PACE_CENTER

Princeton students have has the resources to help you make a real difference in the world. See how these Princeton students have made the most of the opportunities at Princeton to start changing the world: 

Aitalohi Amaize ’07 had her first civic engagement experience as a pianist in the nursing homes and orphanages of Taiwan. As a freshman at Princeton, Aita became involved with the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK), a volunteer opportunity run by the Student Volunteers Council (SVC), and went on to serve as SVC break trips coordinator and board member. The daughter of a Nigerian, Aita also helped revive Akwaaba, the African student group, by organizing Sankofa, a weekend-long event that aimed to raise awareness of African culture and contemporary issues. Aita tapped into her Taiwanese heritage as an organizer for Asian Pacific American Month, and expanded her multiculturalism by co-coordinating the first Princeton International Human Rights Film Festival. Aita pursued an interest in public health policy by working as a summer intern at Boston Healthcare for the Homeless, sponsored by the Princeton Internships in Civic Service program. A psychology major, Aita earned certificates in neuroscience and African American studies and is currently working as a Princeton Project 55 public health fellow at the Medical and Health Research Association in New York City.

Kathryn Andersen ’08, a concentrator in the Department of French and Italian with a Certificate in Environmental Studies from the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania, where she developed her passion for food and sustainable agriculture. Through her high school years, she volunteered at her family’s CSA (community-supported agriculture) farm and her town’s local farmer’s market. At Princeton, Katy joined Greening Princeton, where she became involved with environmental project, such as recycling, energy reduction, green purchasing, and food on campus. She has also served as the undergraduate student representative on the Princeton Sustainability Committee. Quick to support the work of PEI, Katy was a panelist during PEI’s Food and Ethics conference and helped to organize the campus premier of Fast Food Nation. Katy petitioned for—and helped write the syllabus for—a seminar sponsored by PEI that was taught in the spring of 2007 entitled Farm to Fork: The State of America’s Food System. Katy is currently starting a farmer’s market on campus and will co-lead the University’s first Slow Food chapter this fall. She was awarded a Dale Fellowship and the Morris K. Udall Scholarship in the spring of 2006.

Sarah Breslow ’08, a concentrator in the History Department, has a passion for politics that was stirring before she came to Old Nassau. As a high school senior, she interned for her local assemblywoman. At Princeton, she has demonstrated her passion in her work for P-Votes, a non-partisan initiative to increase the number of students who vote. Through P-Votes and College Democrats, Sarah has organized numerous political panels and voter education workshops. P-Votes led her to the Campus and Community Affairs Committee (CCA), the branch of the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) dedicated to expanding University outreach. As the committee’s chair, Sarah worked closely with the administration and USG to provide students opportunities to become engaged in their communities. Sarah continued to pursue politics, spending a summer working in the U.S. Senate Office of Robert Menendez, an internship supported and funded by the Pace Center. Upon her return, she developed an informational brochure and organized an information session for students interested in finding summer internships on the Hill.

Florence Hiu In Cheung ’07 hails from Hong Kong, and is conversant in five languages (English, Cantonese, Spanish, Mandarin, and Japanese). During her career at Princeton, Florence strove to help others master foreign languages and led the ESL Project for Community House, coordinating weekly teaching sessions and promoting classes in the Princeton community. Sponsored by Princeton Internships in Civic Service, Florence worked at the International Rescue Committee in Thailand, instructing staff members in English while simultaneously assisting with the office’s outreach and fundraising efforts. Through the One-on-One Program, a Student Volunteers Council weekly project, Florence tutored young girls in English as well as math and reading. A Woodrow Wilson School major, Florence now works as a Princeton in Africa fellow at Africare in Angola, where she is learning Portuguese.

James Coan ’09 has dedicated himself to energy-related policy, majoring in the Woodrow Wilson School. In high school, he drafted a plan for an alternative-fuel vehicle for a contest. James’s desire to formulate realistic policy for energy policy led him to join the Princeton chapter of the Roosevelt Institution, the nation’s first student-run think tank. During the past two summers, James received support from the Princeton Environmental Institute for internships with the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. While in D.C., James organized his own pledge campaign for global warming, creating a six-foot-tall book titled Turning the Page on Global Warming, which was signed by eight members of Congress and hundreds of citizens. He is editor in chief of the Princeton Progressive Nation, the campus moderate-to-liberal political publication, and chairs the new four-year Mathey College Civic Responsibility Committee. He is also an undergraduate fellow of the Woodrow Wilson School’s Policy Research Institute for the Region (PRIOR).

