|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Maarouf Al-dawalibi was born on the 6th of September 1981. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon but grew up in Saudi Arabia his whole life. Maarouf has always been interested in Middle Eastern affairs since he grew up in the area and lived through the civil war in Lebanon and the Gulf war in Saudi Arabia. Since then he has always been interested in world affairs and chose to come to Tufts for that reason.
Andrea R. Araujo is a senior double majoring in International Relations and Economics with a Latin American Minor. She was born in Santiago, Chile and lived most of her life in Brasilia, Brazil, providing her with a dual Chilean/Brazilian citizenship. Andrea spent last fall semester abroad in the Tufts Program in Chile. She is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and English as well as conversational in French. Her academic interests include world conflicts and conflict resolution, Peace and Justice studies as well as Latin American Economics and Politics. She has interned in the World Federalists of New England, in UNESCO working with the book Schools of Peace - and in the UN regional organization, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). At Tufts she has been the co-president of the Tufts Council in International Affairs, attending several Model United Nations conferences at UPENN (UPMUNC) and Montreal (McMUN). Furthermore, she has been the vice-president for the Tufts Brazilian Culture Club, a member of the International Club, and a choreographer for Spirit of Color. Currently she is a member of the Peace and Justice Studies Executive Board and is working with other friends in the creation of an NGO focused in improving public education in Brazil. Her hobbies include dancing, reading, listening to music, poetry, traveling, and playing sports (mainly soccer and volleyball). Upon graduation, Andrea hopes to eventually get a Masters degree and work for a UN organization or NGO focusing mainly on children suffering from impoverished conditions throughout Brazil and improvements that can be made in their basic education.
Ms. Berger is a senior from Ontario, Canada studying international relations. She has worked both in government and non-government sectors in Washington; first at a non-profit called Women for Women and later working for Nydia Velazquez (D, NY) in Congress. She studied abroad last year in Sevilla, Spain and then at St. Catherine s College at Oxford. She spent some time in the summer of 2002 teaching beginners English at an international school in Toronto. Her interests include running, theater, non-fiction reads (though one or two fiction are usually snuck in throughout the year), and photography; some work is displayed and sold at Maghana Gallery in Ontario.
Ms. Bhasin is a senior majoring in International Relations with a minor in Latin American Studies. Her Iranian/Indian heritage has provided a strong basis for her interest in International Affairs, particularly in developing countries. This past year she studied abroad in Santiago, Chile and Madrid, Spain. While in Chile she interned with a Chilean NGO focusing on popular education and the effects of globalization on the Chilean poor and working classes. This past summer she began working at the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma on an oral history project pertaining to Cambodian women refugees, and continues her work there this semester. Ms. Bhasin is fluent in Spanish, proficient in French and orally proficient in Farsi. At Tufts she has enjoyed participation in various community service groups, including the tutoring program, which she coordinated for community elementary and middle school students. Ms. Bhasin has been a Dean's list student every semester and is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. After graduation she hopes to work and further her education focusing on public policy.
I'm currently a Junior majoring in Computer Science and Political Science. I came to Tufts all the way from the Boston suburb of North Reading, MA, where I played varsity basketball and participated in the school drama group. I have been and continue to be a technical intern at the MITRE Corporation, a civilian not-for profit organization devoted to Information Technology development for the Air Force and other US Government agencies. While there, I've worked with and designed advanced web-based visualization tools utilizing the rising tide of XML technologies. I speak semi-fluent Spanish and a smidgen of Hebrew, and play guitar and Warcraft III in my spare time. I m also an avid baseball fan and aspiring sabremetrician, so baseball-related conversation is always welcome!
This is Zachary Braiker's second year at Tufts, before which he studied Politics, History and Literature at Brandeis University. He continues these pursuits here, where he focuses on an eccentric mix of international law and foreign policy, European intellectual history and Russian Literature. In addition to intellectual pursuits, he enjoys contributing to various forms of media including television, theater, film, and academic journals. He served as President of the television station at Brandeis, and executive producer of many plays and shows. Further interests include Martial Arts, which he has pursued since childhood and creative writing. He has served as a volunteer teacher with AmeriCorps in Dallas, Texas and also represented the March of Dimes on a regional and National level with advocacy and awareness campaigns. He sees EPIIC as the promise of the Tufts experience, and the touchtone of his undergraduate one, nourishing the spirit of the global community in the context of the college one.
