Class 2

Andrea studied architecture in Los Andes University, with a minor in Asian Studies and Language and Italian Culture. Then she did complementary courses in Project Management and Finances in the same university. Andrea worked as a fellow with Atlas Service Corps in 2008 and worked in Washington DC in an organization called Think Impact, as International Development Officer. In 2009 she coordinated the Global Development Ambassadors program in South Africa. In 2010 Andrea came back to Colombia and she founded Heart for Change, a nonprofit organization that designs and implements social impact projects through volunteerism and citizen participation in Colombia and Latin America .

HFC has since mobilized more than 2.000 volunteers to Colombia and has partnerships with the Ministry of Education (MEN), the Ministry of Commerce and Tourism (MINCIT), The International Cooperation Agency from the Presidency (APC), The National Training Service (SENA), PNUD, Embassy of Sweden, Purpose, among others. Andrea has worked as a representative in Colombia and a consultant for Partners of the Americas, ITDP and Ventures, and she was selected in 2015 for Gerente Magazine as one of the 100 most influential leaders in the Colombian society, in the category of nonprofits and social activists. She loves animals and reading.

Host Organization: Student Movement for Real Change / ThinkImpact

Laura has worked in both the public and private sectors for over three years and has extensive experience working in educational programs for childhood and youth. In 2006, she co-founded Sueño Mi País, and implemented the Educando Soñadores program that promotes civic education for children in rural areas. She also worked for the Universidad del Rosario, in the Escuela de Control Social, where she facilitated the validation of games to promote civic participation for preschool and high school aged children in 60 schools from different areas of Bogotá. In 2004, Laura assisted the human resources department of the National Ministry of Treasury in building an interactive network of the Treasury Sector and redesigned staff evaluation and permission formats to make them more efficient and easy to understand. During her internship at the OAS General Secretariat in the summer of 2006, Laura wrote an investigative research paper on the land tenancy situation in Latin America and the Caribbean for the Department of Sustainable Development of the OAS. Laura’s latest work was with HL Consultoria Organizacional, where she contributed to the salary structure definition project of the Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular and the development of its human resources strategic policies. Laura has a B.A. in political science and government from the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá.

Host Organization: CentroNia

Imani has nearly ten years of experience in the non-profit and public sectors. Her professional background is primarily in program management and communications, with a focus on intercultural education. She helped develop, manage, and evaluate cross-cultural student programs at Meridian International Center, and oversaw local coordinators for foreign students living with American host families through Program of Academic Exchange (PAX). Since recently serving as the writer for the Clinton Global Initiative, Imani has developed a stronger interest in venture philanthropy and social enterprise, especially as they relate to poverty alleviation and conflict resolution. The position entailed communicating project results, new partnerships, and funding developments to a wide range of stakeholders and interested parties around the world. Imani received her Bachelor of Science in Languages (BSLA) degree in Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, and French from Georgetown University. In addition, she completed graduate courses in non-profit management, project evaluation, and public relations at the University of Maryland. She has lived abroad as an exchange student four times and is currently developing a scholarship fund to encourage and assist minority students in studying abroad.

Host Organization: Oxfam Great Britain

Yatin is currently a design researcher at Human Factors International where he organizes and conducts research studies throughout India for education and mobile segments; analyzes market entry strategies; and develops personalized, self-sustaining online communication portals to be deployed at other HFI locations in India and the United States. Concurrently, he co-founded the Pankhudi Foundation, which aims to benefit underprivileged children. There, he built the chapter from four to 40 volunteers and established partnerships with organizations such as Children Lovecastle Trust, iVolunteer, doSomething, Siemens, Yahoo, and IBM. He also started doSomething in Bangalore, India, which is a social innovation organization founded to nurture social enterprises and to help people convert their ideas into reality. He has received awards for his work, including the Wall Street Journal’s Technology Innovation Award and NASSCOM IT Innovation Award for the Gesture Keyboard Project. Yatin received his B.A. in information and communication technology from the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. He has also attended business proposals and NGO management seminars at iVolunteer in Bangalore.

