Fiona Miller ’09 learned a lot about the developing world after graduation, and is now focused on exposing future college graduates to service opportunities in Asia.

Miller moved to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on a Princeton in Asia fellowship in 2009, where she taught English for a year. PiA is a Princeton-affiliated nonprofit that has been sending students to Asian countries for more than a century to assist in service projects and development work.

She says she knew nothing about Asia when she accepted the fellowship, but later described the experience as the most eye-opening and transformative of her life.

“I learned so much, not only about the geography, history and politics of Indonesia and Asia at large, but also about how young people in the developing world view the global community and struggle to level their dreams with the geographic and economic limitations they have inherited,” she says.

Although just out of college herself, she taught at a university in Indonesia. These students were almost her peers, yet she was instrumental in helping to cultivate their goals. She considers herself fortunate to have participated in the education of a generation that will lead the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation through the 21st century. “I am positive that they taught me more than I ever taught them, and I am profoundly grateful to have had the opportunity to both teach and learn from them.”

When she returned to the states, Miller found herself unable to let go of her connections with Asia and Princeton. So she took a position as director of communications and media with PiA. She now splits her time between her home in Brooklyn, N.Y., and PiA’s office in Princeton, N.J., where she is responsible for managing the Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan posts, as well as the summer internship program.

As an undergraduate, Miller was a comparative literature major with a concentration in Spanish poetry. She was an Outdoor Action leader trainer, leading pre-orientation backpacking trips for first-year students and training students to become Outdoor Action leaders. She poured most of her energy into Princeton’s LGBT community as co-vice president of the Pride Alliance, and as an LGBT peer educator she spoke on panels in Princeton’s residential colleges to raise awareness of the LGBT campus community and their issues. 

In addition, Miller participated in Princeton’s Student Volunteers Council, organizing a weekly service project for Princeton students who mentor homeless LGBT youth at Anchor House, a shelter in Trenton.

“While I miss Asia a lot, it’s great to be back in Princeton and working to give future college graduates the same incredible international experience that I had,” she says.