This summer, a dedicated and talented intern team has joined us to assist Peace Boat US’s activities and projects. During the beginning of the June, our intern team had the opportunity to attend the UN World Environment Day celebrations, as well as events organized by Peace Boat US around the annual United Nations World Oceans Day. For the month of July, we are focusing on the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and planning the North American Global Youth Adaptation Forum. We want to give a warm welcome to the new intern team: Anya Lebedeva, Arpita Kundu, Ayesha Jamal, Daniela de León, Gloria Wu, Makenzie Bay, Mathew Lohmann, Roland Prince Ovbiebo, Sophia Tabibian, Vivienne Holmarsdottir, and Xingyu (Cecilia) Fan. We are thrilled to have you, and we look forward to a working with you!
Anna (Anya) Lebedeva is a recent graduate from the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor. During her last year at Michigan she was a Campus Director for the Millenium Fellowship, which is a semester-long leadership development program on college campuses worldwide, presented by the United Nations Academic Impact and MCN. She also completed a Peace Corps Prep Certification Program with an emphasis on the Environment, which included 60+ hours of volunteer work.
Having completed her BFA at Stamps School of Art and Design, Anya is excited to engage in the creative work for Peace Boat US, combining her passions for sustainability, environment and art. She’s most passionate about Sustainable Development Goals #4: Quality Education and #16:Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels; she believes that a lot of misunderstandings often come from a lack of education/ educational resources, and by participating in Peace Boat US Internship hopes to amplify salient voices and spread urgent messages about sustainability and peace.
Arpita Kundu has just graduated from William Cullen Bryant High School, and will be going to attend Stony Brook University for Fall 2022. She wants to graduate from University with a bachelor in Nursing. Arpita’s passions are painting and traveling, and she enjoys photography as well. She is a regular club member of Global Kids, which is a non profit organization that supports educational programs for youth from diverse backgrounds in New York City. She has worked in a middle school as an Intern teacher for SYEP (Summer Youth Employment Program) in the summer of 2021, and this is her second year participating in the program. She will try her best to contribute to Peace Boat using her past experiences.
Arpita also loves meeting new people and having experiences in different fields of work. Her ultimate goal is to make changes in society, work for people who need help, and ensure safety for the environment. Arpita is most interested with SDG #13, calling for Climate Action. She wants to engage herself and more youth to take action against climate change. She thinks the way the environment is changing and the weather is reacting, we should take action from now otherwise future generations will be in danger.
Ayesha Jamal is a member of Global Kids and will attend City College of New York (CCNY) this Fall, where she will pursue a bachelor’s degree in computer science. With this degree, she will enhance her career in programming and potentially use it for her passions in politics and human rights. These passions stem from her childhood lived in Pakistan up until the age of 10, where topics like the role of women, human rights, and quality education were always on the topic of conversation. Growing up female, she was always fascinated by the different roles society had given men and women, and how those roles changed in different cultures and communities.
Ayesha likes to read books and also enjoys learning new languages and currently studying Turkish. She is delighted to participate in the Peace Boat’s signature internship program and gain a better understanding of how local communities and individuals are affected by global problems and find solutions to these problems. Ayesha is most interested in Sustainability Development Goal #5 for Gender Equality as well as SDG #4 for Quality Education and SDG #16 for Peace and Justice. She is eager to be able to talk and research more about these topics. She also hopes to better her networking, communication, and research skills.
Daniela de León is a rising senior majoring in Environmental Studies at Lake Forest College. Growing up in the northern highlands of Guatemala brought her closer to topics such as environmental justice, collective memory as a way of truth telling, and indigenous rights. She is excited to further develop her research and digital media design skills at Peace Boat. Daniela identifies the most with SDG #10, which calls for reduced inequalities within and among countries. She believes that providing equal opportunity to everyone irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic status will allow different voices to take a part in important decisions, especially those regarding sustainable development and climate change mitigation.
Gloria Wu is a rising third year at the University of Virginia. She is planning to major in anthropology and foreign affairs, with a minor in history. She is interested in travel, cross-cultural communication, and social activism. Gloria aspires to have a life dedicated to public service. She is currently working on a project with a professor to create awareness about the military coup and disinformation regimes in Myanmar. She believes there is a need for awareness of many social issues in developing countries, to hold western countries and corporations accountable for their actions and historical legacies.
She is most passionate about the UN Sustainable Goal #16: Promote peace, justice and strong institutions. She has experience in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion for class council; which she seeks to implement in the spaces, organizations and communities she is a part of. She hopes to gain experience around peace making, coalition building, and nonprofit work through the Peace Boat US internship.
