Colloquium | Members

Lilly Tahmasebi

 

Lilly Nahal Tahmasebi is a freshman studying International Relations at Tufts University. She comes from an Iranian background and before coming to Boston, she previously lived in San Francisco. She graduated from the Head-Royce School where she served as president of the Junior Statesmen of America chapter, and was a member of the Upper School Student council, and Curriculum Committee. In high school Lilly was heavily involved in the Oakland Youth Advisory Commission (OYAC) where she was elected chair for 3 years consecutively. During her term with the commission, the appointed body focused on commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC) and in June of 2013, the OYAC put forth a bill to prevent the rise in children being trafficked. It was successfully adopted by the Oakland City Council and remains to be the first piece of legislation regarding CSEC in Oakland's history. In addition, Lilly was also responsible for the creation of a local Oakland non-profit called Oakland FoodFellas that strove to deal with the food injustice issues plaguing the West Oakland neighborhood. At Tufts, Lilly is excited to be involved in the Persian Student Association and the Tufts Dance Collective.

Rebecca Varley

Rebecca is a senior from Los Angeles studying international relations with a focus on international trade. She spent the last studying through Tufts programs in Ghana and Madrid, Spain. While in Ghana, Rebecca was a teaching assistant at a local elementary school, which helped her to appreciate the opportunities that good education can engender. On campus, Rebecca is involved with women's club soccer and the university radio station. She is grateful for her experience here at Tufts, her friends, and her ability to be involved in EPIIC.  

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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