2016 Summer Scholars

MAHUA BISHT | Summer Scholars 2016 : LEBANON Fellowship

Mahua Bisht is a first year student at Columbia University's Master's in Development Practice program where she is focusing on labor protections and reproductive health.

Prior to this she worked as a research associate at MOD Institute. Mahua was also a research assistant at the Centre for Public History at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, as well as a copywriting intern at Ogilvy and Mather, Bangalore. 

She is trained in oral history and archival methodologies, and has experience in qualitative research, grant writing, and content development. She has an undergraduate degree in History from Reed College (2011), where her senior year thesis was on minority-rights, caste and affirmative action in post-independence India.

Mahua is on the editorial board of Columbia University, SIPA's Journal of International Affairs, and will be spending the summer working on reproductive health issues with Syrian refugees in Lebanon. 

Read Mahua's blog HERE

AMANDA GROSSI | Summer Scholars 2016 : SENEGAL Fellowship

Originally from Las Vegas, Nevada, Amanda Grossi received her B.S. in Environmental Science and B.A. in Political Science from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) with an understanding that effective environmental change cannot be isolated from the larger political system in which it operates. 

After graduating from UCLA, Amanda served in the Peace Corps as an agroforestry extension agent in rural Senegal from 2011-2013, engaging in and witnessing firsthand the multidisciplinary nature of sustainable development, which ultimately pushed her to pursue her Masters of Public Administration in Development Practice at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, from which she will be graduating this May.

Amanda has worked on an array of projects and initiatives throughout her graduate experience with organizations such as the World Agroforestry Center, the Earth Institute, and the Clinton Foundation, but her passion and focus has always been in food systems and rural development, particularly around improving the food security and nutrition of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Amanda is excited to return to Senegal this summer as Plan International's Communications Assistant. She hopes to apply the skills she has learned throughout her graduate experience in order to communicate the powerful stories of Plan International, and of the Senegalese people, who initially sparked her interest in development.

Read Amanda's blog HERE