Casey '15 Receives Princeton in Africa Fellowship

Self-designed global health studies major to carry out yearlong service project for youth in Tanzania

Meghan Casey "15, of North Attleboro, Mass., has received a Princeton in Africa fellowship for the 2015-16 academic year to carry out a yearlong service project in Tanzania. This year, more than 180 students applied for the fellowship and about 50 were awarded.

A self-designed global health studies major with premedical and Africana Studies concentrations, Casey will be based in Mwanza, a town in northwest Tanzania. She will be working for an organization called Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative. Among her responsibilities will be to develop the education curriculum for the Teen Club; plan a weeklong sleepaway camp for 10-13 year olds with HIV; facilitate a microfinance group that trains young women to be seamstresses and form their own businesses; help plan and attend outreach sessions throughout the country; and evaluate the effectiveness of the programs. She will also attend clinical meetings and shadow doctors in the medical side of the organization.

This will be the fourth time Casey will travel to Africa. During her sophomore year, she was in Nairobi for a monthlong Holy Cross study abroad program. As a junior, she spent a semester studying Swahili at the State University of Zanzibar in Tanzania through a prestigious Boren Scholarship. Right before starting her senior year, Casey developed a women's empowerment sports program at Chukwani School in Zanzibar, Tanzania through a Davis Projects for Peace grant. She also studied tropical medicine and public health in Costa Rica during her junior year.

At Holy Cross, Casey has been sponsorship chair of Relay for Life; site manager at Project AIDS Worcester through Students Helping Children Across Borders; chemistry peer assisted learning tutor through Academic Services and Learning Resources;  Student Government Association liaison to Medical Ministry International; and cochair of Fools on the Hill a cappella group. Through the Summer Research Program and under the mentorship of Vickie Langohr, associate professor of political science, she researched efforts to eradicate female genital cutting.

Following completion of the fellowship, Casey hopes to work for a social-justice orientated organization such as Partners in Health. Utilizing her language skills in Spanish and Swahili, she would eventually like to work in Latin America or East Africa.

“I hope to be able to work with the people on the ground and to use my combined language, political science, and hard science background to work toward greater justice in basic health both domestically and abroad.”

Princeton in Africa develops young leaders committed to Africa’s advancement by offering yearlong fellowship opportunities with a variety of organizations that work across the African continent.

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