deeply influenced her as well. -top-

George Denfield

George Denfield was born in Durham, North Carolina, but shortly thereafter moved to Houston, Texas where he has lived ever since. He attended high school at St. John's School during which time he cultivated his love for science, music, politics and philosophy. In addition to such academic interests, George enjoyed playing soccer through his junior year, having played on competitive club and school teams since a very young age. The second and third summers of his high school experience were occupied working in a lab at Hermann Hospital in the Houston Medical Center. Here George helped to conduct research on renal disease, specifically renal fibrosis, which he later turned into a project for the Siemens Westinghouse Competition. He and his research partner were invited to Austin, Texas at the beginning of senior year as regional semifinalists in the competition to present their project to a panel of judges. George finished the competition as a regional semifinalist and was awarded a small scholarship to the college of his choice. One of the most meaningful courses that he took in high school was his senior year English class. Here George was first truly exposed to post-modernist and existentialist thought, which would come to influence on his outlook towards life. In addition to such profound effects on George's attitude, some of his favorite literature came from that class, including his favorite novel, Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler . The summer after graduating from high school, George went backpacking in Europe for a month with four of his friends from high school. The trip was a wonderful experience and provided a chance for personal reflection and discovery. It was during this trip that he attempted to tackle the question of what he could do with his life that would be meaningful to him and to others. Although unable to settle upon any certainties at that point, these thoughts, combined with his love for science, pushed him in the direction of medicine and research. Continuing the theme of the importance of literature in George's life, his outlook was once again changed after reading Mountains Beyond Mountains during his freshman year at Tufts. This book opened his eyes to the idea of health policy as an additional way to affect meaningful change in the lives of many individuals. During the second semester of his freshman year, George volunteered at a clinic in Jamaica Plains run by the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program. That summer he volunteered with a research team at the University of Texas School of Public Health working to increase awareness of colorectal cancer prevention within the Hispanic population in the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas. All of these interests aside, music is George's number one passion. He has played classical piano since 6 th grade, has taken both blues and jazz guitar lessons since 9 th grade, and is classically trained in voice. He formed a band in high school, and with this group, recorded a CD on their own during junior year of high school. The group recorded another CD during the summer after freshman year in a studio near Austin, Texas. Most recently, however, George has become fascinated by the topic of consciousness, both from a philosophical and scientific perspective. What gives rise to it? What functions does it serve? George has spent the last several semesters and the last summer reading almost everything on the subject he can find. Ultimately George would like to pursue a career in which he could try to answer these questions through research of his own. More immediately, this interest has pushed George to major in biopsychology and minor in Cognitive Science. This minor will culminate in a senior thesis on the question of the modular organization of the brain in relation to Bernard Baars' Global Workspace theory of consciousness, advised in part by Professor Daniel Dennett. -top-

Hannah Flamm

(Last updated 04/2008) Hannah is a junior majoring in Political Science. She is interested in power and the structures that explain why the world is the way it is. Why is it that access to basic needs, access to opportunities, and access to wealth and power are distributed - and at their respective prices - as they are? How does this set-up evolve over time? Who benefits from it? What are its unintended consequences? Where are openings for change? Hannah first went to El Salvador during high school summers to work on community service projects. These trips opened her eyes to realities far more prevalent globally than her own growing up in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and made her begin to think about what "development" really means. What were these villages and their local governments actually moving towards? At Tufts, Hannah looked for ways to integrate her interest in Central America with opportunities at college. She received the Career Services Summer Internship in 2006 to work at the Central American Resources Center (CARECEN) in Washington, DC, where she assisted clients with basic legal, housing, and translation services. Sophomore year, Hannah began working with the Project on Justice in Times of Transition to contribute to the development of a Central American Youth Network, traveling to El Salvador to research gang violence as a product of social, political, and economic exclusion and to map out key entities trying to open greater civic space for youth. This research was the beginning of studying political institutions and the concentration of wealth, corruption and political disaffection. Hannah received the Anne E. Borghesani Memorial Prize of Tufts' International Relations Program to spend the summer of 2007 in El Salvador researching the political debate around and potential local environmental and other effects of Canadian mining companies opening gold and silver mines in northern El Salvador. She presented the research at the 2008 EPIIC International Symposium on Global Poverty and Inequality and hopes to use the energy generated there towards real outcomes in El Salvador, beginning with a joint fact-finding mission and stakeholder assessment. As a new member of Synaptic Scholars and the 2007-08 EPIIC class, Hannah joined the Power and Poverty research team, investigating the effects of a formal, not functional democracy on the persistence of poverty in Guatemala. The team traveled to Guatemala in January 2008 and is led by former National Security Adviser of Guatemala and 2007-08 Inspire Fellow José María Argueta She is attending the Naval Academy's Foreign Affairs Conference (NAFAC) as well as Fuerzas Armadas Humanitarias (FA-HUM) in Spring 2008 with the student civil-military group, ALLIES, to begin her exploration of military affairs as they relate to Latin America's internal dynamics and US foreign policy toward the region. -top-