Rachel Brandenburg, a Washington, DC native, is currently in her second year at Tufts University and is considering pursuing a major in International Relations with a concentration in the Middle East and South Asia. In the past she has run on the Tufts Varsity track and cross country teams, and has been very involved with the Friends of Israel student group on campus, of which she is now the president. She has spent a lot of time in Israel, including recently attending a three week seminar on global terrorism at Tel Aviv University, as well as living, working, and studying in Israel during the second semester of her senior year of high school. She is fluent in Hebrew and has a working knowledge of French. Rachel is looking forward to participating in EPIIC and having the opportunity to both delve deeper into global issues about which she is already interested, and to explore other complex conflicts through multiple wide and different lenses.
Mr. Busse is currently a junior at Tufts University majoring in international relations. He is trilingual as he has lived Johannesburg, South Africa, Geneva Switzerland and Bonn, Germany where he also completed his military service. In Germany he played on the German National Baseball Team for 4 years and participated in many competitive international tournaments in America and Europe. Over the years he has remained in close contact with South Africa as he still has family in Cape Town he visits yearly. As part of the EPIIC colloquium 2001/2002 he traveled back to Johannesburg to conduct first hand research on a development project in Soweto over Thanksgiving break. He spent his past summer in Sri Lanka working with the current practitioner in residence from the Kennedy School of Government, Tim Philips, working on issues of conflict resolution. Mr. Busse is currently learning Spanish as he plans to spend his next semester in Madrid. His career plans are to get involved in the democratization of underdeveloped countries through a multinational institution.
Born in Oakland, California to two young lawyers working in the public sector. From the age of five years old, I was educated in a bilingual French/English school system until my graduation in the spring of 2000. In High School, I participated in both student government and varsity athletics. Upon my graduation, I entered the University College of Utrecht, The Netherlands. While in Utrecht, I was able to travel extensively around Europe and was lucky enough to make a group of friends from all over the world. After a year in The Netherlands, I returned to the U.S. to attend Tufts University. In my first year at Tufts, I played soccer for the Tufts Men's Soccer Team. I was also the uphill representative for the International Club. The future awaits.
My name is Hank Compton and I am a senior at Tufts University majoring in Political Science. I graduated from Kecoughtan High School in Hampton, VA in 1992 and spent the next several years travelling throughout the Caribbean Islands and South America. I worked in many different fields during my travels, but spent most of the time working on private yachts and sport fishing charter boats. After returning home in 1995, I began working full time for The Hampton Division of Fire and Rescue as a Fire Fighter/ Paramedic and was employed with the department for over four years. Throughout my employment with the Fire Department I attended classes part time and worked as both a beach lifeguard and charter boat captain. I transferred to Tufts in 2000 and will graduate this spring (2003).
Frances is currently a freshman International Relations major at Tufts University; and as such, is unable to quite conceive of what she has gotten herself into by joining the EPIIC program. She hails from just outside of Buffalo, New York where she has lived for the past ten years. Her high school career, while mirroring that of many others, is unique in that in Seattle this year, she and her trio won a National Championship in synchronized swimming finals. Frances has also been a ten year volunteer with the Skating Association for the Blind and Handicapped, where she was an assistant teacher last year. Most notable however is Frances' involvement with David's Dinner, a program that her cousins began in 1998 when David O'Brien, an alumnus of the joint degree program through Tuft's Fletcher School and Friedman School, died in India researching the use of food as a political tool. Since that time, Frances has become keenly interested in famine and how nations either attempt to lessen its effects, use food as a political tool or just ignore the dying of their people. Perhaps, as such a starry-eyed freshman, she is naive, but she is very excited to join the EPIIC program and work with the remarkable people in her class.
Ms. Eales is a senior at Tufts University, majoring in History. She is from Minneapolis, Minnesota, born into a family of four girls. She is returning this semester after spending the last in Chile, where she studied many cultural aspects of Chilean life. After spending a month studying memory within a divided country, she brings back a desire to continue her studies of Latin America and someday pass on what she has learned.
