Colloquium | Members

Reece Wallace

Reece Wallace is a freshman from Houston, Texas. He is drawn to international studies by his fascination with the intersections of history, politics, and culture and is excited to apply these disciplines to an in-depth study of Europe's complex and uncertain future. He is particularly interested in the ongoing interactions between European secular and religious institutions as well as the various separatist movements that currently challenge individual nations and the European Union. He plans to incorporate his Spanish language knowledge into future research. In his free time, Reece enjoys listening to music, playing piano, and spending time with friends.

Rebekah Waller

Born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Bekah recently made the move to Boston to begin her first year at Tufts. In typical freshman style, she is currently considering many academic pursuits, including but not limited to International Relations, Economics, and Community Health. Bekah is also continuing her study of Arabic that she began last summer on a language immersion program in Oman. This year, she will be involved in the Tufts University Refugee Assistance Program, the New Initiative for Middle East Peace, and recreational sports around campus. After Tufts, Bekah has ambitions to work for non-profit organizations in the Middle East and North Africa region that involve refugee resettlement and assimilation programs. She wants to utilize program implementation and analysis skills, as well as her passion for the language and cultures of this part of the world, in her future career.

Joel Wasserman

Joel Wasserman is a fifth-year senior studying International Relations and Russian, and is participating in EPIIC for the second time. He has long been fascinated by the history and politics of Russia and the Former Soviet Union, but through his studies at Tufts, Joel fell in love with the Russian land, Russian culture, and the Russian national story. In the summer of 2012, Joel did language study in Russia and travelled to Latvia, Ukraine, and Poland, helping him to achieve solid functionality in Russian language. His hobbies include gourmet cooking, following his hometown Washington sports teams, martial arts, and good movies. Following graduation, Joel hopes to spend time doing humanitarian work in Ukraine, to travel across the Former Soviet Union, and eventually to enter government service in the grand chess game of geopolitics and international affairs.

Isabel Weiner

Isabel is a Tufts senior hailing from New York City and working towards a combined BA/MPH degree. As an International Relations major and Arabic minor, Isabel hopes to work in the public health and human rights fields in the Arab world after graduating. Isabel has spent the past three summers working with refugees and victims of violence in Boston, Tel Aviv, and Cairo. She plans to return to Egypt to explore public health, civil society, and Egyptian Arabic.

Wen Hoe

Wen is a senior, hailing from the tiny, yet hopefully not too insignificant, island of Singapore. She is majoring in International Relations and History. At Tufts, she was one of the program coordinators of BUILD: India, a student-led group that partners with rural communities in the developing world to research and implement sustainable initiatives. She is also a Tisch scholar, and is working with domestic violence organizations in Somerville and Medford. Her interest in the Middle East is rooted in the rich religious, cultural and historical traditions, both an appreciation for these traditions in themselves, and for the complexity they lend to the political sphere. 

Alexandra Wollum

Alexandra (Allie) Wollum is a senior studying International Relations and Community Health.  She is extremely interested in trying to address inequalities around the world, specifically related to health.  She is particularly interested in understanding how to create the political will to support successful health policies with a focus on human rights and social justice. She has worked with the IGL group, BUILD (Building Understanding Through International Learning and Development) working on various sustainable development projects in southern India. She is currently working with Partners In Health on the Community Organizing Initiative, providing a structure for individuals around the country to think about global health and take action.  At Tufts, Allie has also worked with the organization LIFT that seeks to combat poverty throughout the nation using college students as advocates and has interned for a non-profit advocating for children’s issues in policy. From Denver, Colorado, Allie enjoys hiking in the Rocky Mountains. She also is an aspiring jazz singer and cooking enthusiast.

Ryan Youkilis

Ryan Youkilis is a sophomore at Tufts University majoring in international relations. In addition to academics, Ryan is the co-chair of Tufts’ J Street U chapter and the National Security Language Initiative for Youth’s (NSLI-Y) alumni representative for the Boston – New England region. Ryan has traveled to the MENA region on four separate occasions: once to Morocco, once solely to Israel, once solely to Jordan, and once to Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Territories. In high school he received the NSLI-Y scholarship from the US State Department to study Arabic at the Qasid Institute in Amman. During this time he lived with a Jordanian host family and was exposed to many of the intricacies of the region. This past summer he lived in Jerusalem in order to study Palestinian colloquial Arabic at the Hebrew University. The Middle East fascinates him because of its extreme religious, ethnic, social, and economic complexities and because its central location between Europe, Africa, and Asia causes its problems to have far-reaching affects. Ryan would like to pursue a career in either international business or in the State Department. 

Suyu Zhang

Suyu Zhang is a senior from Connecticut studying Biology. He was born in China but raised in Sendai, Japan. The first word that he learned in English was "shoes" on the plane to New York City eleven years ago. His friends say his English has not improved much from that day. From a young age, Suyu has found himself standing out in classrooms, but not because he was a good student. Having always spoken a different language, shared a different point of view or held a different colored passport, he had to learn the tricks of international diplomacy quickly and well. Historians say such experiences sparked his interest in global relations and international diplomacy. Suyu's academic interests include history, international relations, and medicine. After graduation, he hopes to work for a health related NGO abroad for a few years, as well as return to his childhood home of Sendai and try to find his home in the aftermath of the tsunami. Outside of the classroom, he is a die-hard Manchester United fan as well as a supporter of the Seibu Lions. In his spare time, he enjoys meeting new people and enjoys anything funny. Suyu believes that the shortest distance between two people is a smile. He is very excited for the year ahead and eager to meet everyone in EPIIC.

Gabriella Zoia

Gabriella is a junior who’s majoring in International Politics with a concentration in International Security. She is of Italian and Dominican origins but grew up in Italy. She completed her first two years of university education at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar where she was initially exposed to the region and its multifaceted culture before transferring to Tufts. In Georgetown she was involved in the Zones of Conflict, Zones of Peace trip to Rwanda to study the memorialization and the strategy for reconciliation of the Rwandan’s post 1994. Furthermore, she was an organizer of the Georgetown MUN conference and was an English and History tutor in the Office of Academic Services. In Tufts, she is a part of the US-China Symposium and hopes to join other organizations on campus. She is interested in studying reconciliation, conflict resolution and international law. 

Alex Zorniger

Alex was born in 1993 to Kim and Pete Zorniger in Dayton Ohio. Growing up, he played about every sport he could get his hands on and remains a very passionate fan to this day. He is in the Tufts class of 2015, majoring in International Relations with a concentration in Global Health, Nutrition, and the Environment and a minor in Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies. He is a captain of the Tufts varsity golf team and is the president of the Tufts Thirst Project at Tufts, which is an organization dedicated to promoting awareness about and to fundraising for water crises in the developing world.

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