Laura Fong

(Last updated 04/2008) Laura Fong is currently a junior majoring in Political Science with a concentration in political theory. She will graduate with an AB in Political Science in May 2009. From October 2007 until June of 2008, Laura will be studying at Oxford University's Pembroke College as a visiting student reading for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE). Laura is deeply interested in issues of internet governance. After being selected to participate in the Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) Program at Tufts University during her sophomore year, Laura pursued independent research on Chinese internet censorship and net neutrality. Her budding interest in the governance of cyberspace resulted in her decision to intern at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School in the summer of 2007, where her work involves further developing a project studying internet surveillance perceptions and methodologies around the world, as well finding the legal basis for conducting such surveillance. Laura was named a 2007 Summer Scholar at Tufts. She is currently working on a research project using the philosophies of Hobbes and Rousseau to inform the present-day context of international relations and internet governance. Prior to the summer of 2007, Laura spent two summers and two winters working for the Department of Defense as a journalist and content manager for the Army research base at Fort Monmouth. During her time there, she led dialogues to communicate the needs of the Army Warfighter to senior management and engineering teams and covered high-profile technological demonstrations and exercises conducted by the Joint Forces. Her work was published on the Army Knowledge Online (AKO) news portal and several Army trade publications. She was awarded a Four-Start General Commendation in 2006 for her exemplary service to the Army by General Griffin, Army Materiel Command (AMC). Laura was selected as a Neaubauer Scholar at Tufts University to conduct independent research in 2005. In 2005, she was awarded the Ginny Brereton Prize for First-Year Writing. In 2006, she was selected to become a Synaptic Scholar under the auspices of the International Global Leadership (IGL) at Tufts. In the spring of 2007, Laura represented Tufts University in the National Security and Civil Liberties mock-senate/mock-judiciary exercise hosted by the Law Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. She is assisting the research Prof. Ioannis Evrigenis of Tufts University, who is finishing a book project entitled 'States of Nature.' She is also assisting the research of Prof. Lewis Hyde, a Fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society writing a book about intellectual property. Laura strongly believes that it is not only useful, but highly necessary, to bring the theoretical frameworks bequeathed to the modern generation by past scholars, into real-world issues of governance in order to elucidate the issues of today. She believes that the theoretical shows us not only what is, but also what is possible. -top-

