ALUMNI NOTES

ASIA-BASED ALUMS:

After three years working at the United World College (UWC) high school in China,

[1] Ramie Jacobson (China ‘13) and his wife moved this August to the “Little Red Dot” to start new jobs as University Advisors at UWC South East Asia in Singapore: “When we aren’t helping students from 101 nationalities apply to further education opportunities, we plan to explore all that Singapore’s hawker centre food culture has to offer. If any PiA alums are passing through, look us up and we can share a plate of char kway teow or chili crab!”

Trevor Orginski (Thailand ‘18, Myanmar ‘19) has recently been awarded a Boren Fellowship, which will put him in Bangkok for the 2022-2023 academic year. As a Boren Fellow, he will be studying Thai and working within the human rights and democracy space. Trevor is a current graduate student at the University of Michigan pursuing a masters of public policy and an MA in Southeast Asian studies.

After 8 years full time in Bangkok, Thailand, Hermes Huang (Thailand ‘12) is now splitting his time between Bangkok and Sydney, Australia for work and love. He’s still running his small business, having a great time with his team facilitating workshops and trainings around the world, and looking forward to meeting some of the PiAers who’ll be coming back to Asia in the next year!

Jenny Chao (Thailand ‘04) recently moved to Jakarta with the World Bank, with her family, and she encourages any PiAers to reach out if you are passing through!

Gavin Huang (South Korea ‘15) has joined the Financial Times in Hong Kong as a digital publishing journalist, where he’ll serve as a gatekeeper for the paper’s coverage in Asia. Before that, he managed editorial content at the auction house Phillips, where he came the closest he ever had to a Monet.

COOL ENOUGH FOR SCHOOL:

[2] Stephanie A. Kim (Laos ‘15) is pursuing a Masters in Business Administration at the

Yale School of Management, Class of 2024. Joining her at Yale is Trisha Chaudhary (India ‘18), who is a dual MBA/MPH student with Yale School of Management and School of Public Health and is interested in working in digital health.

Grace Wright (Laos ‘18) was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to get her Master of Public Policy at the University of Melbourne, where she is focusing on what the U.S. and Australia can learn from each other when it comes to disability-inclusive policy-making and disability-inclusive international development. Grace says, “This all grew out of my experience working on a USAID disability inclusion project at World Ed Laos and interacting with Australian projects/universities there, so I truly wouldn’t be here without PiA!”

Former PiA Program Director Meghana Nerurkar (Macau ‘17) has started a master’s program at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

At PiA’s home office in Princeton, we’re delighted to have two PiA alumni joining us on campus: Sean Massa (Indonesia ‘15) was awarded a 2022 Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellowship, which will support his master’s degree at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs before he begins his career in the Foreign Service. And Christian Rivera (Thailand ‘14) recently completed his PhD in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida and is now a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton’s High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI). As an Environmental Research and Teaching Fellow, Christian works closely with colleagues in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, the Department of Anthropology, and the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment to develop innovative solutions towards the conservation of biological and cultural diversity in a rapidly changing world.

After completing her Ph.D. in CU Boulder’s Department of Geography in 2021, Jessica DiCarlo (China ‘09) joined the University of British Columbia as the Chevalier Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Transportation and Development in China at the Institute of Asian Research in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. The fellowship supports an emerging China scholar to pursue a dual academic and policy program of research related to Chinese development and investment in infrastructure across Asia.

[3] Kelsey Henderson (Japan ‘15) graduated from Georgetown Law School this year. She recently started working at a law firm in DC and is looking forward to meeting more DC-based alumni at PiA happy hours!

GROWING THE PiA FAMILY:

2022 was a big year for PiA weddings!

[4] Jeremiah Firman (Thailand ‘14) and Mahalia Kahsay (Thailand ‘14) were mar- ried in August. Among the wedding guests were PiA alumni Julian Peterson (Thailand ‘16 and Program Director), Sabina Tarnowka (China ‘13), Samantha Stroup (Malaysia ‘14, Laos ‘15), Jordan Metro (Thailand ‘14), and Alyssa Northrop (Thailand ‘14).

But they weren’t the only PiA couple to tie the knot this year: [5] Nina Houston (Kazakhstan ‘16, Hong Kong ‘17) and Isabella Bersani (Mongolia ‘16) were married in September, joined by numerous PiA family and friends.

[6] Angie Chen (China ‘19) got married in April, and joining her at her wedding were PiA friends Holly Deng (Macau ‘19) and Sebastian Witherspoon (China ‘19).

[7] Alexandra Scott (Laos 2010) married husband Alex Rich, on October 1, 2022 in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard. She celebrated with long-time and very dear friends Mags Dillon (Laos ‘10 and current Executive Director) and Eliza Berry (Vietnam ‘09, Laos

‘10). Alex, Mags and Eliza met as PiA Fellows in Laos in 2010 and remain the best of friends to this day.

And Amy Kohout (Laos ‘05) shared that in May 2020, she married Cory Johnston on a hike to one of their favorite spots. You don’t need any witnesses to get married in Colorado, but their dog Boomer would like it known that he was there! Amy also recently earned tenure and promotion to associate professor at Colorado College, where she teaches in the History department.

Finally, [8] Hannah McDonald-Moniz (Laos ‘10) shared that she and her spouse Anou Phaipanya “welcomed the newest member of the PiA extended family in June - baby Theodore Jai. (‘Jai’ means ‘heart’ in Lao). Theo is looking forward to his first trips to Asia and first tastes of laap, khao niow, and gaeng nor mai as he gets older.” Welcome to the family!