Betty Cox ’09 was raised on a horse farm in rural Kentucky and was involved in numerous service projects in high school, but she had never traveled internationally before arriving at Princeton. As a new Princeton undergraduate, Betty was selected as one of only three freshmen to receive a Princeton in Asia service internship in 2006 and was posted as a teacher for the Summer of Service (SOS) program, an English immersion program that serves students in a teachers college in one of the neediest areas of western China. Betty’s experiences in China, coupled with her skills as an educator, helped her realize her passion for education. She became an East Asian Studies major and has dedicated her time to improving SOS and ensuring that the program continues beyond its successful first year to become a sustainable service project for future Princetonians. In Betty’s sophomore year, she was selected to co-lead a new group of Princeton undergraduates traveling to China, where all twelve students taught in the SOS program.

Drew Frederick ’07, a Woodrow Wilson School major and recipient of the Spirit of Princeton Award and the Priscilla Glickman ’92 Memorial Award (honoring “independence and imagination in the area of community service”), was introduced to service through his youth involvement with his church’s Habitat for Humanity projects. As a freshman at Princeton, Drew joined the newly formed Civic Values Task Force (CVTF), a student group that evolved into the Pace Council for Civic Values. As a member and later chair of the CVTF, Drew worked to increase awareness of civic engagement on campus, promoting and implementing initiatives to help Princeton continue to improve its preparation of students for lives of active citizenship. One outcome that Drew helped organize was Princeton in the Nation’s Service (PINS), a month-long series of civic engagement events sponsored by the student government. Drew also served as a member of the Pace Advisory Board, as a project coordinator of the Princeton Big Brother/Sister Program, and as a student group liaison for P-Votes. He did a summer internship with ProPeru in Peru, sponsored by the International Internship Program, and was a Princeton Internships in Civic Service sponsored-intern with CATA – Farmworkers Support Network in Glassboro, N.J. His wrote a senior thesis focused on civic engagement, titled Preparing Students for Lives of Responsible Citizenship: A Higher Education Civic Blueprint for the State of New Jersey.

Ashley Johnson ’08 , a Classics major from the Philadelphia area, participated in the inaugural year of Princeton in Asia’s, Summer of Service (SOS) program, an 8 week English immersion program that serves students in a teachers’ college in one of the neediest areas of western China. Ashley stayed in China for an additional 4 months to participate in a Chinese language immersion program and spoke only Chinese for an entire semester. From her new home in China, she completed one of her JP’s (junior papers), while continuing to work with Princeton in Asia on the SOS program. Ashley was selected as a co-leader of the SOS program (with Betty Cox ’09) for the summer of 2007 and has used her fluent Chinese skills and her fondness for curriculum development and lesson planning to lead a group of other Princeton undergraduates. Together, Ashley and Betty have enhanced the SOS program originally conceived of by their peer, Richard (Rory) Truex ’07, and ensured the program’s sustainability and availability for future Princeton undergraduates.

Aiala Levy ’07 , a native of Israel, discovered her passion for public service through Junior Optimist Octagon International (JOOI), an organization dedicated to “Kids Helping Kids.” Building on her experience in JOOI and a desire for education reform after 12 years in Los Angeles public schools, Aiala took on the role of founder and co-director of Interact, a program that, under the auspices of the International Relations Council(IRC), places Princeton students in the classrooms of Trenton high schools as teachers of international affairs. In addition, Aiala volunteered with P-Votes, served as an Outdoor Action leaderand Rockefeller College peer adviser, and interned at the Pace Center. Off campus, she was a field manager for the Democratic National Committee and an intern (sponsored by the International Internship Program) at the Mexico City branch of the Solidarity Center, a labor rights group organization. Aiala majored in history, earning certificates in Latin American studies and music performance, and is currently working as a Princeton Project 55 fellow at the Mikva Challenge Grant Foundation in Chicago.

Josh Loehrer ’08 continued the strong ethic of service stressed at his high school and began his Princeton experience as a participant in Community Action, the freshmen pre-orientation program, which he returned to as a leader in his sophomore year and as program coordinator in his senior year. Josh has served as a Residential College Adviser in Butler College and this year will become an academic peer adviser. He has worked through Community House as a tutor, coordinator of the ESL program, and Big Brother, and has also actively participated in Greening Princeton. Josh is currently a member of the Pace Council for Civic Values, for which he is organizing a freshman orientation event entitled, “Reflections on Service”, aimed at promoting civic engagement on campus. Sponsored by the International Internship Program, Josh spent one summer in Peru working on issues of poverty and sustainability, and the subsequent summer in Chile, working with a social activist organization and volunteering at an organization that works with homeless people. Josh enjoys participating in the International Relations Council and Men’s Club Soccer. Josh is a Woodrow Wilson School major, earning certificates in Latin American Studies and Environmental Studies through Princeton Environmental Institute.

