The Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law is delighted to introduce the 2017-2018 Brumley Next Generation Scholars. The Strauss Center competitively selected these bright students from across UT to participate in a yearlong program to hone their policy research skills and engage in professional development to serve their future careers as public leaders.
Throughout this year, our Next Gen Scholars will be blogging about their work, current events and other salient issues in global policy. We welcome you all to follow their work on the Policy Over Pancakes site, as well as our twitter feed @poverp16.
The 2017-2018 Brumley Next Generation Scholars:
Emily Gurney is a senior at UT majoring in Middle Eastern Cultures and Languages. She transferred to UT to pursue her degree in Arabic, after completing three summers at Middlebury Language Schools and one semester abroad, in Jordan. Emily is a fellow at The Clements Center for National Security and a scholar in the Arabic Flagship Program.
She conducted research abroad in Amman, which dealt with tribal relations and their effects on the Jordanian Parliament. She plans to attend the Flagship’s Capstone year abroad in Morocco, upon graduating this May, and then plans to pursue a J.D. in issues of international law. Emily leads a group on campus for survivors of trauma and assault. She has also led a group with ClubGENAustin, focusing on adolescent female empowerment, and spent time working with female adolescent Palestinian refugees, while abroad.
Janhavi Nemawarkar is a junior at the University of Texas at Austin studying government and Plan II Honors. She is involved with the student newspaper, The Daily Texan, as the forum editor, and in the past has worked as an opinion columnist and associate editor. Moreover, she is involved with on-campus organizations such as Asian Desi Pacific Islander American Collective, where she helps plan and lead workshops about voting access and social justice issues facing AAPI students, as well as Queer and Trans Students Alliance, where she helps plan events and meetings relating to activism within the LGBTQ community on campus. She volunteers with organizations that focus on mentorship and providing help with literacy skills to students in low-income schools in Austin.
Nemawarkar is interested, broadly, in health policy and the development of attitudes toward immigration in the United States and western Europe. She is an undergraduate fellow for the Clements Center for National Security and a Brumley Next Generation Scholar for the Robert Strauss Center for International Security. After graduation, she plans to go to law school and work in public policy.
Lila Al-Kassem is a junior pursuing a dual degree in International Relations and Global Studies and Government with minors in Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic. Her research interests include international development, public policy, and security. She is an Undergraduate Research Affiliate with UT’s Innovations for Peace and Development, where she is working alongside the Governance and Corruption team. There, she realized her passion for data and policy relevant research. She is also an Undergraduate Research Assistant for Dr. Nathan Jensen, where she is involved in a range of projects, such as analyzing the impact of economic development incentives in Texas, and writing country reports detailing the impact of multinational corporations on policy diffusion. Lila is planning to write a policy related undergraduate research paper for the duration of the 2017-2018 school year.
This past year, Lila has worked as an Virtual Student Foreign Service e-Intern with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Working with USAID’s Middle East Bureau, she identified potential corporate partners in the Middle East and North Africa for shared development initiatives, and helped map actor controlled areas in Iraq. Prior to this, Lila spent the summer of 2016 in Amman, Jordan interning as a Project Support Officer for University House for Consultations & Studies. As Project Support Officer, Lila aided in reviewing invitation for bid (IFB) documents, and managing item price estimations.
In the future, Lila wishes to continue her studies in graduate school with an interest in international policy and development.
Benjamin Vega is junior double majoring in International Relations and Global Studies and Middle Eastern Cultures and Languages and is a student in the university’s Arabic Flagship Program. He is also pursuing a minor in African and African Diaspora studies. His academic interests involve studying public actions during government restructuring following a period of political upheaval, specifically in the Middle East North Africa region. Benjamin has interned for the City of San Antonio’s International Relations Office, working with affiliated international sister cities on special events and international procedures. Following his undergraduate education, Benjamin plans on attending law school to study international human rights law.
Aside from academics, Mr. Vega is Traditions Coordinator for the Liberal Arts Council, overseeing all LAC social events and facilitating teamwork between members in the organization. Benjamin is also a dancer with Redefined Dance Company, teaching free classes every Sunday to the local Austin community. He also is active on campus advocating for increased diversity in the classroom and university as a whole.
Jacquelyn Clark is a rising senior in the Liberal Arts Honors program. She is studying Geography as well as Iberian/Latin Languages & Cultures. Her focus is on the effects that cultures have on landscapes as well as how the U.S. can approach the issues posed by these interactions strategically and empathetically. Her work centers specifically on the Latin American community and seeks to incorporate Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques for enhanced visualization and deeper understanding.
