Alumni Information

(Active links on alum names are for email.)

 

Elizabeth Edwards
I'm in Kenya as a public health volunteer in the Peace Corps. I've been working with a community-based organization that does community development in Oyugis, a fairly large town in Western Kenya, about a half an hour drive from Lake Victoria. We work with women's groups, widows, youth groups, and orphans and vulnerable children in five rural communities outside Oyugis. Nyanza, the province of Kenya I live in, has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the country at around 18%.

I've trained two women's groups to improve the quality of their products that they sell as income-generating activities. I've also helped them expand their market to some craft fairs in the U.S. I organize football (soccer) tournaments with a health focus for youth groups on their school breaks. We use music and a public address system to mobilize community members to watch the tournament and receive health information. I invite health organizations to the tournaments that provide services like voluntary HIV testing and counseling and male circumcision, since the predominant tribe where I live doesn't traditionally circumcise and male circumcision reduces the risk of HIV infection by 60%. I've also taught life skills and health to girls and orphans and vulnerable children and done leadership/empowerment activities for girls. I work with trained community health workers who provide home-based care to people who are too sick to go to the hospital. I created a manual with information on various illnesses and treatment for them to consult and carry with them. For International Women's Day I organized for a family planning clinic to provide free family planning services to women in the area.

Kariela Almonte, '10 (information received 5/11)
I have been placed at Amigos de El Museo del Barrio as a volunteer coordinator in order to manage and sustain its volunteer program for a year through NYC Civic Corps. Affiliated with the National Americorps program, NYC Civic Corps was launched by Mayor Bloomberg in 2009 to answer President Obama's call to service by addressing New York City's most pressing needs through various volunteerism initiatives. Being recognized as New York's leading museum in Latin American and Caribbean art, El Museo del Barrio has been a pleasure and an incredible learning experience to work at during my Civic Corps tenure.  

The 2011–12 NYC Civic Corps application is now open for those students who are interested to become Civic Corps members. For more information and to access the online application, please visit the NYC Civic Corps site.

Lincoln Brody '07(information received 12/07)
At Skidmore, Lincoln's major was Spanish. Following graduation, Lincoln says he "did the entire Camino de Santiago"—a pilgrimage crossing northern Spain—and is now living in Arcos de la Frontera, in Andalucia, Spain. Lincoln is currently working as an assistant English teacher with a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education.

Julia Burns '07(information received 11/07)
Julia majored in Spanish and minored in Latin American studies while at Skidmore. After volunteering as an ESL teacher with Saratoga Springs Headstart Program in the summer of 2007, Julia is now currently teaching at Princeton Day Middle School (grades 6–8) in New Jersey and lives in Pennsylvania.

Maggie Sullivan '03(information received 11/07)
Maggie double-majored in Spanish and economics and minored in Latin American studies. She received her master of arts in law and diplomancy in 2008 from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomancy, where she concentrated in development economics and international monetary theory and policy with a regional focus on Latin America. She was a member of the Latin American Club at Fletcher. She has also been certified in Puerto Rico to teach secondary-level spanish. After graduating from Skidmore, Maggie taught ninth grade spanish for two years in a public school in Puerto Rico, volunteered in an orphanage in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, completed a summer internship with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Bojotá, Columbia, researched Cuba's economy and trade relations with Tufts in Cuba and traveled to Argentina, Mexico, and Costa Rica. Maggie currently resides in Massachusetts.

Lindsay Tarnoff '05(information received 2/08)
Currently Lindsay is applying to grad school (a public administration program at URI), but for the past two years she has worked as a director of an immigration consulting firm in D.C. She says, "The great majority of our clients were from Central America and spoke little to no English." She has recently relocated to Rhode Island and is now working with international students at Johnson & Wales University, where she creates programs to improve retention. Lindsay is also teaching ESL.