ACE Alumni

As this school year comes to a close, I want to reflect on the amazing nine months I have spent interning at the Alliance for Citizen Engagement (ACE). Over this internship, I was able to expand my knowledge of human rights policy and sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on West Africa and Senegal in particular. I am honored to say that all of my briefs, including “Building from the Bottom-Up: Grassroots Development in Sub-Saharan Africa” and “Gender Equality in West Africa: Legislation Versus Lived Experience” were selected for publication on the ACE website. Moreover, after months of drafting, editing, and designing, I am elated to say that I successfully coordinated and published a joint report with incredible researchers at International Relations Today. Our report, Development in a Globalized World, grapples with the legacy of neocolonialism within development aid to Africa among other pressing topics. The PDF can be found below – we put our hearts and souls into this, and would love if you perused it! To top it all off, I wrapped up my internship at ACE by coordinating the Sub-Saharan Africa portion of ACE’s historic Conference on Climate Migration, where I led a panel discussion on climate change with prominent youth activists from across the globe. I am honored to say that some of my reflections on this panel, as well as thoughts from some brilliant panelists, will be published in an upcoming edition of Chatham House’s The World Today Magazine! None of this would have been possible without support from my ACE team and partners across the globe. Thank you to Chloé Delaitre for being an amazing co-editor on our joint report, and to the entire Chatham House Common Futures Conversations team for facilitating such a wonderful Chatham House x ACE collaboration. Most of all, a huge thank you to João Pedro Alkamin de Almeida for your supervision in the researching and editing process, and to our fearless executive director Siena Frost for your unwavering support! This internship has allowed me to forge international relationships and achieve milestones that I would never have dreamt of, and I will be forever grateful! I can't wait to apply what I have learned as I study and intern in Senegal this Fall.

I am certain that I would not be where I am without you and all the great people at ACE. I am very grateful that you took a chance on me about a year ago. ACE's growth over the last year has been incredible, and I am very excited to see what is still in store. I believe that the opportunity ACE presents to many young students is very rewarding and offers them an excellent opportunity to grow their network, skills, and expertise. I have certainly enjoyed researching and writing about many intriguing topics related to Eurasia. I think the camaraderie developed between colleagues at ACE cannot be understated...I hope that ACE experiences continued success and continues to offer unbelievable opportunities to young students trying to grow both professionally and personally.