Global Activities Scholars Program Students
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Admitted 2022
David Hay
David (he/him/his) is a Master of Social Work candidate in the Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse and Global Social Work Practice pathways. He was born and raised in New York City. David graduated from Hunter College with a BA in economics and music and from the University of San Francisco with an MBA in strategic planning and finance. His professional experience includes V-Day, a global women's activist organization, and SGI USA, a community-based Buddhist organization. For this fall and winter term, David is a clinical therapist trainee at CAPS at the University of Michigan, Dearborn. As a GASP scholar, David wants to learn and advance strength-based social work in higher education internationally.
Jenika Scott
Jenika Scott (she/her/hers) is originally from Guyana but has spent the past six years in East Orange, New Jersey. She attended Rutgers University, where she graduated magna cum laude in 2021 with her Bachelor's in Political Science and a minor in Global Studies. Jenika is passionate about advocating for others and seeks equitable equality for everyone. Her mission and goal are to inspire and become part of the next generation of global citizens through compassionate advocacy, equitable education, restorative development, and leadership. Additionally, she has experience working with the LatinX community in her internship as a teacher's assistant at La Casa De don Pedro and during her study abroad in Brazil at Saude Crianca. She is currently doing her field placement at Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She hopes to have an international field placement over the summer to learn more about developing programs and policies that seek to serve people and communities through a global lens/framework. Whenever Jenika is not in class or at the field, you can find her watching SyFy movies, reading books, dancing, writing poetry, or laughing uncontrollably with friends.
Mandy Meyrer (Ham)
Mandy (she/her/hers) graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Journalism and a second field in Communications and Sociology. During her studies, she was actively involved with organizations that were fighting human trafficking locally and internationally and spent time in different parts of India. After college, she worked for a local Colorado nonprofit, The Matthews House, as the Volunteer and HOST Home Coordinator helping youth that were transitioning out of the foster care system. In 2018, Mandy moved to Cebu, Philippines to serve with International Justice Mission (IJM) for one year. IJM is an international organization that works to protect vulnerable people from violence. In Cebu, she worked in communications, advocacy and partnerships to help protect children from online sexual exploitation. Afterwards, she moved to Washington DC to work on IJM's Asia Pacific team establishing advancement and fundraising offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Korea. Mandy is in the Global Pathway of the MSW program and is eager to gain skills that will allow her to continue working with vulnerable populations globally, specifically, developing and implementing trauma-informed, sustainable, evidence-based aftercare services and standards for victims of violence.
Priscilla Flores
Coverdell Fellow Student Admitted 2022
Priscilla (she/her/hers) was born in Nicaragua and immigrated to the United States to reunite with her family when she was six years old. Priscilla grew up in Queens, New York, and attended Barnard College where she graduated in 2014 with her Bachelor in Psychology. Priscilla has experience working with global communities in governmental and international development settings. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi, from 2019 to 2020, where she served as an English teacher at a secondary school and implemented youth programming on HIV prevention. Priscilla is passionate about implementing anti-racist and cultural-informed interventions as well as centering communities in social justice initiatives. As a Coverdell Fellow student, she hopes to learn about how to empower global communities - including refugee and immigrant communities - and how to apply mezzo and macro skills to effectively reduce power imbalances in the global context. During her free time, Priscilla spends time in nature, going to a local ethnic restaurant, or listening to her favorite LantinX and Afrobeats playlists.
Admitted 2021
Aiman Irshad
Aiman (she/her/hers) was born in Pakistan and immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was just two years old. Aiman was raised in Chicago, but moved back to Pakistan at the age of 12, where she also completed high school. She eventually returned to the United States, where she graduated summa cum laude from Wayne State University with a degree in Psychology and a minor in Sociology. During her time in Pakistan, Aiman worked at NGOs with youth from disadvantaged backgrounds, including drug rehabilitation centers and orphanages. In the United States, she has worked with refugees and asylum seekers, as well with children who have autism, as a behavioral therapist. She has also specialized in psychological research concerning the efficacy and benefits of Child and Adolescent Health Centers in school settings. Aiman joined the Global Activities Scholars Program to gain advanced knowledge and skills working with minority youth in both domestic ethnic populations, as well as in an international context. Upon completion of her MSW, Aiman plans to continue work with her intern organization, ACCESS in Dearborn, MI, with Middle Eastern and South Asian adolescents.
