2008 Judd Fellows
Twenty-one graduate and professional degree students were awarded fellowships in 2008 through the Walter H. Judd International Graduate & Professional Fellowships. (Past recipients)
Ann Beuch
College of Education and Human Development & Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
(M.S.W. & M.P.P — Social Work and Public Policy)
Country of Study — Switzerland
Buech will participate in the Duke University Program on Global Policy and Governance in Geneva, Switzerland. She will complete a three month-summer internship with an organization based in Geneva. Beuch will also complete an intensive week-long course in humanitarian assistance and human rights.
Sarah Christianson
College of Liberal Arts (M.F.A. — Photography)
Country of Study — Norway
Christianson will photograph six areas of Norway from which her ancestors came and research contemporary Scandinavian art practices as part of her M.F.A. thesis project. The project explores the history and uncertain future of the Christianson family’s five-generation farm in North Dakota. She will document the traces of her Norwegian ancestors, the farms they left, and relatives that stayed. By examining their past emigration in relation to the current migration from North Dakota, she hopes to highlight the growing problem of the disappearing Midwestern family farm.
Matthew De Kam
College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences
(M.S.B.A.E. — Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering)
Country of Study — Honduras
De Kam will work with Tierra Nueva, a sustainable development organization in Central Honduras, to evaluate the feasibility of obtaining Rainforest Alliance sustainability certification for several coffee farms. These small scale coffee farms will be evaluated by visiting each farm with the producer to take field data, then interviewing each producer to better document the details of the farm operation. The farm information will be evaluated using the Rainforest Alliance standard, and a final report will assess what each farm will need to change in order to be certified. Certification may make higher income possible in these communities.
Swati Deo
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs (M.P.P. — Public Policy & Human Rights)
Country of Study — Egypt
Deo will intern with the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) in Cairo, Egypt. Her internship entails developing the ECWR’s research unit, producing a grant proposal to fund campaigns for women’s rights, and taking on additional projects for the center.
Matilda Essandoh-Bondzie
School of Public Health (M.P.H. — Epidemiology and Community Health)
Country of Study — Switzerland
Essandoh-Bondzie will work with the Nutrition for Health and Development Department of the World Health Organization to develop a Global Database on Body Mass Index. She will be involved in systematic collection of anthropometric data on school-age children and adolescents and review literature on waist-to-hip ratio in relation to cardiovascular disease and Diabetes mellitus. Read more about her project at Notes from the Field.
Elizabeth Hutchinson
School of Public Health (M.P.H. — Epidemiology and Community Health)
Country of Study — Tanzania
Hutchinson will participate in a Child Survival Monitoring and Evaluation Internship in Karatu, Tanzania, with the Minnesota International Health Volunteers (MIHV). Her primary objective is to create an evaluation plan for MAISHA, an intervention focused on improving maternal and child health outcomes. Hutchinson will formulate monitoring and evaluation goals and objectives for the MAISHA intervention, as well as assist in the development of evaluation tools, such as surveys, that will evaluate the effectiveness of the project as a whole. Read more about her project at Notes from the Field.
Lindsey Johansen
School of Public Health (M.P.H. — Epidemiology and Community Health)
Country of Study — United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Johnson will intern with the Maternal and Child Health Department for the Division of Public Health in Saipan. She will assist with the Pregnancy Risk and Monitoring System (PRAMS), a research project that will cover the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI): Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. Johansen will assist with the implementation and monitoring the process of the survey, development of a database, analysis of the survey findings in a report format, and recommendations to improve outcomes for mothers and babies.
Anna Langer
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs (M.P.P. — Public Policy & Human Rights)
Country of Study — Egypt
Langer will intern with the Population Council’s regional office in Cairo, Egypt. The internship will offer Langer the opportunity to engage in several research and survey projects focused on the participation of youth in economic and social activities in Egypt. She will conduct background research and design survey instruments for a study on many aspects of the lives of youth, as well as work on a team of Egyptian researchers on a project that will examine the dynamics of job quality over time in the Egyptian economy.
Joel Larson
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs (M.P.P. — Public Policy & Human Rights)
Country of Study — Kenya
Larson will intern with the Kakamega Environmental Education Program (KEEP). The internship will involve training in forestry and conservation. KEEP was founded by a group of local individuals dedicated to preserving the largest remaining rainforest in Kenya and sponsors and arranges programs ranging from community education and tree nurseries to butterfly farms and sustainable forestry activities.
Benji Mathews
Medical School (M.D. — Medicine)
Country of Study — Bolivia, Costa Rica
Mathews will complete medical clinical rotations and language study in Bolivia and Costa Rica. He will compare the modes of treatment and patient outcome between domestic hospitals and foreign ones including, Hospitals of Hope in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and Ciencias de Medicas in San Jose, Costa Rica. The study will consider the differences in diagnosis and the underlying rationale for admission and treatment between patients seen in the United States, Bolivia, and Costa Rica.
Betsy Mathews
School of Public Health (M.P.H. — Community Health Education)
Country of Study — India
Mathews will intern with the Child Survival Program. She will conduct fieldwork in Kamblikandam, India, a rural village in the state of Tamil Nadu. She will work to provide education and outreach in the areas of growth monitoring, immunizations, breast-feeding, female literacy, food to fight malnourishment, and family planning.
