Berkley Center

Mariam Diefallah graduated from Georgetown University’s Qatar campus in 2017 with a major in culture and politics and a certificate in media and politics. Originally from Egypt, Mariam’s interest in education and social justice started when she was a student at a public Arabic-speaking school in an impoverished neighborhood in Giza. After joining Georgetown, Mariam’s interests expanded to include the study of identity, memory, and trauma. Travelling to Sri Lanka as a participant of a community engagement program in 2014, studying themes of education and conflict resolution, motivated her to intern during summer 2015 at Teach for Qatar and to conduct research in Rwanda through the Berkley Center's Education and Social Justice Research Project during summer 2016. During spring 2016, Mariam interned at the Brookings Doha Center and worked part-time as an Arabic tutor on campus.

Sarah Jannarone graduated from Georgetown College in 2017 with a major in American studies and a minor in education, inquiry, and social justice. Through the Berkley Center, Sarah spent the fall 2015 semester studying at the University of Edinburgh and blogging for the Junior Year Abroad Network and conducted research in Maribor, Slovenia, during summer 2016 through the Education and Social Justice Research Project. 

Khadija Khan, a Raines fellow (GOFAR), is an undergraduate in the Georgetown College class of 2017 studying justice and peace studies with a concentration in feminism and social movements. She spent the entirety of her junior year studying post-apartheid conflict resolution and decolonization at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. During her stay, South Africa's largest student protests since the 1976 Soweto shootings broke out. Khadija was actively involved in the movement; she created a documentary about women in the movement in October 2015 and conducted a research project on intersectionality throughout 2016. Upon her return to Georgetown, she hopes to continue her involvement with student movements, produce writing on her experiences and findings, as well as explore socially just research methodologies.

Khaliyah Legette is a member of the Georgetown College class of 2017, majoring in American studies and minoring in education, inquiry, and justice. Originally from New Jersey, she discovered her passion for education while serving as a tutor to elementary and middle school students while in high school. Her passion for international education grew after serving as a Project Ambassador for One World Youth Project, where she taught a global curriculum—with partner schools in Turkey, Guyana, Kosovo, and Pakistan—to sixth graders in a Washington, D.C. public school. During summer 2015 Khaliyah spent two weeks in Cape Town, South Africa tutoring and mentoring students through a program called OneHeartSource, and during summer 2016 she conducted research in Kenya through the Berkley Center's Education and Social Justice Research Project. Khaliyah is currently the Education Chair for the Georgetown NAACP and a project manager fellow for One World Youth Project.

Clara Mejia, a Center for Social Justice Andretta fellow, is an undergraduate in the Georgetown College class of 2017 majoring in American studies and minoring in justice and peace. Clara’s interest in immigrant rights originated in high school, where she became a peer mentor to undocumented students learning to navigate a foreign education system. She went on to intern with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, engaging with attorneys who defended the civil liberties of LGBT individuals and immigrants, including those escaping persecution. At Georgetown, Clara advocated for immigrant rights through UndocuHoyas and Hoyas for Immigrant Rights. In May 2015, Clara joined the Center for Social Justice to assist in research on Washington, D.C.’s Limited Purpose driver licenses. Clara serves as Chicanx Student Movement of Aztlán’s (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán, MEChA) Latinx Leadership Forum representative to promote social justice and the Latinx identity.

Laura Padilla is an undergraduate in the Georgetown College class of 2018 majoring in government and minoring in education, inquiry, and justice. She is also a Center for Social Justice community-based research assistant on the Limited Purpose driver licenses project. At Georgetown, she has worked closely with student activists in the District-Maryland-Virginia area to support the undocumented community nationally. In September 2015, she joined the Center for Social Justice to assist Professor Diana Guelespe with her research on the Limited Purpose driver licenses; Guelespe’s guidance provided Laura with the tools to better advocate for her community. This summer, Laura interned for Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL), a passionate advocate for immigration reform. Laura hopes to attend law school and work to ensure that Latinxs are represented and protected by the government.

Melinda A. Reyes graduated from the School of Foreign Service in 2013 and was a 2013-2014 Fulbright-mtvU research fellow in Istanbul, Turkey. At Georgetown she majored in international politics with a concentration on international security.

Jonathan Thrall graduated from Georgetown's School of Foreign Service in 2017 with a major in culture and politics and minor in Arabic. Over the summer of 2016, Jonathan studied the work of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Jordan through the Berkley Center's Education and Social Justice Fellowship; he was also a 2016-2017 Doyle undergraduate fellow.