SIT Study Abroad Alumni Newsletter, Fall 2022

Curtis “Curt” Borden, Nepal 1980, joined the Peace Corps upon graduating college which led to a 25-year career in international development. He is now semi-retired and hoping to reconnect with his SIT groupmates. He recalls trekking in the Himalayas during his program with great fondness. Please write to [email protected].

Rhonda Broussard, Cameroon 1996, has published “One Good Question: How Countries Prepare Youth to Lead.” Based on a blog interview series, Rhonda uses conversations with education leaders from 11 countries to try to answer her one good question. She is founder and CEO of Beloved Community, a national nonprofit committed to sustainable economic equity in schools, workforce, and housing. (Photo below)

Renee Leduc, Botswana 1997, says her work in environmental policy was inspired by her experiences in Botswana. She is founder and principal of Narayan Strategy. She has been working in weather, water, and climate policy for more than 20 years and was awarded the American Meteorological Society’s annual Kenneth Spengler Award for “longstanding efforts and outstanding leadership connecting the weather enterprise, AMS membership, international community, and policymakers, and enhancing awareness of radio spectrum management issues.”

Yvonne Ochilo, Jamaica 2004, published “Red Letter,” a collection of thought-provoking poems which elaborate on the themes of social justice, history, leadership, the role of women, love, conflict, and war. Yvonne’s twitter handle is @ochilolaw.

Emily Kwong, South Africa 2011, is the co-host and reporter for NPR’s daily science podcast, “Short Wave,” which explores new discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines. Prior to NPR, Emily was a reporter and host for a community radio station in Alaska. Her work earned multiple awards from the Alaska Press Club and Alaska Broadcasters Association. She also won the “Best new Artist” award in 2013 from the Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition for a story about a Maine journalist learning to speak with an electrolarynx. (Photo below)

Annika Erickson-Pearson, Switzerland 2013, returned to Switzerland to pursue a master’s at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. She now works as community management lead for the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform. Annika worked on a white paper on the “Future of Environmental Peacebuilding” and was assisted by Peter Wetherbee, Switzerland 2019, who also returned to Geneva to study at the Graduate Institute and has published “Why International Geneva’s ‘human dimension’ bodes well for environmental peacebuilding.”

Alison Smith, Tunisia 2016, graduated from law school and began her career as a law clerk for the Office of Administrative Judges, U.S. Department of Labor, in Washington, DC In this capacity, she has garnered experience assisting the administrative law judge at hearings and drafting decisions for black lung and various immigration and whistleblower protection statute cases. While she was pursuing her law degree she served as the managing editor of The Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law. In 2021, she was recognized with a third place award by the Northwest regional chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing’s music theater competition.

Charlotte Majercik , Vietnam 2018, reflects fondly of her time in Vietnam and often speaks with students interested in studying abroad. She is still in touch with her host family and hopes to visit them in the future. Charlotte lives in Colorado and works for Child Protective Services, work that she enjoys and finds rewarding.

Quentin Bernhard, Argentina 2019, is currently in Senegal serving as a Young Adult in Global Mission for the 2022–2023 year. Previously, he focused on projects related to the environment, climate change, and clean energy working for The Outreach Team, an organization that works on issue advocacy, political campaigns, and community organizing efforts all around the country.

Christine Slover, Australia 2019, completed her degree in environmental studies and spent time in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru exploring history in Latin America and Afro-Caribbean culture, linguistics, contact zones, and environmental journalism. Christine is training as a doula. She says that her SIT semester was a “transformative experience and one of the best decisions of [her] life.”

Nicholas “Nico” Briggs, Australia 2018, and Nathaniel “Nate” Hess, Australia 2019, returned to Cairns to attend the Australian Marine Sciences Association conference. Nico is completing his master’s work at James Cook University, Townsville and the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences. He presented a poster “Bleaching severity and coral fecundity: Implications for reef recovery potential.” Nate has recently completed his honours dissertation at the University of Sydney entitled “linking temporal and spatial changes in water quality to oyster aquaculture using novel remote sensing approaches” and presented his work at this conference. They had the opportunity to catch up with their academic director Tony Cummings. (Photo below)

Skyler Heller, Nepal 2019, traveled in Nepal, Sri Lanka, and India after the program ended. He worked on a small farm in Auroville, Tamil Nadu, and stayed in the area for several months during the lockdown taking an online environmental ethics course. Upon returning to the U.S., Skyler began working on homesteads in Vermont, Virginia, and southern California through the WWOOFing network. Now in Massachusetts, he is working as a teaching assistant in an elementary school.

Jonathan “Jonny” Vo, Vietnam 2020, works as an auditor in a global trust bank and practices fencing in his free time. He hopes to return to Vietnam one day.

Congratulations to Sean Massa, IHP Health and Community 2014, and Lauren Newman, Jordan 2018, who were named 2022 Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellows! This prestigious fellowship funded by the U.S. Department of State puts them on track to join the U.S. Foreign Service. Sean credits his passion for diplomacy to his experiences studying abroad in Vietnam, South Africa, and Brazil—the three countries included in his IHP program. Read more about Sean here: Preparing for a career ‘even before I knew’. Lauren will explore the relationship between climate change and democratization. Learn more about how SIT helped set her on her career path here: SIT alumni will study climate change-democracy links through Foreign Service fellowship. (Photo below)

Congratulations also to Connie Chao, South Africa, 2019, who has started a Thomas Watson Fellowship. This one-year grant supports her independent study project called “Bridging Gaps: An Exploration of Community Health Workers” where she aims to understand the roles, experiences, and contributions of community health workers in connecting their communities to appropriate and accessible health systems and resources. She is currently in Australia working alongside the National Association of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Practitioners.

Congratulations to Isabelle Cole, Morocco 2022, who is part of the inaugural cohort of the Voyager Scholarship, a new program created by the Obama Foundation and Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, aimed at inspiring students to pursue public service to “bridge divides and help solve our biggest challenges together.” According to the announcement, Isabelle is interested in international immigration policies that support the integration and protection of migrants. In addition to Isabelle, two other students with connections to SIT and two Experiment alumni were awarded this honor. Read more about the students and the scholarship: 5 SIT, Experiment students win Obama Foundation-Airbnb scholarships.