Meet the 2010 India Fellows
AJWS is pleased to announce the 11 World Partners Fellows who will serve in India from August 2010 to July 2011.
Andrew Adelman
Andrew, native to Northridge, California, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with degrees in development studies and public health and an Arabic minor in May 2010. He embraces opportunities to interact with and be a part of new cultures, as evidenced by his study abroad experience in Amman, Jordan and travels throughout the Middle East. He hopes to build upon his
professional experience working with a global health NGO, Global Healing, to provide assistance and opportunities in health to those lacking resources. His dedication to service is demonstrated by his work at a Berkeley homeless cooperative and a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Jordan. Andrew will be volunteering with Halo Medical Foundation, where he will work on monitoring and evaluation.
David Friedkin
David, from Piedmont, California, graduated from Washington
University in St. Louis in May 2010 with majors in finance and Arabic. He has
worked as a cook in two Bay Area restaurants, in accounting and property management
at a California-based real estate investment company and as a leasing consultant.
David spent a year living in Israel volunteering as a teacher’s aide at an
elementary school and a school for special needs students. He has studied abroad in
Mexico and Morocco and traveled through South America, Europe and Africa. Following
his experience in India, David intends to pursue a career in social justice,
development or international relations. David will be volunteering with Sankalp,
where he will be doing event planning and writing-skills training.
Seth Garfinkel
Seth, a native of
Atlanta, Georgia, graduated in 2010
from Macalester College in Saint
Paul, Minnesota with a major in international
studies and a concentration
in human rights and humanitarianism.
He is a regular volunteer
with numerous organizations in the
Twin Cities, including the Center for
Victims of Torture and the Epilepsy
Foundation of Minnesota. In the
spring of 2009, Seth studied abroad
in Senegal, where he took courses in international development
at the West African Research Center and interned at the Association
for the Co-development of Senegal (ASCODE), a grassroots
organization in rural Senegal. Seth will be volunteering with the
National Centre for Advocacy Studies, where he will be working
in communications and media.
Arielle Golden
Arielle was
raised in Akron, Ohio, and
graduated from Wesleyan University
in May 2010. She was a major
in the College of Letters, an
interdisciplinary program that
incorporates history, philosophy
and literature and culminates
with a thesis. Her lifelong love
for travel has taken her many
places, from a month in a small
village in northern Ecuador to a
semester in Buenos Aires. While at Wesleyan, Arielle was an
apprentice and designer in the theater costume shop, and
the head chef for a weekly meal (Shabbat) for seventy people.
She has volunteered as a translator and program coordinator
at a Harlem food bank. Arielle will be volunteering
with CHETNA, where she will be working on women’s
health and nutrition.
Yael Misrahi
Yael was
born in Sacramento and
grew up in Jerusalem
and Cleveland. She graduated from Wellesley
College in May 2010 with a major in international
relations and
political science and a
minor in Jewish Studies.
Yael
studied abroad at the London School of Economics
and Political Science and hopes to work in international
development and conflict resolution. She recently
returned from South Africa where she was
conducting research on Jewish anti-apartheid activists.
Yael has worked in several nonprofits, including
a think tank in Jerusalem and the Jewish Community
Relations Council of Greater Boston. She will be
volunteering with the Centre for Social Justice, where
she will be working on research and documentation.
Samantha Ritter
Samantha graduated from Columbia University in
May 2010 with a degree in religion and history. Originally from River
Vale, New Jersey, she is excited to leave the tri-state area for a year in
India. Samantha has worked for several non-profit organizations, including
as a development intern at the Clinton Foundation and executive coordinator for the Cambodia Project, an organization dedicated
to building schools in rural Cambodia. Having first traveled to
India last summer to study Hindi through the
State Department Critical Language Scholarship
Program, she looks forward to returning
to start a career in international development.
Eventually, Samantha hopes to work for a
grantmaking organization focused on
women’s rights in developing countries. Sam
will be volunteering with SNEHA, where she
will be working on crisis center management.
Ava Shapiro
Ava grew up in
Newton, Massachusetts, and graduated from Barnard College in May 2008 with a B.A. in political science. While at Barnard,
Ava participated in an AJWS alternative break to Honduras and lived in Argentina, where she studied at the University of
Buenos Aires and worked with migrant women to help them obtain documentation to avoid exploitation. She has been privileged
to travel, photograph and volunteer in many countries in Central and South America, focusing on microfinance and sustainable
development. Most recently, Ava worked in the development department of AJWS as an executive assistant and liaison between
the board of trustees and AJWS staff. Ava will be volunteering with
Mumbai Mobile Creches, where she will be working
on fundraising and management systems.
Shaina Shealy
Shaina grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and
graduated from George Washington University in 2010 with
majors in fine arts and international affairs. Shaina has worked
for Glimpse magazine, the GWU Writing Center, Birmingham’s
chapter of the National Conference for Community Justice,
Project Create and Collat Jewish Family Services. She has lived
and studied in Uganda, Bolivia and the Netherlands. In 2008,
Shaina traveled to Uganda with a Luther Rice Fellowship to
photograph, research and volunteer
with arts-based development
organizations, and completed a
similar project on the role of
women’s art production in economic
development during her
semester abroad in Bolivia. In the
future, she hopes to utilize her art skills to promote economic and
social justice. Shaina will be volunteering
with Qasab/KMVS, where
she will be working on communications
and promotional materials.
Zack Shlachter
Zack, born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, went to the University of Missouri-Columbia,
where he graduated in 2010 with a degree in history. Over the years, he has written for
print and radio, worked at a public library and volunteered for various nonprofits in
Columbia, with trail work groups in the southwestern U.S. and at countless book sales.
Owing to his globetrotting parents and their families’ wide dispersal, Zack has had the
privilege of seeing a great many places but realizes that, as Rebecca Solnit says, one
“can wander widely on foot within miles of home or go around the world and never travel
in any way that matters.” Zack will be volunteering with Sahjeevan, where he will
work on grantwriting and documentation.
Katie Temes
Katie is from Fairfield, Connecticut and graduated from Skidmore College in May 2010,
where she majored in international affairs and religious studies. In her junior year of college, Katie studied
abroad with a program called Rethinking Globalization and traveled to Tanzania, India, New Zealand
and Mexico, where she studied the importance of grassroots organizing in community development.
Katie has worked with NGOs focusing on women’s empowerment in Nepal and has interned with the
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, helping to resettle refugees in Albany, New York. Katie
hopes to continue working on women’s equality in international development initiatives. She plans to
attend graduate or law school and pursue a career socially just and sustainable international development. Katie will be volunteering with Action Research in Community Health and Development
(web site not available) where she will be working on documentary film production.
Jamie van Wagtendonk
Jamie
grew up in
Great Barrington, Massachusetts,
a small town in
the Berkshires. He graduated
from Brandeis University
in May 2009 with majors
in politics and english
literature. In his junior
year, Jamie spent a semester in Utrecht, the Netherlands,
the country his father comes from, studying
Islamic immigration in Europe. Afterward, he
worked for the summer as a radio producer for a human
rights show. Since college, Jamie has served as a policy
fellow with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
Jamie will be volunteering with Hunnarshala where he
will be working on community research.