Makenzie Bay is a rising third year at DePaul University in Chicago Illinois. She is passionate about climate change and health. She is majoring in International Studies with a minor in geography. She is interested in languages and is currently studying both Spanish and Korean. Makenzie aspires for a future in promoting sustainability and global health. She currently volunteers with the American Red Cross as a biomedical ambassador and hopes to volunteer in a hospital soon. She is most interested in Sustainable Development Goal #3, Good Health and well-being, and SDG #13 for Climate Action. At Peace Boat US, she strives to promote their message and gain experience in people’s well being in relationship to the environment while simultaneously encouraging sustainable action.
Matthew Lohmann is a rising junior at Tufts University. Matt is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Spanish, with a minor in Economics. He is originally from Madison, New Jersey, and enjoys performing in theater, playing videogames with his younger brother, and competing in Model UN. In general, he is looking forward to learning more about the logistics of working at an NGO and how they interact with governments. Through the internship, Matt hopes to improve his research and writing abilities, as well as enhancing his skills in professional social media. He is most passionate about Sustainable Development Goal #16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions; he believes that effective and fair governance is an important first step that will lead to the rest of the goals being more easily fulfilled. Peacebuilding is an incredibly difficult process but is critical to bringing economic prosperity and ecological justice to the rest of the world, and Matt is passionate about bringing a future of peace to fruition.
Roland Prince Ovbiebo is passionate about ocean sustainability and climate change. After finishing his bachelor degree in Marine Science and Technology in Nigeria, he served his nation under the National Youth Service Corps scheme. Due to his determination to succeed, he won the fully-funded 2021 Diponegoro University Scholarship for International students to study Environmental Science at the master’s level. He’ll be starting his Graduate Student Researcher position at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego in the fall of 2022.
He’s most passionate about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals #13: Climate Action and Goal #14: Life Below Water; he wants to leave the world in a better place than he finds it by helping to address climate change issues through innovative research and developing climate change adaptive strategies. By participating in the Peace Boat US internship he hopes to learn more about Sustainable Development Goals, youth engagement in addressing climate change, and hone his networking skills.
Sophia Tabibian is a rising 9th grader at Phillips Academy Andover. She is passionate about climate change solutions, technology, and environmental policy. Last summer, Sophia was part of the EarthxYouth fellowship, where she learned about Peace Boat’s activities when Emilie McGlone, Director of Peace Boat US, was a mentor for the program. She produced a seven-minute film, “Skylines of Innovation,” discussing how technology can improve the sustainability and efficiency of cities. Currently, Sophia volunteers at San Francisco City Hall and runs a community service group that hosts weekly beach cleanups. At Peace Boat, she looks forward to taking action on peace education, conflict resolution, disarmament, and sustainable development through films, articles, and general NGO logistics. Sophia hopes to connect with and support communities on the local and global scale. Furthermore, she strives to raise awareness about Peace Boat’s impact, bringing together people across the world. Sophia is most interested in Sustainable Development Goal #7: Affordable and Clean Energy. She cares deeply about making green electricity accessible to all people and hopes to dedicate her future to finding new solutions for climate action.
Vivienne Holmarsdottir is a freshman at Long Beach City College. She is currently a history major but is planning on narrowing it down to Ethnic Studies after she transfers to a four-year university. Her goals include joining an activist organization for the betterment of human life, like Peace Boat US, Amnesty, the ACLU among others. She is originally from Brooklyn, New York, enjoys fashion, art, and other creative centered hobbies. She has participated in numerous protests, community engagement groups, including the most recent protests regarding women’s reproductive rights.
This is the second time she has worked with the US division of Peace Boat, however she hopes that she can continue to improve her oral communication skills in conference settings, her organizational skills through event planning, and general methods to reduce her environmental impact. Her focus is currently on the 10th Sustainable Development Goal: reduce inequality within and among countries; she feels that this is an incredibly broad focus, but feels that it is a goal that all people should work towards, and that it can be done through education, governmental policy, and even something as simple as personal communication. Her opinion is that there is no thing too small that individuals and partake in for the betterment of social equality.
Xingyu (Cecilia) Fan is a senior college student at the University of California, San Diego. She majors in International Relations with a minor in Climate Change Studies, hoping to tackle climate change at a global level. Cecilia enjoys public speaking and cross-cultural communication and loves to go hiking in her free time. During her time at UCSD, Cecilia composed an Honors Thesis focusing on facilitating transnational cooperation between China and the U.S to promote renewable energies. She is also currently working with the University’s administrative committee in setting up a climate change course requirement for all future UCSD students.
Cecilia is most passionate about Sustainable Development Goal #13: Climate Action. Believing that public participation is key to resolving climate change, she hopes to mobilize global efforts from both social and political aspects. At Peace Boat US, she is looking forward to gaining valuable NGO working experiences and honing her research, networking, and communication skills to make greater impacts in the near future.