An important experience for Jacquelyn was studying abroad in Argentina the summer after her sophomore year. There, she lived with a host family and took classes at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. The course topics covered past and present corruption, instability, and human rights abuse in the Southern Cone. These discussions have had lasting motivation for her professional aspirations. She has also had rewarding experiences from her time interning at Joey D. Bennett Consulting, Inc. and Scott Douglass & McConnico, LLP.
On campus, Jacquelyn stays involved with Texas Spirits, serves on the Academic Affairs Committee within Liberal Arts Council, and rides for Texas 4000 in the fight against cancer. Jacquelyn and her team will bike from Austin to Anchorage in the Summer of 2018. In her spare time, she also volunteers weekly at Manos de Cristo where she teaches and translates for a U.S. Citizenship class.
Her research interests include: border relations, security initiatives, diplomacy, religion, and global arbitration/peace resolutions. After graduating, Jacquelyn plans to visit her seventh continent and attend law school where she will study global law.
Jenny McGinty is a Plan II, International Relations, and Middle Eastern Studies senior in UT’s Arabic Flagship Program. Her particular interests include the long term impact of NGO work with displaced populations, and the efficacy of different forms of aid in post-conflict regions, particularly among refugee populations in the Middle East. Jenny is a Brumley Next Generation Scholar and research affiliate with UT’s Innovation for Peace and Development, focusing her research on food insecurity, the relationship between conflict and natural resources, and open aid in developing regions.
Jenny spent her summer interning with Innovation Aid and Acting for Change Jordan in Amman, assisting in low tech recycling initiatives, cleaning and writing analysis reports of field data, and designing an English education project for Syrian refugees and victims of war in Zaatari Village. This has sparked Jenny’s research interest in international aid in host communities of refugees, and the efficacy of English education programs in refugee communities. Jenny hopes to continue her Arabic studies following graduation, and to continue working in the international development and security field.
Francesca “Chessie” Reece is a third-year Plan II Honors and Government double-major attending the University of Texas at Austin as a Forty Acres Scholar. With an interest in exploring many fields of work and study, she has served in various capacities in the UT Senate of College Councils, helped manage a statewide mock-government program for thousands of middle-and high-schoolers, held a public policy internship focused on improving Texas childcare laws, and more. This past summer she interned for the Association of Organizations of Mediterranean Businesswomen (AFAEMME) in Barcelona, Spain, focusing on grant-writing and research proposals for the nonprofit. After graduation she plans to continue her education in graduate school and eventually launch a career in intelligence analysis and security policy research, a passion she discovered through undertaking undergraduate research in this field at UT.
When not working or studying, Chessie enjoys reading and being outdoors, often combining both in a hammock somewhere in the Austin area. She enjoys swimming and doing yoga, and is actively trying to learn to cook. She enjoys traveling but will always be a native Texan at heart. Finally, Chessie is the proud owner of an 18 year-old dog named Sandy, the only dog she’s ever had, though she loves visiting the Austin Animal Center as a dog-walking volunteer on the weekends.
Emily Cantwell is a senior pursuing a double major in International Relations and French and minoring in African Studies. Her interests include water security, women’s rights, refugee rights, and francophone Africa. Emily researched climate change aid as part of the Complex Emergencies and Political Stability in Asia initiative through the Strauss Center and Innovations for Peace and Development. In addition, she has worked with the Clark Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies, helping to research the political salience of the High Court of Australia.
Emily has previously worked as a Refugee Cash Assistance intern at Refugee Services of Texas and as a summer intern at the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice. She is an active member of the University of Texas chapter of Amnesty International and served as Urgent Action Coordinator during the Spring 2017 semester. Emily believes in community engagement and has volunteered with youth mentoring programs such as Strong Women, Strong Girls and Students Expanding Austin Literacy.
In Fall 2016, Emily studied international relations at Sciences Po in Paris. She is currently writing an honors thesis for each of her majors, allowing her to further explore her interests in gender, water security, francophone Africa, and transnational film. Upon graduating in Spring 2018, Emily plans to go abroad to pursue a master’s degree in Human Rights Studies.
