Fall 2008 Interns

Elisabetta Colabianchi is a senior at USD, majoring in Biology and Spanish and minoring in Italian and in Peace and Justice Studies. She has studied in Milan, Italy at L'Universitá Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, at FLACSO (Latin American Social Sciences Faculty) in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and at the ITESO (The Jesuit University of Guadalajara) in Guadalajara, Mexico. During an internship at the Botanical Garden Cascina Rosa in Milan, Elisabetta worked on an alternate fuel sources research project focusing on bio-diesel. She has also worked at the USD Student Health Center and has volunteered at USD's Romero Center for Faith in Action and the San Diego chapter of the American Red Cross. Her volunteer and organizing activities include a stint with the Coalition for Health and Wellness Initiatives, the International Film Club, and Totally Rad Environmental Enthusiasts (T.R.E.E.), all while at USD. Elisabetta speaks fluent Italian and Spanish as well as some Arabic. In her future work she plans to continue to focus on sustainability and development.

Chris Groth received an M.A. in International Relations from USD, and graduated cum laude from the University of California, Irvine, with a B.A. in Social Science and in Sociology. His research interests include regional security issues, specifically in East and South Asia; U.S.-China relations; and the war on drugs in Mexico. He was awarded the USD Graduate Grant and the Irving Salomon Political Science Scholarship, and published "In the Trenches: Fighting Mexico's War without End," in Comparative Politics and the War on Terror, ed. Lisa Papera and Randy Willoughby (San Diego, CA: University Readers, 2005). Chris currently works as an Analyst at SRA International, Inc. He will be the Graduate Intern at the IPJ, remaining at the institute through the spring semester 2009.

Carolyn Smith is a senior at the University of California San Diego, planning to graduate in September 2009, with a major in Political Science- International Relations and a minor in Human Development. She previously studied at the University of Arizona and completed an internship with Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, in which she researched issues of health care and immigration, in support of the senator’s work on the Finance and Judiciary Committees. Carolyn serves as Director of Service and Outreach at the Golden Key International Honour Society at UCSD, and has also interned at the La Jolla Light Newspaper. Her academic interests include insurgency and terrorism, U.S. intelligence and national security, and East Asian thought in comparative perspective. Carolyn plans to pursue a career in international aid work and diplomacy.

Alexandra (Ali) Wolters is a senior at USD, majoring in Political Science and minoring in Peace & Justice Studies and Sociology. She completed a semester of study in Uganda in the fall of 2007, through the Uganda Development Studies program of the School for International Training in Bratteleboro, Vermont. Ali then returned to Uganda in the summer of 2008, where she worked in maternity ward of a hospital in Gulu, northern Uganda. Her summertime travels also took her to Uganda's capital, Kampala, and briefly to the city of Goma on the Congolese border with Rwanda. Ali has worked as an office assistant at Invisible Children, has volunteered as a tutor and a coordinator at the Southern Sudanese Community Center, and attended the Lobby Days for Northern Uganda event in Washington, D.C. She plans on a medical career after graduation.