Elana Eisen-Markowitz was born and raised in and around Washington, D.C. She is a first-year liberal arts student at Tufts and plans to major in Political Science or maybe American Studies. At this point she is interested in pursuing a career in political speechwriting but may or may not get bored of that idea within the next few weeks. For the last couple of years, Elana has been writing for various print and online newspapers and has begun (and not gotten very far into) an extensive social research project dealing with issues of gentrification, the Not In My Back Yard syndrome (NIMBY) and low-income/transitional housing in D.C. In the future, she hopes to continue this research on a broader, more international scale and perhaps someday gather real data and make real conclusions.
Ms. Fein is a sophomore transfer student from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, also a resident of Amherst. She considers herself an Open Minded major (Undeclared) with interests in psychology, political science, and anything not involving mathematics. Ms. Fein s passionate desire to learn how to analyze and create solutions the injustices of the world led her not only to Tufts University, but also to the EPIIC program. Prior to her first year of college, Ms. Fein spent ten months in Israel on an organized program. On her trip, she volunteered on a Kibbutz in the Negev Desert and in the Northern port city of Haifa, and also studied in Jerusalem. Because of Ms. Fein's first-hand experiences of the current Intifada and its effects on the country, she is particularly dedicated to pursuing research on peaceable and fair solutions to the conflict. Besides a passion for peace, Ms. Fein enjoys playing Ultimate Frisbee, making crafty creations, and meeting new people.
My name is Rebecca Frank. I am a sophomore transfer student. I was born in New York City and raised in Princeton New Jersey. At Tufts I hope to major in history. Before starting school last year I took a year off and worked for City Year Boston. During that year I worked in a school and at an afterschool program in the Boston area. My experiences in City Year made me especially interested in education and community service work. This year I am excited to be a part of EPIIC because the topic is so relevant to many current events and because I am hoping to broaden my own awareness and understanding of what is going on in the world.
My name is Shai Gruber, I am a freshman, and my main academic interest is the Middle East. I intend to be the one who discovers the just, compassionate solution for the ME conflict the world has been waiting for. In high school in Dayton, Ohio I participated in several independent studies: an intensive investigation of Josephus, a first century C.E. Jewish-Roman historian, an introduction to ancient Greece, and a study of pre-state Israel with a focus on the ideologues who influenced the state's character. For this last study, I submitted for publishing a work contrasting the ideal state formed according to Vladimir Jabotinsky and Judah Magnes' ideals, two major thinkers. I traveled to Israel for the second time in March to participate in the Central Conference of American Rabbis's Jerusalem convention. The convention had a distinct focus on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with keynote speakers including Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, US Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, Michael Melchoir, Yossi Beilin, Benny Elon, and Professor Munther S. Dajani, Chair of the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Al Quds University, among others. I participated in events with Rabbis For Human Rights, the Interreligious Coordinating Council of Israel, and an IDF security briefing at areas bordering Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority territory. I love Israel and cannot wait to return. My other interests include soccer, for the past twelve years, and classic rock.
I'm an Anthropology and Environmental Studies major sophomore here at Tufts. I was born in Colombia and moved the to the US as a child. I have lived in several US states which has led me to enjoy traveling, being outside, camping, and learning about different groups of people. Two years ago I was selected as one of the Finland-US Senate scholars. Within this program I lived with a host family in Finland for three months. We also met with government officials, including the then Finnish ambassador to the US, Jukka Valtasaari, and the President of Finland, Tarja Halonen in Finland and in the US to discuss Finland's role in an ever increasing global world. Then this past summer, I worked in the Catskills as a research assistant studying the hybridization and herbivore interaction of willows. Being fluent in Spanish, I am now hoping to conduct a research project in or near Colombia. My other major concern in life right now is figuring out how I can be outside all of the time.
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Natalia Guzmÿn has had different roles to fill as daughter, sister, friend, student, dancer, traveler, employer, and more. Currently, as student of Economics and International Relations at Tufts University, she finds herself on the search for gaining more knowledge of world issues and exposure to its wonders. A series of events have led her to these growing interests, but the experience of living in France, participating in an International Peace Conference and working with a leading economist in Puerto Rico have defined them even further. As a consequence, she now feels compelled to work for the progress of developing countries and its people.
I was born in New York City on March 1982, the eldest of three daughters. I grew up in New York for the most part but have also lived in Amman and Geneva at different times and have traveled elsewhere in Europe and the Middle East. I am especially interested in the Balkans and the Middle East, particularly on issues concerning children and refugees. I have volunteered at orphanages/children's centers in both regions. I am now a junior at Tufts majoring in IR and Middle Eastern Studies.
