Sixteen students have been named Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI), a program within the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), which funds both graduate fellowships and undergraduate summer internships.
The graduate program includes a two-year Master in Public Affairs (MPA) at SPIA, as well as two years of paid fellowship rotations with executive branch departments or agencies.
The four seniors, Ella Gantman ’23, Morgan Lonergan ’23, Rooya Rahin ’23, and Kathleen Song ’23, have been named as Graduate Scholars.
Rahin serves as the Editorial Board chair and financial stipend director at The Daily Princetonian.
The twelve juniors who have been named as SINSI interns are Kareena Bhakta ’24, Luke Chan ’24, Xander de los Reyes ’24, Sydney Eck ’24, Faraaz Godil ’24, Ethan Magistro ’24, Grace Morris ’24, Brandon McNeely ’24, Amber Rahman ’24, Zoe San Martin ‘24, Isabella Shutt ’24, and Kathy Yang ’24.
Bhakta serves as a Head Newsletter Editor and Eck serves as a Head Features Editor for the ‘Prince.’
The undergraduate award funds an eight- to ten-week summer internship within an executive agency.
“Once again, we had a spectacular group of candidates, deeply committed to service here and in their home communities,” SINSI co-directors Frederick Barton and Kathryn Lunney wrote in the announcement.
A number of the scholars referenced past work in government internships and nonprofit advocacy work in their biographies, as well as extensive involvement in on-campus groups.
Gantman wrote that her “public service works toward racial equity, both by reimagining the carceral system and by expanding access to the ballot,” referencing her work interning at the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, where she worked on statewide redistricting cases.
Lonergan wrote that “she is interested in working in development policy, particularly on the growth of small and medium enterprises in developing countries” and discussed her past work on “COVID-19 mitigation and relief efforts with local restaurants and community organizations in Queens, New York.”
Rahin has worked as a policy intern at Hunger Free Colorado and as a markets intern at the World Wildlife Fund; she also interned in 2022 for the federal government “in an office that utilized her research and language skills.”
Song, who is in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department, has worked primarily in climate policy, volunteering with the Citizens’ Climate Lobby on bipartisan carbon pricing legislation and researching air pollution in the western United States.
Bhakta wrote that she is “interested in civil rights, criminal justice, and considering public policy through the lens of racial equity,” and that she has previously worked with the Princeton Civil Rights Commission and the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender in Essex County.
Chan wrote that “he is passionate about leading teams to serve underrepresented communities, furthering his understanding of U.S. law and government, and researching U.S.-Latin America relations,” also referencing his work with the Korean American Grassroots Conference.
De los Reyes wrote that he “is most interested in the nexus of Americans’ civil liberties, technology, and policing.” He is a transfer student and served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2012 to 2017 prior to entering the University.
Eck referenced her past work in the two Congressional offices of Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) in the summers of 2021 and 2022, respectively, in her biography, including her work developing a bill proposal on aerospace supply chain resilience resulting in the congressman’s co-sponsorship.
Godil wrote that his interests include “international development, violence and security, and their intersections with migration,” and that he has interned at a legal aid organization, including on asylum claims, deportation defenses, and adjustment of status cases.
Magistro included in his biography that he “seeks to expand our current theories of international relations and security studies into space and hopes to shape how humanity uses and develops outer space, both now and in the future,” referencing his membership in the Space Generation Advisory Council.
Morris wrote in her biography that she “is passionate about creating equity-focused policies to level the economic playing field for institutionally discriminated against groups.” She also worked in Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) office last summer working on immigration and agricultural policies and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act’s passage.
McNeely wrote that he is “interested in studying the ways race, ethnicity, and discrimination influence U.S. public policy.” He received the award with the 2022 cohort, but will join the 2023 cohort after a year of leave from Princeton “working in aviation and traveling.”
Rahman’s research “focuses on assessing the uses of carceral and surveillance technologies within global systems of policing and incarceration,” she wrote, in addition to referencing her work in the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab.
San Martin, a former intern with the Asia Division of the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative, wrote that she is “fascinated by the intersection of international law and foreign policy, particularly concerning the future of U.S.-China relations.”
Shutt wrote in her biography that she is “interested in the social systems that facilitate and prohibit senses of belonging and democratic representation,” referencing her time organizing a COVID-19 vaccine information campaign in East Harlem, New York.
Yang, a computer science concentrator, “is interested in bridging the worlds of software and policymaking, particularly through the regulation of artificial intelligence and automated decision making.”
Katherine Dailey is a Head News Editor who often covers breaking news, politics, and University affairs.
Please direct any corrections requests to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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