Mie Inouye

Mie groups her personal and academic interests into the three general categories of the artistic, the spiritual, and the social. At Tufts, she has fused her interests in the humanities with her interest in politics through a double major in International Letters and Visual Studies and Political Science. Mie is a Boston native, but has spent a lot of time in Japan, Utah, and Hawaii. She attended Lexington High School, where she was involved in student government as the Moderator of the Student-Faculty Senate and Lincoln-Douglas debate. Through debate, Mie developed an interest in the application of philosophy to real world problems, as well as a passion for developing and articulating ideas. In 2004 she was the Massachusetts state champion and was ranked in the top eight debaters in the nation. Mie has since taught debate to high school students at the University of Iowa and Stanford University. After graduating, Mie took a gap year, which she spent doing volunteer work at a non-profit for poor and homeless women in Boston and working and surfing in Hawaii. At Tufts, Mie has blended her personal interests and goals with her academic life. She has co-founded Tufts' Latter-day Saint Student Association, served as a Sunday School teacher at her church, taught English as a Second Language at the Center of Refugees From El Salvador in Somerville and worked as a Writing Fellow through the Academic Resource Center. As a Writing Fellow, Mie planned and moderated a panel on creativity in higher education at the 2006 Writing Fellows Colloquium. Mie loves being a student. She has most enjoyed her courses in political philosophy and plans to continue studying political thought during her time at Tufts and possibly beyond. She also has a particular interest in Latin America and has studied Spanish in preparation for a semester abroad in Chile. As a Synaptic Scholar, Mie has developed her interest in the intersections between art and politics by participating in the International Research Colloquium and developing an independent study about literary representations of Pinochet's military coup in 1973. Mie plans to continue exploring the shaping of collective memory of the coup while studying at the University of Chile in the fall of 2007. She is particularly interested in questions like, "Can art effect social change?" and "What is the meaning of social responsibility to the writer?" Mie was also able to travel to New Orleans in 2007 on a service trip with fellow Synaptic Scholar Aliza Lailari to help assess the current needs of residents of Saint Bernard Parish, one of the areas worst affected by Hurricane Katrina. Finally, Mie enjoyed co-planning, moderating, and attending Synaptics' first Fireside Chat on the topic, "What is the purpose of higher education?" which left her with questions to consider as she continues to pursue her education at Tufts and beyond. -top-

Samual James

(Last updated 04/2008) Sam is a junior from Cincinnati, Ohio in the combined-degree program with Tufts and the School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He is a Synaptic Scholar of the Institute for Global Leadership, a member of the photojournalism and human rights group EXPOSURE, a member of the EPIIC Colloquium class of 2007/2008, and a senior editor for DISCOURSE Journal. At Tufts, Sam is pursuing a Plan of Study degree in Urban Studies, through which he is studying both the global slums and the evil paradises of the new urban order. His study is specifically focused on Lagos, Nigeria, where he currently lives and works as a Student Research Fellow of the Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC) and a freelance writer and photographer for The Guardian (Nigeria) newspaper. Sam is researching the Lagos street gang phenomenon known as “Area Boys.” Sam also traveled to Lagos in 2007 under the auspices of the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Education in the inaugural Synaptic Scholars research trip. At the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Sam studies documentary photography, which he believes should serve as a political tool for documenting, informing and changing the world. He has pursued photographic projects throughout the US and abroad in places such as China, India, and Nigeria. Through EXPOSURE, he worked with photographer Gary Knight and journalist Mort Rosenblum in Indian-administered Kashmir. This summer, he plans to work with photographer Sara Terry in Northern Uganda. He is currently using photography to document the lives of Area Boys and to expose human rights abuses in Lagos. Sam has spent summers working on public art initiatives with the Cincinnati-based Artworks organization, and coaching and directing youth soccer camps. Sam is a two-year letter winner on the Tufts varsity soccer team, but now plays in Area Boy leagues throughout Lagos. Sam feels passionately about food and Arsenal Football Club.-top-

Maya Karwande

Maya Karwande graduated from Tufts University in 2009. Originally from
Salt Lake City, Utah, Maya was attracted to Tufts because of the
Institute for Global Leadership and opportunities for international
learning. She enjoyed her time as a Synaptic Scholar, and her work
with the program culminated with her Senior Honors Thesis, "Failure to
Engage: Outreach at the Bosnian War Crimes Chamber." In writing her
thesis, she was able to conduct field research in Bosnia-Herzegovina
thanks to funding and support from the IGL and the Anne E. Borghesani
Memorial Prize. Her thesis was named the best thesis of the year by
the National Peace and Justice Studies Association. Since graduating
from Tufts, Maya has pursued her interest in law and is currently a
third year law student at the University of California, Berkeley,
School of Law (Boalt Hall). She plans to pursue a career in public
interest litigation.-top-

