Announcing IPD's AidData Summer Fellows for 2017!

IPD is pleased to announce our 2017 AidData Summer Fellows! AidData and IPD have worked closely over the past few years to send graduate and undergraduates all over the world to work with partner organizations on all things data. AidData Summer Fellows improve the capacity of civil society in developing countries to use geocoded data, which localizes development funding and activities down to the district, town or street corner level. Funded by USAID, summer fellows embed with local universities, think tanks and civil society groups for two to three months, equipping local organizations with the skills to use this data in program planning, advocacy and research.
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Here is the current roundup of 2017 AidData Summer Fellows from the University of Texas at Austin:​​

• Hina Acharya is a first-year Master of Global Policy Studies student at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Her policy interests are in International Development and regional interests in South Asia and Africa. Prior to graduate school, Hina served as an English teacher in Nepal and as a student advocate for a non-profit in Omaha, Nebraska. This summer, she will serve as an AidData summer fellow for the Open Sustainability Institute in Kampala, Uganda to support and advocate for Open Data efforts in the country. 
• Kevin Strybos is a senior undergraduate student majoring in Geography in the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. He will be working with USAID in Lima, Peru assisting their team with GIS-related projects.  Kevin will also be training people new methods for using geospatial tools and how to run more complex types of analyses with ArcGIS. Kevin will work on building upon geodatabases, creating maps related to LULCC (deforestation, coffee production, burn incidents, etc.) and developing story maps with ArcGIS Online for USAID Peru.  
• Paul Kuhne is a Master of Global Policy Studies student at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He will be working with the Open Sustainability Institute (OSI) of Uganda supporting their sustainability work. Paul will be geocoding key sustainability projects around the country and helping them build a repository of information that supports their IGAD Climate Prediction & Applications Center. OSI's interventions serve to provide critical information to both citizens and government officials in order to mitigate the negative effects of climate change. Paul will also help OSI write a policy brief that will be presented to the government outlining recommendations for preparedness and development strategies. 
• Katherine Whitton is a first-year Master of Global Policy Studies student at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. She studies International Development and Governance. Prior to graduate school, Katherine was in US Peace Corps serving as an education volunteer in Ethiopia (2013-2015). She started working with Innovations for Peace and Development (IPD) in Fall 2016. This summer she will be interning through the AidData Summer Fellowship Program at the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) in Kampala, Uganda. She will either work in the Trade & Regional Integration Department (agriculture policy) or the Micro department (infant mortality). Both positions will involve a feasibility assessment, production of geocoded data, geocoding and GIS training, and research plan development.