ALUMNI NOTES

ASIA-BASED ALUMS

Hermes Huang (Thailand ‘12) is still in Bangkok, where he recently moved back into the same apartment unit he was living with other PiAers back in 2014 - “but this time without the status of being a rotating door PiA couchsurfer oasis.” Hermes is having a great time operating a small business with Thai partners and a global team.

[1] Kouta Ohyama (Laos ‘19), pictured with fellow PiA alum Casey Morrison (Laos ‘17), recently returned to his PiA host country: “After a ‘temporary visit’ back home that turned into 16 months, I finally made it back to Laos! I have been happily tam-ing those mak hoongs and pickling those mak-pets ever since.”

[2] Alex Ward (Philippines ‘15) and his partner moved from the Philippines to Vietnam in 2019, where they founded R House, a social enterprise that rehabilitates and rehomes dogs that have been saved by local shelters from abuse, neglect, disease, and slaughter. To date, they’ve rehomed over 100 dogs, 9 of which have started a new life with their families outside of Vietnam. Alex says, “Bridging the gap between East and West, we work every day to raise awareness about animal welfare and bring both Vietnamese and expats together to make a positive difference in the community.”

Clayton Shuttleworth (Thailand ‘16) is working at the Language Institute of Chiang Mai University (CMU), where he teaches English classes and does editing and Thai-English translation work. He is also finishing his thesis research on Thai drag queens for his Master’s Degree in Women’s Studies at CMU.

On The Job In The Usa

Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon (Cambodia ‘15) recently moved to Atlanta, GA to join State Affairs, an online news startup covering state government. Alessandro says, “Check us out at stateaffairs. com and for any local PiAers interested in meeting up for some good eats on Buford Highway, please reach out!”

Ayanna Runcie (Cambodia ‘15) started a new job in September as a segment producer for American Voices with Alicia Menendez on MSNBC.

During the 2020-21 school year, [3] Ciaran Willis (Mongolia ‘15) worked with a founding team and 130 students to create A Place Beyond (APB), which provided micro college campuses where students could live while they studied online. “These students came from all walks of life, but, through testing and community buy in, we bubbled up, avoided COVID, and made one-of-akind small colleges in the mountains of Arizona and Colorado where afternoon and weekend trips to the Grand Canyon or just down the road to climb became the norm. Significantly, APB was able to extend sponsorships in whole or part to over 40 first-generation or low-income college students.” Coincidentally, fellow PiAer [4] Rachel Liu (Thailand ‘19, pictured cimbing above) joined APB’s founding team in Arizona in September 2020 and helped open their new campus in January 2021.

Kelsey Smith (Myanmar ‘19) has been living in Washington, D.C. for the past year working on terrorism and immigration for the U.S. Senate Committee for Homeland Security. She and her co-Fellows had a PiA Yangon reunion in Minneapolis, Minnesota this fall!

After a few months of job- and soul-searching, Pooja Magadi (Laos ‘19) discovered an exciting opportunity at Facebook to create a positive global impact. In August, she began working there and enjoys “the feeling of being new, learning so many cool things and being challenged in a new space. I look forward to moving to Austin once the office is reopened and can’t wait to start a new chapter in my life (although I miss Laos so so much)!”

Stan Clark (China ‘18) recently started working at AFS-USA as the YES Abroad Admissions and Logistics Coordinator. AFS-USA is an international education organization that has been exchanging students throughout the world for over 70 years. Stan says, “My love for international education actually started with PiA and my fellowship at Northeastern University. So thank you PiA!”

This past September, [5] Jessica Lander (Thailand ‘10) was named as a Top 50 Finalist for the 2021 Global Teacher Prize, given each year by the Varkey Foundation. She shares the recognition with 49 other educators from 36 countries, selected from more than 8,000 nominations drawn from 121 countries. Jessica teaches history and civics to recent immigrants and refugees at Lowell High School in Massachusetts. She co-founded the national We Are America project with her former students working with teachers across the country to help spark new conversations around identity led by young people. She is currently finishing her third book, Making Americans (Beacon Press 2022), a comprehensive look at immigrant education as told through key historical moments and court decisions, current experiments to improve immigrant education, and profiles of immigrant youth and schools across the United States. Stay turned for Jessica’s new book next year!

Back To School

After working with six different startup founders for the past ten years, Max Stein (China ‘11) continues to value social and environmental accountability. He recently started a Master of Science degree in Sustainable Water Management at Tufts University. He hopes to work on transboundary & public-private partnerships that harness technology to better address water scarcity in the Intermountain West.

Victoria Tang (China ‘19) started her MSc in Clinical and Therapeutic Neuroscience at Oxford.

Sowa Imoisili (Hong Kong ‘16), former leader of the PiA Alumni Network’s Boston Chapter, started an MBA at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business this fall.

[6] Nadia Ford (Laos ‘19) is currently pursuing her MA in International and Comparative Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She says that her time in Laos strengthened her passion for international education development. Nadia is also working with the Department of State’s Bureau of East Asia and the Pacific with their Student Internship Program.

[7] Alex Coulston (Singapore ‘10) has been living the aloha life and seeing at least one rainbow everyday for the past year as a graduate fellow at the EastWest Center and pursuing his MA in Second Language Studies at the University of Hawai‘i.

May Braverman (China ‘17) was awarded a Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Fellowship and is now at Harvard Kennedy School pursuing a Master of Public Policy in preparation for a career in the U.S. Department of State. May says, “My time as a ‘grassroots diplomat’ with PiA played a huge role in deciding to pursue a career as a Foreign Service Officer. PiA gave me a sense of what can be accomplished in the span of two years and how immersed in a community you can choose to be during that time.”