Teresa Obrero
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs (M.P.P. — Public Policy & Human Rights)
Country of Study — Chile
Obrero will take an advanced policy course, “Social Development and Social Services in Chile.” The study seminar will visit social service, educational, and community development organizations. She will then intern at Ciudad Viva, a nongovernmental organization that works on issues of urban sustainability, transportation equity, and empowering local citizens. In particular Obrero will work with local women on issues of bicycle feminism.
Heather Oleson
School of Public Health (M.P.H. — Epidemiology and Community Health Education)
Country of Study — India
Olson will intern at Christian Fellowship Hospital (CFH) in Oddanchatram, Tamil Nadu, India. She will develop HIV prevention services in the rural areas surrounding Oddanchatram. Olson’s objectives for her internship are to assist the director of community health programs at the hospital with the development of HIV prevention services, perform a participatory needs assessment with the women in the rural communities, and collaborate with the outreach team to organize a health festival focusing on HIV prevention. Read more about her project at Notes from the Field.
Melissa Riedesel
School of Public Health (M.P.H. — Epidemiology and Community Health)
Country of Study — Kenya
Riedesel will travel to the highland regions of Kenya with members of a research team to assist in the continual surveillance for malaria in the Kipsamoite and Kapsisiywa regions. She will conduct household interviews, as part of active case collection and assist with passive surveillance of malaria in the clinic. Riedesel will analyze and assess the utility of active and passive surveillance to capture the residual epidemiology of malaria in these highland regions. Read more about her project at Notes from the Field.
Sarah Sevcik
School of Public Health (M.P.H. — Community Health Education)
Country of Study — Tanzania
Sevcik will intern with Minnesota International Health Volunteers. She will assist with the development of a village-level surveillance system for birth, mortality and disease data in the Karatu District of Tanzania. The information she collects will help villages to identify and report disease outbreaks and be able to take steps to improve their health.
Emily Sienkiewicz
College of Liberal Arts (M.A. — Art History)
Country of Study — Israel
Sienkiewicz will explore the role of religious art in the establishment of a Jewish identity in the earliest phases of Israel between the years of 1906 to 1929. She will conduct research on the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem, exploring the official archives of the school and discovering further information on its pedagogical philosophy. Sienkiewicz will conduct first-hand examinations of the artworks created between 1906 and 1929, particularly noting the religious and Zionist symbolism employed by the artists. In addition, she will take a Hebrew language course taught at Hebrew University.
Alicen Spaulding
School of Public Health (Ph.D. — Epidemiology)
Country of Study — Argentina
Spaulding will intern with doctors affiliated with the Hospital Italiano and Hospital General de Agudos JM Ramos Meija, in Buenos Aires. As an intern, she will be involved in multiple areas of the project, including development of protocol and research sites, and data collection, management, and analysis. This internship will allow Spaulding to directly contribute to HIV/AIDS research in Argentina and to form professional relationships optimally leading to future research related to her dissertation project.
Elizabeth Tesdell
School of Public Health (M.P.H. — Public Health Nutrition)
Country of Study — Palestinian Authority
Tesdell will intern with the Al Quds University School of Public Health in Jerusalem to assess breastfeeding and complimentary feeding practices in nearby rural communities. Her research with this ongoing project will elucidate the complex factors that affect a mother’s ability to provide adequate nutrition during this critical developmental window in her child’s life. Tesdell will assist with the data collection and analysis, which will play an essential role in program planning to improve nutritional outcomes in these vulnerable communities. Read more about her project at Notes from the Field.
Ann Vogt
Medical School (M.D. — Medicine)
Country of Study — Uganda
Vogt will study the resistance to lumbar punctures by the population in Uganda that has been noted by health professionals at the Infectious Diseases Institute in Kampala. Patients with presenting symptoms that would suggest meningitis are refusing this diagnostic test and impairing the ability of the health care workers to accurately diagnose and treat the condition, resulting in increased mortality. Vogt will interview patients, their families, and health care workers to assess the underlying reasons for this resistance, and with community members to educate about the medically recognized risks and benefits of lumbar punctures in a culturally sensitive manner.
Wei Wang
School of Public Health (M.P.H. — Environmental Health Sciences)
Country of Study — China
Wang has previously established a collaborative relationship with the local occupational health institute and proposed a project focusing on pneumoconiosis. She will analyze data reported to the institute and review Chinese publications to determine trends of incidence of pneumoconiosis to be utilized as an indicator of occupational health status. Wang also plans to visit factories that she has identified to be at high risk to evaluate the working conditions, determine what, if any, preventive measures are in place, and advocate for occupational health hazards reduction.
Sarah Wolbert
College of Design (M. Arch. & M.S. — Architecture & Sustainable Design)
Country of Study — Denmark, Germany, Poland
Wolbert will research the consumption and waste infrastructure in Denmark, Germany, and Poland. She will analyze the infrastructure within those countries and between regions. Wolbert’s research will culminate in proposals for taking the Minneapolis waste stream toward zero waste.