Aliza Lailari

(Last updated 04/2008) Aliza Lailari is currently a junior at Tufts whose interests include international development, identity studies, sociology, psychology, security studies, photography, and international service. Although she currently lives in northern Virginia with her family, she previously lived in Israel, Greece, England, Omaha, as well various other locations in the US. Her educational background including home schooling, public school, private school, and international school, which she believes led her to search for learning in many different types of experiences. While growing up, she developed an intense passion for travel and learning about new countries, cultures, and foods. Aliza attended high school in Israel, at the American International School. She was captain of her school's soccer team, and traveled with her team to compete at various European international schools in the International Schools Sports Tournament (ISST). She also helped organize her school's annual "Hockey Marathon," a tradition of an overnight all-high school floor hockey tournament, and had leadership roles in student government and Model United Nations. At Tufts, Aliza has been a Tufts Senator, has been active in the Institute for Global Leadership, participating in the 2006-2007 EPIIC Colloquium "Global Crises: Governance and Intervention," and assisted a study as a psychology research assistant studying how empowerment leading to helping behavior. During spring break 2007, she also participated in a service trip with Tufts Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS) to New Orleans with fellow Synaptic Scholar Mie Inouye. During winter 2006-2007, she traveled with fellow Synaptic Scholars to Lagos, Nigeria to pursue a research on construction of identity in the megacity. Aliza was selected to the Summer Scholars program to pursue research on women working in call centers summer 2007. During the fall semester of her junior year, Aliza chose to take a semester off to pursue some of her interests outside of the framework of the university. She interned at The Brookings Institute at the Initiative on Volunteering and Service, striking a cord with her interest in civic engagement. She enjoyed playing on a recreational soccer team, working as a barista at a local coffee shop, and studying introductory Hindi. -top-

Padden Murphy

Padden, son of Deborah and Timothy Murphy, came to Tufts University and the Synaptic Scholars from Great Falls, Montana. He is a brother to four wonderful siblings and three Basset Hounds. Padden attended public school in Great Falls until his sophomore year of high school when he packed his bags and enrolled in Rowland Hall - St. Mark's School in Salt Lake City, Utah. At RHSM, Padden was the captain of the Rowmark Ski Academy. He graduated with distinction for his photographic documentary of the Montana Native Americans entitled A Forgotten People , for which he received RHSM's George Fox Award for the fine arts. After being accepted to Tufts, Padden deferred enrollment for one year, during which he interned for Senator Max Baucus in D.C., and Senator Edward Kennedy in Boston. In D.C. Padden researched terrorist financing for Sen. Baucus, and was a Capitol tour guide. In the latter half of the year with Senator Kennedy, Padden worked directly with constituent concerns, focusing on Social Security and Education. At Tufts, Padden is a TCU Senator, a member of Tufts improvisational comedy troupe Cheap Sox, and is active in the Institute for Global Leadership. Padden was introduced to the Institute his freshman year when he was a member of the 2005 - 2006 EPIIC colloquium on the Politics of Fear. With the IGL, Padden traveled with EXPOSURE, journalist Mort Rosemblum, and photographer Gary Knight to Buenos Aires, Argentina where he photographed and wrote about the Policia Bonarense and the legacy of their involvement in the Dirty War of the 1970's. His photography and essay are published in Exposure's latest book, Argentina Rising , as well as the 2007 IGL calendar. Also through the IGL, Padden and two peers co-founded ALLIES (Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services), a civil-military relations and security studies group facilitating discourse between Tufts and the U.S. Service academies through joint research abroad and group events at Tufts, West Point, and Annapolis. Padden spent the 2006 summer at Peking University, Beijing China, studying Mandarin Chinese. Most recently, Padden returned from a Synaptic Scholars research trip to Lagos, Nigeria, where he studied Chinese investment and influence in Nigeria and Africa. His work and photography entitled, "A Dragon in the Lagoon: U.S. Foreign Policy in Nigeria vis-à-vis China", is being published in collaboration with the work of his three peers with whom he traveled. Padden will spend the 2007-2008 academic year studying Chinese in Hangzhou and Harbin, China. -top-