I'm in my first year here at Tufts and considering double majoring in International Relations and Economics. My primary interests, in terms of foreign affairs, are European Unification, The Middle East crisis, South American inequities, and central Asian conflict. I speak Spanish fluently and am currently learning Chinese. I am currently on the crew team and will run track for the jumbos starting this winter. To give you a little background, I am not really from anywhere. Throughout my short 18 year life I have moved seven times to and from places like Barrington, IL, Detroit, MI, Colorado Springs, CO, Cadiz, Spain, Tulsa, OK, and Zurich, Switzerland. However, the place I feel the most at home is Santa Fe, NM. I have a passionate interest in working to better the lives of the people I encounter throughout my transitions. In Europe I did extensive work in Poland and Romania with refugees and individuals in poverty stricken areas. Since moving back to the States I have been focusing my energies on improving the lives of Hispanic Americans in my communities. I helped start a program to teach illiterate individuals to read/write and even help them study for their GED exams so that they can receive high school diplomas. Political activism is also something that interests me greatly. While in Illinois, I worked with a few students to create a group called the Organization of Students for Community Awareness. Our goal was to increase political participation in local elections and in educational funding matters. Most recently, we worked to push a referendum to hire more teachers and build more classrooms for our over-crowded high school. For quite some time I have had the intention of working in the state department or in some facet of international diplomacy. In high school I participated in Model United Nations, Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking and Lincoln Douglas Debate. In the summer of 2000, I studied international law and diplomacy at American University and last summer I partook in the international relations program at Georgetown. I am an avid Chicago Cubs (maybe next year) and Bears fan.
Born in Surabaya, Indonesia, Victoria Hartanto and her family immigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area when she was 4 years old. She is currently a senior majoring in International Relations and Peace and Justice Studies, recently returned from studying abroad for one year on the Tufts-In-Paris program. She has an academic interest in social movement theory and is an activist in human rights issues, especially concerning capital punishment, East Timor, Latin America, immigrant's rights in California, gay rights and religion, and corporate crimes. She has been active in the Presbyterian Church, serving as a youth advisory delegate to the 1999 General Assembly in Fort Worth, TX. At Tufts University, she is involved with the Coalition for Social Justice and Nonviolence, is a member of the Gospel Choir, co coordinated the Shelters program of the Leonard Carmichael Society, and works as a supervisor at the Campus Center Dining Services. She has interned for CPPAX (Citizens for Participation in Political Action), a progressive political organization in Boston, working on domestic partnership rights in Massachusetts and the Free Burma campaign. Last summer, she worked as an intern for Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based international human rights organization, working on the post-911 anti-war movement.
My middle name is Marie, and the same is true for my sisters, Lisa Marie and Stacey Marie. Home is northern California. I grew up in a small town just outside of Sacramento. The name of the town is Roseville. I lived there until I was 18, and then I moved to San Francisco where I spent my first year of college at the University of San Francisco. The school is just a few blocks away from Golden Gate Park and Ocean Beach. It was a great year, and it is still a great city. I hope to move back there some day, as I miss the fog and the people. USF, on the other hand, wasn't fitting as a school. I decided to apply to some other universities with hopes of transferring. A sweet friend from high school introduced me to Tufts. I applied and was accepted at the end of the summer. I moved to Boston one month later. I am now in the first semester of my junior year as an English major.
What do I do with my time?
