The Coverdell Fellowship

Awarded to Returned Peace Corps Volunteers

The Jackson Institute for Global Affairs participates in the Paul D. Coverdell Fellows Program. The fellowships are awarded to Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who apply as a Coverdell Fellow.

To be considered, interested RPCVs upload a 500 word-max Peace Corps Fellowship Statement to the online application, indicating how the fellowship fits into their academic and professional plans, and how they plan to fulfill the Coverdell internship requirement.

During their graduate studies, Coverdell Fellows complete a degree-related internship in an underserved American community, allowing them to bring home and expand upon the skills they learned as Peace Corps volunteers. 

At Jackson, Coverdell Fellows receive full tuition (and may receive an additional stipend). Coverdell Fellows may be named after intent to matriculate decisions are made.

For more information on the Coverdell Fellows Program, visit the Peace Corps website or attend an upcoming Jackson webinar for prospective Coverdell Fellows.

 

Meet our current Coverdell Fellows:

Darryl Alexander

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Darryl served as an Americorps VISTA in Allentown, Pennsylvania, managing a coalition of businesses, nonprofits, and municipal governments focused on engaging girls and minorities in the STEM fields through mentoring programs. He later went on to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Armenia, where he advised NGOs and municipal governments on project planning, grant writing, and program management. He also led a series of environmental activism camps throughout the country and advocated for the needs of fellow volunteers as the chair of the Volunteer Advisory Council. During the protests following the murder of George Floyd, he pivoted to co-found Mutual Aid Houston, an abolitionist organization focused on providing support to black and brown Houstonians most affected by the pandemic.

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Paulina Prasad

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Prior to her time at Yale, Paulina lived in the Ecuadorian Amazon as a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching English at a local high school. She spearheaded the development of the first English language camp in the region and coordinated after-school youth clubs with the local community center. After serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer, Paulina was hired as an environmental specialist for Sun Mountain International, a company that specializes in environmental monitoring and compliance for USAID-funded food security projects. She worked out of the Quito office with Sun Mountain for over two years where she gained exposure to USAID procedures and documents.  At Yale, Paulina is focused on partnering with countries in the Pacific region and Latin America to create economically and environmentally sustainable policies with a particular focus on infrastructure and the built environment. 

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Marcus Senninger

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Marcus served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia, where he utilized his background in business and farming to develop rural aquaculture and teach essential business skills in his village. After Yale, Marcus intends to pursue a career in the US government, or NGOs in the field of US-China-Africa relations, development, and business. 

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Sarah Ullom-Minnich

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Sarah became interested in international development while studying abroad in the Ecuadorian Amazon with the Pachaysana Institute, an organization committed to decolonizing study abroad through equitable participatory development partnerships. She later joined the Peace Corps as a Community Organizational Development Volunteer in post-conflict Kosovo, where she served in a Serb minority community. There, her focus was on building employability, project management, and English language capacities for women, youth, and local organizations. She has also worked with non-profits in the U.S. that strive to empower people to escape the cycle of poverty.

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