Morissa Sobelson

(Last updated 04/2008) A rising Junior at Tufts University, Morissa has a passion for health and human rights. Morissa spent the summer of 2006 working at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) in Boston, where she was assigned to research human rights violations affecting health professionals in countries including Colombia, Malaysia, and Nepal. She also assisted with media support and database development for PHR's Health Action AIDS program, a campaign whose leadership includes physician, medical anthropologist, and public health guru--and, in fact, the person who most encouraged Morissa to go to Tufts--Dr. Paul Farmer. At the end of the summer, thanks to IGL's generosity, she had the privilege of crossing paths with her PHR advisors and mentors while leading a Tufts delegation to the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, a landmark opportunity for science, government, community and leadership from around the world to advance a collective response to the pandemic. Through panel sessions, artistic demonstrations, skill-building workshops, and interactions with renowned researchers and practitioners, the students were able to move beyond a focus on the scope of devastation of the problem, and be part of discussions about the solutions that are needed to fight HIV/AIDS. Having been first exposed to these issues on trips to Kenya and Zambia in 2005 as part of an independent project on the psychosocial impact of HIV/AIDS on children, Morissa used the skills and knowledge she gained in Toronto to organize a symposium on the topic in the fall of 2006 Featuring presentations by, and dialogue between, notable Tufts researchers, professors, graduates and activists, "Looking Back, Moving Forward: 25 Years of HIV/AIDS" aimed to help students and community members in reflecting on and exploring the history, impact and future challenges of global HIV/AIDS, while interacting with local experts committed to fighting this generation-defining pandemic. In January 2007, Morissa traveled to Ghana with a team of Tufts students and professors to study the impact of the multinational gold mining industry on local communities. While engaging with rural residents, mining executives, geologists, environmental activists, Asante royals, and creative artists, she was able to explore how the precious mineral is, on one hand, a source of tremendous wealth; yet it is also a driver of poverty, environmental degradation, ethnic tension, and foreign dependence. Nurtured by her ongoing interest in health and human rights, this paradox of "poverty amidst plenty" in both local and global contexts has inspired Morissa to pursue a summer research project exploring racial and ethnic health disparities in the Boston area that will culminate in a major symposium for Boston-area schools in the fall of 2007. Through this project, Morissa seeks to expand her knowledge of local social, political, and economic determinants to understand why even a city like Boston, that is such a hub of cutting-edge treatment and research, is also home to some of the world's greatest disparities in health outcomes and health care access between populations of different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Ultimately she hopes to investigate linkages between global and local public health responses to understand the types of efforts that need to be made in order to reduce or eliminate the health divide, while consciously prioritizing the input, cooperation, and context of vulnerable populations. In addition, this summer she has been invited to design an educational curriculum for secondary-school students at the Phillips Academy Andover Summer Session to help them explore the intersection between international humanitarian law and public health, which she will present in July. Morissa will also be spending 10 days working at an enrichment program for underprivileged, academically talented Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholars at Brown University in Providence, RI, followed by 3 weeks working as a counselor at The Circle Program, a mentoring camp for at-risk girls in Plymouth, NH. The first year of Synaptic Scholars has been an invigorating one for Morissa, and the guidance, inspiration and friendship of her peer Synaptic Scholars has helped her learn and grow tremendously. Thanks largely to their support, Morissa feels that she has learned to balance intellectual and social life, work and play, in an entirely new and fulfilling way. This sense of motivation and desire for reflection and challenge has awakened a new passion for Morissa: running. In August, she will compete in her third half-marathon since the Fall 2006, and she looks forward to completing her first full marathon next spring. -top-

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