Host Organization: Ashoka Youth Venture

Cities, community development, and the capacity development of people, organizations, and systems have been Sylvia’s passions for the last ten years. Following a path that led her from Washington, DC, to New York City, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Masaya, Nicaragua and many places in between, her career has developed within a spirit of exploration and discovery, and a dedicated sense of purpose. Following the completion of her B.A. degree in Urban Studies from Columbia University, Sylvia worked with Living Cities, Inc.: The National Community Development Initiative (Living Cities), where she was the first to fill the position of the Grants and Contracts Manager. With Living Cities – a public-private partnership established to bring opportunities and the power of mainstream markets to inner-city, American neighborhoods – Sylvia managed all contractual agreements with funders, grantees and services providers, including creating and maintaining a management control system to track and assess contract performance, deliverables, and budgets. In addition, she also supported the Chief Executive Officer and the Board of Directors with development-related strategies and outreach. Most recently, Sylvia completed an internship with Pro Mujer, Masaya, Nicaragua, learning about mircro-finance and international development at a grassroots level. As an Atlas Fellow, she hopes to broaden her knowledge of different community development systems, while working to increase the capacity of international, public-private partnerships that improve the lives of others through coordinated, at-scale investments. Sylvia is a member of Sigma Lambda Upsilon/ Señoritas Latinas Unidas Sorority, Inc., and is on the Board of Directors for the Helena M. English Fund (a nonprofit organization that raises money for AIDS prevention and education projects in Africa) and API, Inc. (a for-profit company that provides psychological and family services in Washington, DC.).

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Host Organization: Give to Colombia

Abby brings more than 10 years of experience in development, communications, and youth leadership development, which include being a Class 2 Atlas Corps Fellow in Colombia. Abby is also an alumnae of the Independent Sector NGEN Program and the American Express Leadership Academy. Prior to Atlas Corps, Abby worked as a Development Strategist for the InterAmerican Development Bank (Washington, DC), Fundacion Escuela Nueva (Bogota, Colombia), and The Campus Kitchens Project/DC Central Kitchen (national). Abby served on the Board of the One Percent Foundation—a group of citizen philanthropists who pool their funds and time to strengthen their communities, while at the same time increasing their understanding of and participation in philanthropy. Abby served as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Puerto Rico and organized community development efforts throughout the northern part of the island. Abby graduated with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Communications and Spanish with a minor in Marketing from the University of Minnesota Duluth and completed the Fundraising for Small Nonprofits course offered by The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Host Organization : Fundación Saldarriaga Concha

Richa has a background in human resource development and management, economics, planning & development. She is presently the deputy director of programs at the Business & Community Foundation (BCF) based in New Delhi. BCF is a civil society organization that has been working to promote corporate social responsibility since the early 1990s. During her four-year stint with BCF, Richa has been involved in facilitating the corporate social responsibility initiatives of companies ranging from CSR policy formulation, overall due diligence, coordination, monitoring and project evaluation, CSR award assessment, workshops, conferences, training, management development programs, employee volunteering programs, disability initiatives and more. Previously, Richa worked as an associate consultant with Time Manager International (TMI), and was instrumental in starting the Association of Students of Human Resource Development & Management (ASHRAM) in Allahabad. Richa received her B.A. in economics and industrial relations and personnel management from Delhi University, and has also earned a M.A. in economics from Rohilkhand University, a M.A. in human resource development and management from Allahabad University, and a M.Phil. in planning and development from the Indian Institute of Technology.