Mr. Hirshon is a sophomore at Tufts University who takes what the world throws him. He has only ever lived in State College, Pennsylvania, but sees EPIIC as an opportunity to challenge his perceptions and open new doors. Undeclared and open minded, Mr. Hirshon is considering a Plan of Study consisting of courses themed around basic human motivations and then applying that knowledge to international relations. Described as a renaissance man in State College Magazine, he played soccer, ran cross-country and was an Assistant Captain and Captain on his Varsity and Midget AA hockey teams. Elliot was part of the moraine mapping and meteorology teams on the Wyoming 2000 International Expedition
Joseph D. Jaffe joins the EPIIC program during his first year of resumed undergraduate education at Tufts. Especially since Joe began his formal education nine years ago, left college to join the U.S. Army, and has spent several years in the workforce, he is excited to make his return to the classroom within the multidisciplinary forum that is EPIIC. Most recently, Joe was called up to active duty in the Army following the events of September 11th of 2001. He spent several months working in Army intelligence, training for and aiding in anti-terrorism efforts. Prior to serving with the military last year, Joe was employed for several years at the software and web consulting firm AGENCY.COM. There, he earned recognition for being promoted over a period of just under three years from administrative staff to Lead Project Manager for the North American Interactive Television group. While with the ITV group, Joe worked on several projects with AT&T and Cablevision, participated in an extensive training program in the company's Interactive TV lab in Copenhagen, and succeeded in negotiating critical business ventures with Sun Microsystems and Oracle. Prior to working at AGENCY.COM, Joe served for two years as an Army encryption specialist where he was charged with maintaining hardware that was the backbone for secure lines of communication in the field. He worked in this field until late 2000 when he made the transition to the intelligence branch of the Army. Joe was raised in Manhattan, NY and finished high school in Suffolk County, Long Island. These days he lives in Somerville, MA with his girlfriend, Tracey, and their dog, Sammy. He continues to serve as a member of the Army Reserves.
Sarah is a senior, majoring in international relations with a geographic concentration on Latin America. She has just come back from a semester studying abroad in Ecuador and a summer working at the Center for Inter-exchange and Solidarity in El Salvador as an English teacher. She spent last summer working as an intern for Oxfam America, helping to develop their fair trade coffee campaign, and training for her first triathlon. While at Tufts, Sarah has been an active member of the Tufts Feminist Alliance through serving as co-chair for the RESPOND benefit concert committee, which works to organize an annual folk concert, proceeds benefiting a local battered women s shelter.
I am a first-year undergraduate student from Yarmouth, Maine. Yarmouth is located next to Freeport, a small village known for its outlet shopping and the main L.L. Bean store. I am a member of a five-person family, with a young brother and an older sister (who is a senior here at Tufts). I also have a golden retriever named Tucker. I attended a small college preparatory independent school in Yarmouth from which I graduated in the Cum Laude Society. I became more interested in international affairs after attending the Harvard Summer School the summer going into my senior year. My classes included War Crimes, Genocide, and Justice (which is what particularly sparked an area of interest) and a comparative literature course, The Epic: Homer, Dante, and Joyce. Due to the new interests from that summer, I took the opportunity of a tradition at my high school of the Senior Speech to research and write my speech about the present situation in Sierra Leone. I am extremely excited about participating in EPIIC and am eager to begin exploring topics that I would have had difficulty learning about on my own.
I was born in Kazakhstan in 1981 in a family of Korean descent. I grew up in Akademgorodok, a small and cozy scientific town near Novosibirsk, where my parents worked as scientists. I am the oldest of three sisters in my family. We went to a school where children had to learn French intensively from the age of 8 years old. Our grandfather, who was an amazing story-teller, shared his life and culture with us: he told us Korean fairy tales, adventures of his grandfather, and humorous and tragic stories from his own childhood. When I was fifteen, my family and I moved to live in Austin, Texas. In Austin, I discovered interesting things for myself, for example, I was equally surprised to find that I can solve physics problems quite well and that church can be really fun. I went to study abroad in Paris during my junior year at Tufts. I had dreamt of going there since I was a little girl, and at the time it seemed impossible. In Paris I attended the Institute of Political Science. And the following summer I went to Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan to do research on Koreans living in the former Soviet Union. I am currently a senior at Tufts University.
I was born in Boston, MA. At the age of five my family moved to Midland, Michigan where I spent the next 13 years until graduating from H. H. Dow High School in 2000. In September of 2000, I escaped the monotony of central Michigan by enrolling Young Judea Year Course program in Israel. My trip coincided with the outbreak of the second Intifada. While in Israel, I spent time studying in Jerusalem and volunteering in other places throughout the country. I worked as a teacher in the Democratic School of Arad, a park ranger at the Almog Nature Reserve in Eilat, and raised chickens on a moshav in northern Israel. In June of 2001, I returned to the United States in order to begin my studies at Tufts. Today I am sophomore majoring in international relations with a focus on the Middle East. Eventually I would like to have a career in diplomacy and live in Israel. My primary avocation is music, and I am the clarinetist in the Tufts klezmer ensemble, Jumbo Knish Factory. I also am a campus representative for AIPAC and participate in a variety of Middle East related activities on campus. My previous work experience includes two summers of landscaping, various restaurant positions and dishwashing with Tufts University Dining Services.
