2022 Summer Scholars
GADHA RAJ | Summer Scholars 2022 : MONGOLIA Fellowship
Gadha is currently pursuing a Master of Public Administration in Development Practice (MPA-DP) at the School of Public and International Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, New York, USA. She is from Kerala, India, and brings with her almost a decade of grassroots development experience.
Prior to joining SIPA, she led the countrywide implementation of World Bank-funded Milk Fortification initiative with the National Dairy Development Board, India, making it one of the largest public health interventions in the country to address micronutrient deficiencies. She also worked with an international nonprofit designing solutions for the health and well-being of underprivileged communities. Gadha holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from the Institute of Rural Management Anand and an undergraduate degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Cochin University of Science and Technology, in India.
Gadha joined as a Sustainable Economic Development Fellow with the UNDP Mongolia Office in Ulaanbaatar. She conducts policy research under the guidance of Senior Economist Yasin Janjua and DRR Nashida Sattar on key socioeconomic development issues of poverty reduction, equity, social policy innovation, and social welfare. She is excited to contribute to strengthening the programme development and implementation of the country office.
SREENIDHI RAO | Summer Scholars 2022 : ISTANBUL Fellowship
Sreenidhi Rao is currently an MPA-Development Practice program candidate at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), focusing on gender, communications and leadership. During her first year at Columbia University, she worked on a research project supervised by Professor Jeffery Sachs, which focused on SDG implementation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the ITS department and municipal government office of Rio to create a dashboard prototype that assesses Transparency and Accountability. She is from India and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Geography from Miranda House, Delhi University.
Prior to joining Columbia for her Masters, Sreenidhi worked with multiple non-profit organizations including Teach for India, an NGO that focuses on building a movement of leaders against educational inequity. She created training modules for holistic education and professional development. She grew from being a fellow at TFI to a Program Manager where she was responsible for the education of 554 students through 16 fellows under her purview. She also completed a research project with the State Human Rights Commission of Karnataka, India, specifically focusing on child trafficking, and was an active member of the Rahi Foundation an organization involved with women survivors of incest and child sexual abuse.
This summer, Sreenidhi will be working with the UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub supporting the development and dynamic management of portfolios under the Mayors for Economic Growth Facility and the City Experiment Fund through coordination & design of portfolio processes of the cities; research on the context of cities in crisis; and communicational and advocacy support.
Sreenidhi is one of two SAP McDermott Summer Scholars
Read about Sreenidhi’s experience in our Summer Scholars Blog
KHUTSO SEGOOA | Summer Scholars 2022 : MALDIVES Fellowship
Khutso is an international student from South Africa, Pretoria, who is currently pursuing a dual Masters in IPED (International Political Economy and Development) and in Economics at Fordham University. She also holds a Bachelors degree and a Honours degree in Economics from the University of Pretoria.
Khutso has conducted most of her research on poverty and economic development. Her recent research on the persistent poverty in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) analyzed three Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 2 (No Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), and SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) which work in synergy to eradicate poverty. Khutso chose to scrutinize the effects of this synergy, in hopes to help inform policy on how Emerging Markets with limited resources can effectively and efficiently appropriate its resources to address basic human needs and reduce poverty.
This year Khutso has been working as a research associate for the seventh release of The Fordham Francis Index (www.fordham.edu/ffi). The Fordham Francis Index (FFI) is a global poverty index that serves as a basic human needs assessment tool. The FFI Report hopes to guide civil society in measuring their success in achieving the UN’s New Agenda for Sustainable Development. Engaging with this content has highlighted how data is crucial in achieving the SDGs as they provide insight to forecast and implement measures in time.
Khutso’s intrinsic motivation is to be a resource to people and to serve. She is eager to spend this summer with the UNDP Maldives as a Junior Economist Intern and further turn her passions into solutions.
MACKENZIE STOELTJE | Summer Scholars 2022 : TIMOR-LESTE Fellowship
Mackenzie Stoeltje recently earned her Master of Public Health in Global and Environmental Health from New York University. She holds a B.S. in Evolution, Ecology and Biodiversity from the University of California, Davis and has since been dedicated to working within the field of climate change and conservation.
Following her undergraduate studies, Mackenzie has taken part in a variety of conservation initiatives and research projects both domestically and abroad. During her travels, she realized the importance of participatory research and community health in any conservation effort, which led her to pursue her MPH at NYU.
Throughout her time at NYU, Mackenzie explored various fields relating not only to climate change and environmental health, but also to sexual health and gender violence. She was also a recipient of the William N. Rom Climate Fellowship, which allowed her to implement a research project investigating community perceptions on climate change, conservation work, and the ocean economy in the Mexican Caribbean island of Cozumel. Mackenzie is currently working with the Ugandan National Academy of Science on their Equity and Inclusion initiative, as well as with the NGO FXB International on their Climate Advocates program, where she helped to develop a curriculum on climate, health, and environmental justice for high school-aged students around the world.
Mackenzie is passionate about working within vulnerable populations to promote health equity and hopes to use her skills to develop innovative solutions to the social justice issues facing us today. She is excited for the opportunity to learn from the UNDP Country Office in Timor-Leste within their Climate Change and Environment Unit as a Social and Environmental Officer Intern this summer.
Mackenzie is one of two SAP McDermott Summer Scholars
Read about Mackenzie’s experience in our Summer Scholars Blog