Tiffany Franke, Co-Leader

Chelsea Purvis, Co-Leader

Chelsea Purvis from Saratoga, California, was a Yale senior majoring in History during this trip. After graduation, she continued her education for a Masters degree in Economic and Social History at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Chelsea has engaged in extensive volunteer work in the U.S. and in developing countries. She was a student leader of the nationally-acclaimed Yale Sustainable Food Project, a program that brings local, seasonal, and fair trade food to the University. She was also a leader of Presbyterian Undergraduates at Yale, a student group that explores the religious person's role in advancing social justice. She plans to pursue a career in law in which she advocates for the rights of impoverished people in developing countries. [ Reflection on the trip ]

Mina Alaghband

Mina Alaghband, who was a sophomore at Yale College during this trip, hails from London, England. She studied History and International Studies with a focus on practical and intellectual approaches to post revolutionary situations. Her academic interests include microfinance, early modern and modern revolution, enlightenment philosophy, constructions of race, corporate social responsibility and post-conflict accountability, notably of local leaders and child combatants. [ Reflection on the trip ]

Clare Cameron

Clare Cameron, who was a junior anthropology major during this trip, hails from Chicago, IL. Her interests include the relationship between health and human rights, anthropology and human rights, and international development and anthropology. In pursuit of greater experience in the field of public health, in 2005, she spent six months working for a women's health and human rights organization in Senegal. She was formerly a co-coordinator of the College Council for CARE. [ Reflection on the trip ]

Anne Carney

Annie Carney, a native of Princeton, N.J., was a freshman in Yale College during this trip. She sang in one of Yale's all-female a capella groups, Proof of the Pudding, and thus, served as director of "kumbayas" for the flight from Gatwick to Freetown. She has written for the Yale Globalist, the undergraduate international affairs magazine, and the Yale Herald, the weekly newspaper. In the infinite spare time that Yale afforded, she enjoyed reading, running, and pseudo-relaxing. She majored in History. [ Reflection on the trip ]

Caroline Howe

Caroline Howe was a junior Environmental Engineering major during this trip. Coming from Durham, Connecticut, she grew up passionate about the environment and agriculture. She worked passionately on renewable energy and climate activism on a campus, state, and national level. While in Montreal at the recent UN Climate Negotiations, she became particularly focused on encouraging sustainable energy practices in the developing world and overall sustainable development. [ Reflection on the trip ]

Amelia Page

Amelia Page was, during this trip, a Yale senior majoring in history. She has had the opportunity to study post-colonialism, civil war, and international development, among other subjects. Amelia hails from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, but has spent most of her school vacations traveling around the world. She has held summer internships with the US Department of State in New Delhi, India, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and led a three week service service learning trip to India last summer. Amelia also interned in a New Haven public school, coordinated a federal literacy tutoring program, and served as head of an Education Network that fosters community service and social justice. She became a history teacher after graduation.

Jurist Tan

Jurist Tan, hailing from Jakarta, Indonesia, was a freshman at Yale College during this trip. She spent her next two summers after Sierra Leone evaluating development projects in Tirupathi, India and Aceh, Indonesia, the latter producing two reports on Save the Children's post-tsunami rehabilitation programs. At Yale, she served as a co-coordinator of the College Council for CARE, which raises awareness on campus about extreme poverty and sound development initiatives. She majored in Ethics, Politics and Economics. [ Reflection on the trip ]

Lauren Thompson

Lauren is a native of Atlanta, GA. She joined the Sierra Leone trip as founder of the College Council for CARE -- the first formal partnership between college students and one of the world's leading private international charities. Lauren became involved in issues of poverty and development during high school when she had a unique opportunity to journey with CARE staff to volunteer with girls' education programs in Guatemala. She returned not only with a sense of responsibility, but also with the belief that students could engage with the work of humanitarian organizations to help end extreme poverty in our lifetime. This belief guided many of her experiences at Yale, from serving as a Board Member of the Dwight Hall Center for Public Service and Social Justice to concentrating her senior research on social entrepreneurship.

Lauren journeyed with the CCC as a recent Yale alumnus. She earned her B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics in 2005. At the time, she was the Woodbridge Fellow to President & Secretary of Yale. She continued her fellowship in 07-08, researching intellectual property issues for the Office of the General Counsel. Since 2007, she has served as an Advisor to the Board of the Maryland-based nonprofit Americans for Informed Democracy. She remains keenly focused on international development, education policy, children's rights, and institutions for social justice and will carry these interests into her next adventure as a law student in Fall 2008. [ Reflection on the trip ]