Alma Moedano ’08 found her public service footing as a high school peer tutor and community volunteer. At Princeton, Alma continued to be active in her local community, volunteering with the Student Volunteers Council (SVC) and later serving as SVC’s break trip coordinator and Community Action leader. Currently co-chair of the Pace Council for Civic Values, Alma has also dedicated her time to promoting greater on-campus awareness of the Latino community and its challenges, acting as president of the Chicano Caucus and member of the Latino Coalition of Princeton and the Latino Heritage Month Committee. A concentrator in the Woodrow Wilson School, pursuing certificates in Latin American studies and Portuguese, Alma has combined her academic interest in Latin America and education reform, as reflected in her International Internship Program sponsored-internship with the Centro Social de Semear e Educar in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and her Princeton Internships in Civic Service sponsored-internship with the Link Community School in Newark, N.J.

Katrina Roganchevsky ’07 majored in Politics and started her involvement in service as a sophomore with the Princeton Justice Program. A summer internship at the Health Sector Policy program in Kampala, Uganda inspired Katrina to continue her engagement with Africa at Princeton, and she became the co-director of the Princeton Darfur Action Campaign. Katrina also served on the Civic Values Task Force Subcommittee on the Role of Residential Colleges and as a peer educator and team leader with the LGBT Peer Education Program. After spending a year in rural Guatemala with her father, an anthropologist, doing field work with the Quechua Maya people, Katrina became enamored with Latin America. She chose to pursue this new found interest and is now a Princeton in Latin America fellow, working in the Dominican Republic for the NGO CENSEL (Center for Violence Prevention for Women).

Ruthie Schwab ’09 has a passion for food and agriculture that has led to a growing interest in sustainable living. At Princeton, Ruthie is concentrating in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology while pursuing certificates in Visual Art and Environmental Studies through Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI). She is both an Eco-Rep and a member of Greening Princeton. Through funding from PEI, Ruthie spearheaded the Office of Sustainability’s Garden Project with a pilot demonstration garden at Forbes College. She continues to work in consultation with PEI, the Office of Sustainability, and the Dean of Residential Life at Forbes to expand and maintain the garden and to develop design competitions, lectures, films and discussions, cooking demonstrations, and other academic and social activities that aim to educate students about sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Ishani Sud ’08 is majoring in Chemical Engineering with certificates in Engineering Biology, Materials Science, Neuroscience, and the Woodrow Wilson School. Ishani is interested in a range of international development issues including health, technology, and security. Through her work with the Global Development Network, she led a group in designing a low-cost solar oven and studying ceramic water filtration. She has traveled to Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Brazil to implement these projects and share her results. She is a recipient of Princeton’s Scholars in the Nation’s Service scholarship, a program recently created to encourage top students to pursue careers in the U.S. federal government. Through this initiative, Ishani interned this past summer with the U.S. Naval Forces – Japan, headquartered in Yokosuka.

Eugene Yi ’08 is a Woodrow Wilson School major who speaks Korean and Mandarin Chinese and is interested in national security and international finance law, with a particular emphasis on East Asia. Following summer study in China, he founded the Princeton University Language Project, a translation program that offers its student members a pragmatic way to exercise their language skills by helping international NGOs with political advocacy work. Eugene is a recipient of Princeton’s Scholars in the Nation’s Service scholarship, a program recently created to encourage top students to pursue careers in the U.S. federal government. Through the initiative, he interned this past summer at two prominent foreign policy agencies, the Department of Defense’s Office of Asian and Pacific Security Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the State Department’s Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs on the Taiwan desk.

Nahal Zebarjadi-Sar ’07 majored in politics and earned a certificate in Near Eastern Studies. An Australian citizen of Middle Eastern origin, Nahal is particularly interested in the intersection of cultures and the global area. As an organizing committee member for the Global Issues Forum, she conceptualized and directed a concert to benefit Darfur, a fundraising drive for tsunami relief efforts, and biweekly seminars to promote the discussion of international issues among the Princeton community. She also co-organized the annual International Festival (the largest student event on campus with a $20,000 budget) and, as co-president of the Consortium of International Student Organizations, organized fundraising efforts to aid in earthquake relief for the Kashmir region. Spending a summer interning with Human Rights First, an internship sponsored by the Princeton Internships in Civic Service program, Nahal continues to be engaged in the global area post-graduation and is currently a Princeton in Africa fellow at the International Rescue Committee in Democratic Republic of Congo.