Host Organization: Grameen Foundation

Nilanjana has four years of experience with fundraising and public relations for teams in the UK, USA, and Netherlands as the information and communication officer and later fundraising and PR officer for the Brooke Hospital for Animals in India. She has also assisted in preparing international summits, field visits and socio-economic impact assessments. Previously, Nilanjana worked in the Child Guidance Centre within the Department of Social Work at the University of Delhi, where she surveyed the community to analyze adolescent girls’ literacy levels and organized recreational activities. Nilanjana has also focused her efforts on child rights advocacy and ending sexual abuse through researching child-trafficking cases in Delhi for Umeed. As a member of Shafa, she organized group programs with adolescents and drug addicts, conducted initial interviews and case work, learned the therapeutic community module for drug rehabilitation and Alcoholics Anonymous for alcohol rehabilitation, and advocated against drug use in outreach programs. Nilanjana’s background is in social work, and with her experience working for NGOs, she aims to address the challenges youth face in an urban centric development model (with factors influencing drug peddling, human trafficking, the sex trade, and more). She earned a B.A. in social work from Delhi University and has a post-graduate diploma in public relations from Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan in Delhi.

Host Organization: InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington

Meher has ten years of experience in the citizen sector, both in India and South Asia. Documentation, evaluation and research are the core areas of her experience. Her experience also includes management of projects on issues such as women’s empowerment, gender and governance, child labor, disability, youth development and NGO capacity building. Her most recent experience was working at JAGORI (‘Awaken, Women’), a feminist group raising consciousness on violence, health, education and other issues critical to women. There, she researched and developed resource material to support the organization’s advocacy work on legal rights, food security rights and the health of women. Prior to this, Meher conceptualized and initiated a development program for youth called YES (Youth Enrichment Services) for a corporate body in Delhi. From 1999-2006, Meher worked at Association for Stimulating Know How where she coordinated the Evaluation, Research & Documentation Unit. She was primarily involved in planning, conducting, supervising and documenting evaluations and studies for national and international agencies. During that time she also managed projects on gender and governance in Rajasthan and economic empowerment of Muslim women in Uttar Pradesh. She organized women into groups and coordinated and facilitated trainings and other capacity building inputs to help women meet their development objectives. Meher also coordinated the advocacy component of a project providing developmental opportunities to children working in household brassware units in Uttar Pradesh. From 2004-2005 Meher was with Saarthak where she coordinated a UNIFEM project in tsunami affected communities of Sri Lanka. She was involved in the process of gendering the reconstruction work and addressing psychosocial impacts on women and children. She also worked closely with local organizations and the government, enhancing their capacities to identify and address gender related vulnerabilities after a disaster. Meher holds a B.S. in sciences from Delhi University and a M.A. in social work from Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi.

Host Organization: Population Action International (PAI)

Lina is an economist with a working knowledge of nonprofit initiatives in Colombia, assessment and advocacy of public policies, as well as the promotion of entrepreneurship in rural communities. Previously, she worked for the Fundación Manantial de Talentos in Bogotá, which deals with community and economic development for marginalized groups. Lina also has experience managing conferences with 20 international speakers and more than 100 attendees, organizing rural sector initiatives, and translating crucial meeting and conference documents for the Fundación Agenda Colombia. Last year, Lina was a volunteer and translator for Atlas Service Corps during the launch of the Bogotá office in Colombia. Awarded the Colfuturo Loan-Scholarship for postgraduate studies in the United Kingdom, Lina has built a strong academic foundation by pursuing a MSc in development management at the London School of Economics after graduating from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia with a B.A. in economics and a M.A. in economic sciences. She is the recipient of the London School of Economics’ Graduate Support Scheme Award. Lina hopes to master all main aspects of work in a social organization, in order to return to Colombia to work with civil organizations, grassroots organizations, research centers, and the like as a liaison between the different groups. She credits her volunteer experience as a factor in her success: “To me, social, nonprofit organizations give young professionals numerous opportunities to learn and share ideas and build up a broad range of useful skills, while working in specific areas (economic projects, political awareness, advocacy, and gender issues, among others).”

Host Organization: Grameen Foundation