Aaron Burroughs is entering his fourth year studying International Relations & Global Studies, Liberal Arts Honors, and is a scholar in the Arabic Flagship Program. His academic interests include human rights protection and migration studies as well as Middle Eastern culture and language. Aaron is especially interested in how global power structures and world order oppress groups and institutionalize inequality in societies around the globe. Aaron has participated in the Clements Center London Maymester analyzing the history of the US-British relationship, and he completed a Clements Center Undergraduate Fellowship, discussing topics of international security with esteemed professionals in the field. In the summer of 2017, Aaron continued his Arabic language studies in a ten-week intensive program in Meknes, Morocco with the Arabic Flagship Program.
Aaron serves as the Director of MenCanEnd, a healthy masculinity project, as a Student Ambassador for the Office of Admissions, and he stays involved in the ACLU at UT Austin chapter, Texas Blazers, Texas Men of Excellence, and Punjabbawockeez dance team. Aaron plans to continue studying Arabic post-undergrad while living abroad for a year in Morocco with the American Councils for International Education.
Aaron was raised in San Antonio, Texas, where his love of culture and dependence on Tex-Mex cuisine thrived throughout his adolescence. In his free time, Aaron enjoys spending time with friends and family, traveling abroad, hiking and camping in the great outdoors, exploring new music and going to concerts around Austin, and starting his mornings with a rich pot of black coffee.
Elizabeth Teare is a senior studying International Relations and Rhetoric with minors in Middle Eastern studies and French. Her research interests include conflict resolution, peace making studies and international development. As a Roach Scholar, she worked with a PhD student to create a dataset of political violence groups and their affiliations in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. She is a research affiliate with UT’s Innovations for Peace and Development, where she has worked on the CEPSA and AIIB teams. Elizabeth is also a Clements Center Undergraduate Fellow and was elected to the honor society, Phi Beta Kappa, as a junior.
Elizabeth spent most of 2016 living in France and studied at SciencesPo as apart of a Franco-Anglophone exchange program. In Spring 2017, Elizabeth interned in the audience development department of Texas Monthly. She spent summer 2017 interning with an edutainment social enterprise in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, working on multiple marketing and development projects.
During her senior year, Elizabeth will be writing her IRG honors thesis and is interested to research peace building programs and the importance of education in regards to development and conflict. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career that links her marketing experience and interests in international security and development policy.
Keeton Charles Schenck is a junior studying Finance and International Relations through the McCombs School of Business and Liberal Arts Honors program. His academic interests include international political economy and the impact of globalization on developing economies. Keeton’s academic background, coupled with a passion for technology, led him to a market research internship for a Y-Combinator startup based in Silicon Valley. There he developed a data-driven research initiative to analyze product-market fit and launched a drip-marketing campaign.
Keeton also served as the Travel Coordinator for the 2017 Texas 4000 team and completed the longest charity bike ride from Austin, Texas to Anchorage, Alaska. Through this leadership development program, his team raised a total of $725,000 for cancer research and presented over 30 cancer awareness programs in the US and Canada. Keeton’s experiences working in Silicon Valley and biking across North America provided a first hand account of how differently globalization impacts urban and rural communities. He is interested in pursuing further research on globalization and trade liberalization through the Humanities Honors program.
Keeton stays involved with the Tejas Club and Texas 4000 For Cancer. He is working with Tejas to launch an academic program at Lanier High School. Through this program, Keeton and fellow Tejas members will coach 24 teams to prepare for the University Interscholastic League, which is the most comprehensive academic competition in the nation. In his free time, Keeton enjoys biking through the Austin hill country and exploring new restaurants.
Sebastian De Beurs is a third-year student in Plan II Honors and Government. Born to a Dutch father and American mother, he lived in the Netherlands for 16 years prior to moving to the U.S. Sebastian’s interest in foreign affairs started when he was at an international high school in the Netherlands. The different cultures and languages of his peers fascinated him, though the history and politics of their countries intrigued him most. Today, Sebastian’s interests lie in development policy, political psychology, and U.S. diplomacy – especially towards nations in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. This past summer, Sebastian worked at the U.S. Department of State in Washington D.C. As a Brumley Next Generation Scholar, Sebastian is excited to cultivate skills in policy research to prepare for a career in international development.
In his free time, Sebastian enjoys exploring new flavors in the kitchen, new sounds on his guitar, and new sights hiking in nature. This summer, Sebastian hiked to the lowest and hottest point in the Western Hemisphere in Death Valley, California. He speaks Dutch and French, as well as some German and Afrikaans.
Leave a Reply