J.R. is a 21-year-old senior from Stonington, CT. Before coming to Tufts he attended the Williams School in New London, CT as part of the class of 1999. He is currently double majoring in International Relations and Economics. He is a varsity skipper on the Tufts sailing team, and was a member of last year's team that placed 2nd at the Collegiate Team Racing North American Championship in Hawaii. J.R. is also the current President of Alpha Tau Omega. This past summer he studied Latin American literature and Peruvian political history in both Lima and Ayacucho, Peru for two months. While in Ayacucho, J.R. also learned first hand about the Shining Path terrorist organization through a month long affiliation with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. His time with the commission was primarily spent collecting testimonies from terrorist victims in poor towns throughout the district of Ayacucho. After graduation J.R. plans to continue sailing competitively, with the possibility of an Olympic campaign in the future. His eventual career plans include: law school and humanitarian work in underdeveloped nations.
I am a freshman interested in majoring in International Relations with a minor in Philosophy. In conjunction with my minor, I will start an Objectivist club to expose many people to Ayn Rand s literature and Philosophy. I am originally from Seattle, Washington, and love the outdoors. Indoors, I enjoy dancing, engaging in poetry slams, fake scatting, skating, and go-karting. In all seriousness, I want to participate in indigenous outreach abroad, in hopes of discovering the truth behind global inequities in contrast to merely learning the facts.
Damaris Medina is a senior majoring in international relations under the thematic cluster of Global Conflict, Cooperation, and Justice. She is from Puerto Rico where she studied in the Caribbean Preparatory School. She entered College majoring in pre-med and has since found her passion for foreign policy in the Middle East and humanitarian issues. She hopes to work in the United Nations and then pursue graduate studies in international law. In Tufts Ms. Medina has been a Latin Peer Leader for incoming freshmen and has devoted much time to volunteer work. Recently she attended the first International Peace for Peace Conference. Her hobbies include travel, soccer, and painting.
I am a freshman from Sydney, Australia, and I currently live at Metcalf Hall. I am considering the International Relations major here at Tufts, with a focus on the South East Asian region. I completed the International Baccalaureate last year and studied Indonesian as my foreign language. Whilst learning Indonesian, I came into contact with the events surrounding East Timor, as well as the many corruption scandals that rocked the Indonesian government and the religious tensions experienced in both Ambon and West Kalimantan. I became more interested in these affairs and began to follow their progress, which eventually lead to Australian intervention in East Timor. During this time I also became interested in the affairs of other areas in Asia and eventually those from all around the world. I joined the EPIIC program because I really feel that I need to know more about what is happening in the world and that the understanding of these affairs is key to my other studies and future career. I am both really daunted and really excited to be in EPIIC and I look forward to meeting everyone else throughout the course.
Leah Rogers was going to be a psychology major until her experiences during her gap year between high school and college led her to realize that the world is a lot more interesting outside her hometown bubble of suburbia north of Boston. She spent a humbling semester teaching and volunteering in the Navajo reservation in New Mexico, followed by a semester in Costa Rica where she studied Spanish and fell in love with Latin America, and she is now a sophomore majoring in International Relations, with a minor in Latin American Studies. In her spare time she enjoys crafting, traveling (especially road trips) and amateur psychoanalysis. She has no concrete plans for the future, but there will be adventure and spicy food involved. She is a little high- stress and a little bit of a slacker, but she hopes the EPIIC experience will change these bad habits. Her name means wild cow, weary, or ruler, depending on whom you ask, and her blood type is O+.
Eugene Schiff is a senior majoring in history. His interests and concerns include, global inequality, public health, biking, tennis, and Latin America. He spent the 2001-2002 school year studying in the Universidad de Chile in Santiago. Over the (South American) summer break he attended the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brasil in February 2002 and also visited Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. In July 2002 he was a volunteer and skills building coordinator in the XIV International AIDS conference in Barcelona, Spain. He is fluent in Spanish and this year is writing a thesis on the privatization of health care in Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship.
