World House Student Fellows Summer Awards
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Each summer, several of our World House Student Fellows are awarded funding to complete projects related to global affairs and crucial policy issues, both in the United States and around the world.
Summer Projects 2019
Daniel De Varona Brennan traveled to Havana, Cuba and Madrid, Spain over the summer, to conduct archival research on his history thesis. His thesis centers on Spain's 'reconcentration' policy during the Cuban War of Independence, which saw Cubans forced to move from rural areas to towns and cities protected by Spanish garrisons. The process of 'reconcentrating' caused the deaths of over 100,000 Cubans, as they were forced into crowded cities with poor sanitation.
Ayibaitarioworio Clement spent her summer interning with the Center for Gender Equality, Education, and Empowerment (CGEEE) in Abuja, Nigeria. The center works to reduce illiteracy, unemployment, and poverty for rural women and girls in Sub-Saharan Africa. It supports women to gain new skills, provides young girls with educational mentoring, and helps guide them towards success. A crucial part of Clement's internship was working with girls and boys at the Abuja Kukingori camp for internally displaced people, supporting them to further their education.
Archit Dhar used his funding to complete a research internship for RWR Advisory in Washington D.C. He worked on projects focussed on China's Belt and Road Initiative, and Russian loans, lending, and investments. It was also an opportunity to explore open source intelligence research, geopolitical risk management, and the world of international business. One of Dhar's key tasks was to help create company risk profiles, researching companies' global operatons, partners, and customers to measure their exposure to risk.
Justin Iannacone spent his summer as an intern with the Asia Program of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a think tank founded in 1972 through a gift from the German government. It was intended as a permanent memorial to the assistance Germany received through the Marshall Plan to rebuild after the Second World War. The Asia Program aims to develop common understanding of Indo-Pacific issues between the U.S. and Europe, and to strengthen multilateral relationships between the U.S., Europe, and Asian states. Iannacone worked on writing research briefings, supporting fellows with long-term projects, and more.
Ruth Lee completed an internship at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C., working with the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization. As well as supporting them to manage a new database and redesign their website, she supported EPA in developing educational outreach materials for immigrant communities in Pennsylvania affected by high lead levels in the water supply. She also worked closely with Asian-American and Pacific Islander leaders in government and universities.
Andrej Patoski spent part of his summer working at the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria in the capital city, Sofia. The Atlantic Club is a non-partisan NGO, and supported Bulgaria in the process of joining both NATO and the European Union. It works to promote Bulgaria's relationships with NATO, the EU, Russia, and China, as well as reaching out to Africa and Latin America. Patoski conducted research, supported the organization of events, and worked on communications and social media.
Ji Yoon completed an internship at the international consulting firm Teneo, working in the political risk department. There, she identified gaps and opportunities for clients' corporate social responsibility policies in a range of emerging markets, and tracked key shifts in country and regional dynamics that could affect clients' operations abroad. This internship gave Yoon a unique opportunity to see the impact of global policy from a private sector perspective.
Summer Projects 2018
Gavin Alcott spent his summer working with faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania, supporting them on interdisciplinary research projects. He worked with Professor Jose Miguel Abito at the Wharton School, conducting research on his project about common-pool resources - valuable resources whose size or characteristics make it difficult, but not impossible, to exclude other groups from using them. He also supported Professor Philip Tetlock, who works across Penn's Department of Psychology, Annenberg School of Communication, and the Wharton School, on developing improved processes for intelligence analysts to follow when making judgments about future events.
Julia Ciocca used her funding to spend time as a research assistant for Professor Michael Horowitz in Penn's Department of Political Science. She worked on a wide range of projects, researching topics including military innovation, terrorist alliances, and different weapons systems. Over the course of the summer, she learned about a variety of research processes, and explored her interest in potentially pursuing a career in academia.
Aneri Kinariwalla traveled to the Sri Aurobindo International Centre for Education (SAICE) in Pondicherry, India, to learn about its holistic approach to education. SAICE aims to inspire a passion for learning amonhg its students, prioritizing all subject areas equally and removing external pressure to learn. Students can build their own curriculum without restrictions or requirements, and the system excludes exams and grades. Kinariwalla observed how the school has developed a unique environment, and what lessons could be learned for education elsewhere.
With support from Perry World House, Przemyslaw Macholak completed an internship at the Treasury Department of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland. Over the course of his time there, Macholak worked on evaluating energy companies' strategies, expanded his understanding of government supervisory mechanisms for private businesses, and learned key skills for working in government, from reading legal documents to drafting policy memos.
Akosua Mante spent her summer as a marketing and development intern at Cocoa360, a startup nonprofit in Western Ghana. Cocoa360 provides free education and quality healthcare to rural farmers and their families, and offers community-based development projects. Mante chose this nonprofit after studying a similar organization in South Africa, Ubuntu Pathways, over the course of her World House Student Fellowship at Perry World House.
Benjamin Perla undertook an internship with the U.S. Commercial Service, which offers specialized trade advice and support for companies operating in a wide range of different industries. Perla's internship concentrated on data analysis, providing team leaders with trends data for a number of products in the European market, including marine technologies, apparel and sporting goods, and mining and extraction.
Maxim Yulis spent his summer working at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) as a research intern, focusing on Russia in the Middle East and North Africa. He supported ISW's research on Russia's military intervention in Syria, as well as projects on Russia's ties to nationalist groups throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Yulis conducted intelligence analysis, read and translated Russian and Aravic media sources, and took part in daily briefings with ISW's research teams.
