ERICA BARRY- Pomona College

Having developed an initiative named SweetRoots Kitchen (SRK) which teaches plant-based, sustainable cooking to young people, Erica proposes to establish SRK  in San Diego County.  Focusing on underserved communities, she intends to conduct free, plant-based cooking workshops for youth of low-income families. SRK is already a Girl Scouts of San Diego Community Partner; Erica hopes also to partner with other community organizations promoting healthy eating habits.

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PRINCE HERBERT CHABVEKA - Pitzer College

In his home village in rural Zimbabwe, Prince proposes to bring men (both traditionalist and non-traditionalist) into awareness of women’s rights and of men’s responsibility to fight against women’s rights violation. He plans to work through the Solon Foundation (a Swiss nonprofit, improving education in Southern Africa) and with Padare, a Zimbabwean organization experienced in gender-equality education, whose motto is “men of quality are not afraid of equality.”

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WILLIAM CULLEN - Claremont McKenna College

After a term in India focused on sustainable development, and a summer internship with GRID which installs energy-based water systems and electrification in rural India, William proposes to analyze models of renewable energy entrepreneurship for rural electrification, community empowerment, job creation, and gender equality. He wants to work with Development Alternatives in Delhi, and then with Barefoot College in rural Rajasthan where he will interview women training to become solar entrepreneurs.

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ALEJANDRO GUERRERO - Pomona College

In collaboration with Gente Organizada, a grassroots non-profit organization that strives for intergenerational community engagement and organizing, Alejandro proposes to continue more fully Voces de Cambio, the community-based, multi-media oral history project which he founded in early 2018. This project empowers youth to uncover the history and culture of their own neighborhoods by interviewing and videoing their neighbors who are or were agents of change in Pomona, California.

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GILLIAN HOLZER - Scripps College

Gillian proposes to create a shared resource center to facilitate information-sharing and cooperation for cultural heritage professionals in the Mediterranean, focusing on the conservation of archaeological sites that are faced with the destructive impact of climate change. She intends to partner with organizations in Greece, Tunisia, Cyprus, and Spain, in the preservation of cultural heritage and resource management.

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JUSTIN MUGABE - Pitzer College

Within SillonBlue, the tech startup that Justin and a colleague created in 2017 in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Justin proposes to increase the capacity of the organization to include rigorous professional technology training of Internally Displaced People (IDPs). A central goal will be the training of at least 100 displaced persons each year so that they can gain significant skills needed in the challenging job market in Justin’s home country of the DRC.

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SOPHIE ROE- Pomona College

As student coordinator of the Hunger and Homelessness Initiatives (HHI) within the Draper Center, Sophie realized the enormous needs of homeless persons in the city of Pomona for employment opportunities. In 2017 she started Pomona Employment Partners (PEP), a student volunteer program, to connect and support homeless persons in moving towards employment. Through the Napier Initiative Sophie proposes sustaining PEP’s structure within the 5C’s and improving the services PEP provides in the community.

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GABRIELLE SNOWDEN - Scripps College

Gabrielle plans to compile interviews from persons in the Black diaspora in Cuba, London, Johannesburg, and Ethiopia, with a focus on healing as it fuels resistance. With contacts through Witness for Peace in Cuba, through organizers and editors in London, through persons in the Black queer scene in South Africa, and through an Addis Ababa host family in Ethiopia, Gabrielle intends finally to compile the interviews in both a print edition and an e-publication to share transnationally.

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ALICIA TSAI - Claremont McKenna College

Having founded Claremont Captures, a photography club at the Claremont Colleges, with the mission of photographers dedicated to using talents to give back to the community, Alicia proposes to connect photography and mental health through offering a photography program for teenagers at Heritage Group Homes in Pomona. The project aims to teach teenagers from backgrounds of emotional and behavioral disturbance how photography can be a therapeutic means of empowerment.

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CLARISSA ANN YLAGAN - Scripps College

Clarissa proposes to found a nonprofit organization in the Philippines in collaboration with the Psychology Department of Ateneo de Manila University, focused on creating and supporting communities of healing from eating disorders (EDs), an illness that is severely stigmatized in the Philippines. The goals of the organization are to reach those with disordered eating patterns, to spread awareness about EDs, and to create peer support and mentor groups to explore ways a healing community can help individuals fully recover from an ED.