Peer Advising

The CIPE Residential College Peer Advising program connects you with students in your college who have already participated in an international experience. CIPE nominates one student from each college to be the point-person; this student serves as a general resource, and organizes events to promote Yale's abundant international opportunities. These Peer Coordinators can give you an overview of Yale's international programs, and you can hear about going abroad from the student perspective. The Peer Coordinators can also put you in touch with other Yalies who went abroad during their time at Yale. Learn more about these students and their international experiences below. Contact your college representative today!

College	Student	Email	Class

Berkeley	Courtney Fukuda		2012

Branford	Samuel Gardenswartz		2013

Calhoun	Paul Han		2014

Davenport	Angela Londoño Pardo		2012

Ezra Stiles	Erica Blonde		2012

Jonathan Edwards	Mia Nishikawa		2014

Morse	Ava Socik		2012

Pierson	Alexandra Dennett		2012

Saybrook	Lauren Provini		2012

Silliman	Jennifer Matichuk		2013

Timothy Dwight	Ilana Seager		2012

Trumbull	Emmanuel Quartey		2012

Courtney Fukuda
Berkeley College

Courtney Fukuda, BK '12, is an Economics and International Studies double major who received two Richter Fellowships and one Summer in Japan Fellowship. She used the former for research on sustainable agriculture in Tanzania and Indonesia, and the latter to support an internship with Slow Food International in Japan. Courtney has also spent time in the Republic of Georgia and Cambodia working on economic re-development projects with some of her peers from AIESEC Yale. "Yale's unparalleled commitment to international experience is, in my opinion, one of the best characteristics of the university. My experiences abroad have not only led me to develop a humble appreciation for the complexities of global challenges, but have also inspired me to create my own impact in communities around the world. I encourage all Yalies to complement the richness of their New Haven experiences with at least one experience abroad."

Sam Gardenswartz
Branford College

Sam Gardenswartz, BR '13, is a Computer Science and Religious Studies major who spent this past summer working at Giza Venture Capital firm in Tel Aviv with the support of the Birthright Excel Fellowship. He spent the summer after freshmen year working at Bema'aglei Tzedek, a nonprofit organization in Jerusalem dedicated to labor rights and handicap accessibility, through Yale's Bulldogs in Israel program. "I have been so lucky to live independently in a foreign country for two summers. Everything, from buying groceries to cleaning your apartment, is much more exciting abroad."

Paul Han
Calhoun College

Paul Han, CC' 14, had the awesome opportunity to study Korean language in South Korea this past summer through the Richard U. Light Fellowship. Each day after class, Paul also worked at a laboratory at the Yonsei University College of Medicine, where he participated in projects based on utilizing stem-cells to treat spinal cord injuries. Outside of the classroom and laboratory, Paul fully immersed himself in the Korean lifestyle: singing karaoke, eating unsanitary but delicious food from street carts, and haggling for lower prices (and failing). He also climbed Mt. Halla-san (the highest mountain in Korea)! "Studying the language and connecting with my Korean identity made for an invaluable experience that I will never forget, and the amount of opportunities offered by Yale made it surprisingly easy for me to go abroad."

Angela Londoño Pardo
Davenport College

Angela Londono, DC '12, is a Political Science and International Studies major. She spent her sophomore spring at Peking University in Beijing with the Yale-PKU joint undergraduate program. She also completed summer session in Singapore, Thailand, and Cambodia in the summer of 2010 and received a fellowship to spend a month receiving her Divemaster certification in Bali, Indonesia. This summer, Angela completed her senior thesis research on social entrepreneurship in developing countries in Mozambique with the support of the Jackson Institute. Being able to spend time abroad has been the highlight of Angela's Yale experience and she would love to help other students find similar opportunities.

Erica Blonde
Ezra Stiles College

Erica Blonde, ES '12, is majoring in American Studies has spent two summers in the states - one interning with Bulldogs Across America in Louisville and researching for her senior project through the Ezra Stiles Linck Fellowship and the other interning in New Haven through the Yale PPSF. While each summer has afforded her some incredible experiences, she maintains that perhaps her most formative and memorable experiences occurred during the summer she spent studying abroad in Madrid, Spain with IES following her freshman year. "The exquisite places that I visited, the wonderful people that I met, the lifelong friends that I made, the instructive grammar and culture classes that I took- I will never forget any of it, truly an experience like none other."