Ella Imes
Ella (she/her/hers) was born and grew up in southern Wisconsin. She attended Earlham College for her undergraduate studies and earned a BA in both Spanish and Peace & Global Studies. During her studies, she spent 2 months interning at a refugee camp in central Greece, which drew her to seek out a more praxis-driven approach to the theories she was learning in class. After graduating with college honors Ella worked for a year in wilderness therapy in Clayton, Georgia; there, she combined her passion for the outdoors with supporting folks on the road to recovery. During her MSW Ella hopes to learn community organizing techniques, develop trauma informed care practices, and continue to explore what other cultures and societies can teach her about social work and people.
Over the summer, Ella will have the wonderful opportunity to work with the International Rescue Committee in Dallas, Texas. She will be working in the mental health program with adults and young adults that are newly arrived to the United States.
Grace Park
Coverdell Fellow Student Admitted 2021
Born in Daegu and raised in Philadelphia, Grace (she/her/hers) is a first-generation graduate student. She attained a Bachelor’s of Science in Rehabilitation and Human Services from Penn State University, where she was challenged to value her education not as a one-way road to a career, but an opportunity to learn about herself and the needs of our society and world. Grace served with the Peace Corps in Malawi as a Secondary School English Teacher. She lived and worked alongside community members to enhance teaching practices, develop after-school programs, and engage parents in the academic success of their children. Although shortened by COVID-19, her service led her to one definite conclusion: She wants to not change the world herself, but empower the youth who one day will.
Over the summer, Grace will be joining Making Cents International and its Youth Engagement team. She will be focusing on bettering youth programs, policies, and strategies and increasing youth engagement in development efforts.
Justine D’Souza
Justine D’Souza (she/her/hers) is a Master of Public Policy and Master of Social Work dual degree candidate. A fluent French speaker, she has worked in the fields of international education, community management, and crisis counseling in New York, New Jersey, and France. She returned to graduate school to combine her interests in international affairs, human services, comparative politics, government, mental health, labor rights, and intercultural dialogue. Justine obtained her BA in French, with minors in Planning and Public Policy, International Business and Political Economy, and Organizational Leadership from Rutgers University. She currently holds positions as a Research Assistant for the Just Futures Lab, a Preferred Communities Program Intern for Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County, and a Student Facilitator for Change it Up! Disrupting Anti-Blackness workshops at the University of Michigan College of Engineering. When Justine is not studying or working, she enjoys singing classical music and performing onstage, reading novels and non-fiction, and watching documentaries and foreign language series. While in the GASP program, Justine hopes to learn about community building models and practices from across the globe, Eastern human services and organizing paradigms, effectively collaborating with a diverse client base, and transformative social work practice.
Katie Kurnick
Katie (she/her/hers) is from the Cleveland, Ohio area. In 2018, she graduated from Ohio State with a BA in International Studies, with minors in French and Nonprofit Management. She served as a City Year AmeriCorps Member in Columbus, Ohio before moving to Denver to work with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado. She is passionate about furthering equitable education here and abroad. As a GASP scholar, she intends to advance her knowledge of international issues and would like to learn more about ethical and justice-centered change that is taking place in communities globally.
Over the summer, Katie will be working with the Unitarian Universalist Association Office at the United Nations. She will be focusing on disarmament and demilitarization advocacy work.
Katy Rose (Catherine) Robeson
Katy Rose (she/her/hers) graduated with her B.A. in Anthropology and International Studies in 2019, and returned to the University of Michigan to pursue her MSW in global social work and research & program evaluation. Her interests lay in narratives of trauma and healing, particularly with regard for gender-based violence and Indigeneity. She has experience in thematic research on testimonies provided by survivors of the Indian Residential School system in Canada, along with research on the impact of 9/11 on the youngest generation to recall it in living memory, and the impact of trauma from gender-based violence on women’s connections to themselves and others as they heal. Through the MSW program, Katy Rose aims to gain the practical skills to apply research in addition to conducting it. In her free time, she enjoys reading fantasy fiction, gardening (which sounds better than plant-hoarding), and cuddling her very large fluffy rabbit.