Jenna Sirkin is currently a junior at Tufts University working towards a double major in International Relations and Spanish, and a minor in Latin American Studies. This past summer she volunteered for nine weeks at an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, where she helped to design and implement an academic and recreational camp program for the orphanage children and the children of the town. The past two years she has been a member of the Tufts Cross-Country team, and throughout the course of high school and college has been very involved in Special Olympics. She is also very interested in art, photography, and jewelry design.
Naomi Sleeper is a senior at Tufts, finishing her double major in Philosophy and Environmental Studies. She has just returned from a semester abroad in Florence, Italy, where she studied Italian architecture, Italian opera and the European Union. Ms. Sleeper has spent a summer working in Washington, D.C. for EarthRights International (ERI), an environmental and human rights NGO, where her research focused on environmental refugees and environmental women s rights, particularly in Burma (Myanmar). Since her experience at ERI, she has been highly involved in the New England Free Burma Coalition (FBC). Most recently, she has interned at the Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources, researching microhydropower in Massachusetts, and at the State House, working on environmental issues for Senator Stephen Brewer. Ms. Sleeper plays rugby for the Tufts Women s Rugby Football Club and dances with the Tufts Dance Collective (TDC).
Ms. Smith is a senior who majors in Computer Science and Minors in Political Science. Her family is from Nigeria and she has lived all over the U.S as well as in Nigeria. She is proficient in Ibibio, and speaks English and French. A former Vice President of the Akwa Ibom Youth Association in Middle Tennessee, her current interests include cross-country running, dancing, programming, and reading. Her programming interests led her to the American Association for the Advancement of Science where she interned for the Deputy Director of the Science and Human Rights department, Patrick Ball. Her work consisted of creating a database of records of human rights abuses collected in Kosovo and El Salvador. Statistical analysis was done to prove that there was a pattern and plan to kill and to incriminate Slobadan Milosevic. Patrick presented the results of the work at the International Criminal Court in the fall of 2001 in a deposition at Milosevic's impending trial. Ms. Smith also interned at Akamai Technologies in Cambridge, MA during the summer of 2002 working on Edgescape, a service that maps geographical, network and corporate data to IP addresses. Akamai is a leading provider of outsourced e-business infrastructure, software, and services.
ROBERT SMULLYAN
Jennifer Sokoler is excited to be participating in EPIIC as a freshman. She comes to the program with a background in state government that stems from her work at Malkin & Ross, a national lobbying firm with an office in Jennifer's hometown of Albany, New York. Jennifer also explored her interest in politics by participating in H. Carl McCall's campaign for governor. During high school, Jennifer discovered her passion for social action through her work on the executive board of her Jewish Youth Group. Jennifer looks back on youth group as an opportunity to organize and lead teens in a variety of educational programs and service projects including a trip to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington D.C. and a three day social action weekend planned for Jewish youth from across the northeast.
Asi-Yahola Somburu is a youth activist from San Francisco, CA. He is an international traveler, avid reader, and an active citizen in his community and the world. In July of 2000 he and a friend organized and funded a trip to Cuba for ten other students through Global Exchange. Asi also produced a film on his experiences in Cuba, and organized several forums and report backs to his community upon his return. He has also traveled to Spain and Japan, all while still in high school. Over the years Asi has distinguished himself with his many academic and athletic achievements. He was the Valedictorian of his high school senior class, and has been the recipient of various awards and scholarships throughout his academic career. Asi also plays the trumpet. He is a vibrant member of the Tufts community, as a DJ and as a leader of the Tufts Black Men's Group. He is currently studying to become a doctor.
Ms. Spiegelberg is a senior majoring in International Relations with a focus on global conflict, cooperation and justice. She is Chilean-American, born and raised in Texas. She is fluent in Spanish and plans to learn Mandarin. She has two fantastic brothers, one awesome sister, and amazing parents. She has worked in Mexico helping to create a joint Mexican-American small business, conducted research in Cuba on the cultural effects of the US embargo, and spent part of her junior year studying abroad in Chile. Her extra-curricular activities at Tufts include being a former Latino Peer Adviser and member of Tufts women's varsity soccer team. She also has acted as the university student contact for the New England Burma Roundtable and the Boston Free Burma Campaign, as well as the university student representative at the STARC (Student Alliance to Reform Corporations) international conference. She has a passion for soccer, ping-pong, Thai food, National Geographic, crossword puzzles, bunnies, traveling and dabbling in art.
