Current Fellows

Amma Serwaah-Panin '10

Majors: Mathematics and Economics, focus on International Finance

Tostan - Bringing Technology to Senegal

Initiative Assistant Manager

Thies, Senegal

For her Olga Gruss Lewin Fellowship project, Amma is working with Tostan, an NGO operating in Senegal, on the Jokko mobile technology initiative. Across Africa, cell phones are rapidly becoming a point of innovation; the Jokki initiative is looking at ways that cell phones can be valuable in Senegal. Amma is helping to coordinate the inclusion of mobile phone use into existing community education structures, working with the monitoring and evaluation department to measure project outcomes and assess methodology, collecting and analyzing date on phone use, and being involved in training sessions. She is very interested in the ways access to finance and technology can be used as tools of poverty alleviation. She plans to use this fellowship as a way to accomplish her life goals of finding ways to connect people to the wider world and creating ways to expand choices and options.

Eric Espinoza '10

Majors: Latin American, Latino & Caribbean Studies and Geography

Florida Immigrants Advocacy Center

Immigrant Child Counselor and Legal Assistant

Miami & Homestead, Florida

For his Olga Gruss Lewin Fellowship project, Eric is partnering with the Florida Immigrants Advocacy Center on two urgent and compelling projects. The first involves work with immigrant children in federal detention. As a young bilingual adult, who has done work in many settings with children and adolescents, Eric is a significant asset in FIAC's struggle to continue this urgent work. His other project involves helping on a major case brought by FIAC’s Workplace Justice Project. FIAC has sued a cleaning company in the Miami area which has been forcing their workers to labor overtime without compensation, and subjecting them to systematic mistreatment involving physical and verbal abuse. These individuals are fearful and hesitant to come forward. Eric is providing careful explanations of their rights and reassurances in their own language. His own experiences in the immigrant community, coupled with his studies, have led him to focus on the particular problems affecting immigrants in the United States. Eric believes this fellowship will help him to determine whether he will pursue a law degree or apply for a staff position in a community service organization.