Mia Nishikawa
Jonathan Edwards College

Mia Nishikawa, JE '14, spent the summer of 2011 working in Brussels, Belgium at Dow Jones Newswires, publisher of the Wall Street Journal. In Brussels, she reported on EU-related affairs, practiced her French while interacting with locals, and enjoyed perfectly baked Pain au Chocolats. Every weekend, she travelled around Europe with the other Bulldogs in Brussels, using the convenient train systems to explore cities in France, Germany, England, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. "This is not only the best but also perhaps the only time we can submerge ourselves in a foreign country for several months. I would strongly recommend anyone who is presented such an opportunity to take it--I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to do so." She hopes to spend more time abroad with the many international programs Yale offers.

Ava Socik
Morse College

Ava Socik, MC '12, is a Psychology major and a pre-medical student. She spent this past summer working on a photography project in twenty National Parks in the United States with the support of the Richter Fellowship. The previous summer she spent in Cuba and Poland working on an independent research project that compared the quality of obstetric care in a communist and a post-communist country, with the support of the Wendy E. Blanning Fellowship and the Richter Fellowship. The summer after her freshman year, Ava studied abroad in Spain through the Spanish Institute of Hispanic Studies. In addition to all of her experiences abroad through Yale, she as traveled to over twenty other countries over the course of six years. Travel, she believes, is what helps a person discover oneself.

Alexandra Dennett
Pierson College

Alexandra Dennett is a History of Art major, who spent last summer in Copenhagen interning at the National Gallery with Bulldogs on the Baltic and doing research in Moscow with the support of the Richter Summer award. The year before that, she was awarded the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Scholarship for the Yale Summer Session in Saint Petersburg. During her freshman year, she went on a spring break trip with YIRA through the Balkans that took her to Istanbul, Sofia, Skopje, Kosovo, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Mostar and Dubrovnik. She came to Yale after having lived in Paris for eight years, where she took German and Spanish in school and none of her classes were in English. "You learn so much from studying languages and spending time abroad- about other cultures, but also about yourself. Encountering different perspectives has provided me with new friends and a better idea of what I'm interested in and why. "

Lauren Provini
Saybrook College

Lauren Provini is a Spanish major and received a Richter Summer Fellowship and a Saybrook College Summer Fellowship to travel to Spain to complete the Camino de Santiago in the summer of 2011. While hiking 170 miles from Astorga to Santiago de Compostela, Lauren investigated medicine, healthcare, and illness on the medieval pilgrimage road. Additionally, in the summer of 2010, Lauren studied and volunteered in the field of public health through the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) in Santiago, Dominican Republic. While enjoying the beauty of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, Lauren took classes in Spanish and public health at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, worked in a rural health clinic, and volunteered as a health promoter in the city of Santiago. "My study abroad experiences at Yale have allowed me to combine my love of the Spanish language with my passion for medicine and healthcare. I will carry with me all that I have learned in Spain and in the Dominican Republic as I pursue a career in medicine, with hopes to one day serve both English and Spanish-speaking patients."

Jennifer Matichuk
Silliman College

Jennifer Matichuk, SM '13, is a Film Studies major who received the ISA to study Modern British Theatre and British Landscape Art through the Yale-in-London program in Summer 2010. "Deciding to study in London was the best decision I have made since coming to Yale. Being able to fully immerse myself in an incredible culture with a group of peers that quickly became very close friends is something I am so thankful for. Because of this trip I discovered my true career goals, decided on my major, and found a new love of theatre. I would strongly encourage other Yalies to study abroad."

Ilana Seager
Timothy Dwight College

Ilana Seager, TD '12, is a Psychology and History of Science, History of Medicine major who received the 2011 Alexander P. Hixon Fellowship and the GALA Summer Fellowship to spend the summer interning at Lambert House, a youth center for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth in Seattle, WA. During the summer of 2010, she received the ISA to intern with Stonewall UK as part of the British Bulldogs program based in London. Prior to that, she spent her sophomore spring term abroad in Dublin, Ireland studying history at University College Dublin. "The opportunities Yale has given me through its extensive CIPE programming have allowed me to discover and indulge in one of my greatest passions in some of the most exciting cities in the world. I encourage all Yalies to intern and study abroad - you never know what you will learn about yourself."

Emmanuel Quartey
Trumbull College

Emmanuel Quartey, TC '12, is from Ghana, and initially didn't think that it would be useful to study in yet another country, while already studying abroad. Still, he applied his ISA towards the Yale Summer Abroad Program in Mumbai, and proceeded to enjoy one of the most spiritually nourishing, transformative experiences of his life. He is excited to serve as a resource for others who are entertaining the idea of making the leap to study abroad (spoiler alert: do it!). Emmanuel is an Architecture major in the Urban Studies track. When he isn't reading or writing about public spaces, he can be found singing with and designing for his a cappella group, Yale Out of the Blue.

Peer Advising

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