Francesca Nyakora is a senior at Yale University double-majoring in Political Science and African Studies and receiving certificates in French and Human Rights. While originally from Kenya, Francesca has lived in five different countries and her global upbringing has endowed her with a globally oriented worldview. It is this worldview that informed her interest in global affairs and international geopolitics. Francesca served as the president of the inaugural Yale Model African Union: the first Model IGO conference hosted by an American University on the African continent, she sat on the Executive Board of Directors of the Yale International Relations Association.
She is a current student in Yale’s Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy, a fellow in the Peace and Dialogue Leadership Initiative- Yale’s capstone trip to Israel and Palestine-, and a scholar in Yale Law School’s Multidisciplinary Academic Program in Human Rights. She has served as a United States Department of State intern at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and she has served as a United Nations intern at the United Nations Development Program’s regional hub in Dakar, Senegal. Francesca is interested in democratic backslide, ethnic-based political violence, and illiberal regimes- particularly within Sub-Saharan Africa. Upon graduation from Yale, Francesca hopes to attend law school and pursue a career in public service.