Mr. Stefanakis was born On June 23, 1983 in Athens, Greece, son to Evangeline Harris and Manuel Stefanakis and brother to Rianna and Alexandros. He lived in Athens until he was almost 5 years old. At that point, his family opted to leave the friendly confines of Maroussi (suburb of Athens) and move back to Massachusetts, more specifically, Cambridge, Massachusetts. For the following 5 years, he lived and learned in Cambridge. At age 10, as a result of a unique job opportunity, his family again decided to move, this time to Prague, in the newly formed Czech Republic. For the next year, he lived in another new country; another new school. In 1994, his family returned to Cambridge where he ended elementary schooling. If movement categorized his early life, high school would be a time of stability. He attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School for 4 years, and is a proud alumnus. Nikias entered Tufts University in 2001 where he plans to major in International Relations and Economics. Outside of class, Nikias likes to participate in an many different endeavors. He played on the soccer team at Tufts as a freshman and is currently a member of the International Club and the Hellenic Society.
Iım Daniel Stuckey, a freshman. Except for a semester in Jerusalem during high school, Iıve lived in beautiful New Jersey all of my life. In high school I played soccer and ran track. I was a class officer and the Editorials Editor of my school newspaper. I dabbled in community service whenever possible, including a summer at struggling camps; one for urban kids and another for disabled kids. I plan to be involved in similar activities here at Tufts. Iım enthralled to be so close to Boston.
Mr. Swanekamp is a senior majoring in Sociology and International Relations. He is from Allentown, New Jersey, a small town often confused with a larger one by the same name in nearby Pennsylvania. He spent the fall of 2001 studying in Florence, focusing on Italian grammar and linguistics and social issues of contemporary Italy. He has interned at the Cambridge Health Alliance, a non-profit health care provider for residents of the metro-Boston area. He plays the guitar and the piano. After his time at Tufts he hopes to return to Italy and study issues of political and cultural identity among children of binational families.
I am a senior majoring in International Relations and minoring in Latin American studies. I was born in Washington, DC and lived in Costa Rica for the first three years of my life. My passion is Latin America and I am interested in development. I studied abroad in Chile for the first semester of my junior year. I am fluent in Spanish and proficient in French. I am a member of the Senior Class Leadership Corps. My career goals are to pursue a masters degree in International Affairs.
I was born and raised in Mexico City. My family migrated from Germany and Poland after WWII. This was both good and bad. Good in the sense that in my formation, I got a multicultural perspective. Bad because I fear having to eat at either of my grandparents houses. In my opinion Germany and Poland have two of the worst cuisines. I am currently enrolled at Tufts as a freshman. My tentative plans for my future revolve around majoring in Economics and Environmental Science. After university I have a million and one possible routes, but for the moment I shall just figure out how to convert four daily hours of sleep into a sufficient dose of rest.
Amiti Wolt is a freshman member of EPIIC. Amiti recently graduated with honors from South Plantation High School and is a Neubauer Scholar at Tufts University. He is currently pursuing a major in International Relations with plans of personal research and study abroad.
Zeleka Yeraswork, originally from Addis Ababa Ethiopia is a sophomore majoring in International Relations, with a possible minor in Mass Media and communication. Involvement in several Model United Nations conferences steered her towards an internationally focused odyssey. Mainly devoted to halting the ever growing AIDS pandemic, she has volunteered in the Mother Theresa AIDS orphanage for three years. Was recently a part of the American Friends Service Committee's Africa Peace with Justice Tour on the West Coast of the United States- where she served as a youth delegate who's main focus was educating about the HIV AIDS virus both on the African continent and pertinent to the Diaspora population in the U.S. She is also now a partner in a grass roots organization named Redeem the Generation based in Ethiopia, where their objective is to launch massive educational programs through out the country to educate youth on the severity of the AIDS pandemic. She was involved in writing project proposals for education methods in the three most affected regions in Ethiopia. Her secondary passion is collecting advertisements, watching commercials and taking pictures of the numerous billboards in Time Square- hence the communication (advertising) minor. Contact the EPIIC office for more information. |
|
Special Programs| Course | Members | Syllabus | Simulation | Roles Previous Year |
