Summer 2008 Interns

Erica Embree is a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is majoring in Peace and Conflict Studies, graduating in May 2009. Previously, Erica studied at the University of California, San Diego, where she majored in International Studies and Sociology. Through the Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program at Berkeley, she is serving as a researcher with Professor David Cohen, who is consulting for the ECCC, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Erica has received a fellowship to spend a five-week stint in Cambodia during January 2009. She has also conducted research on World War II-era war crimes and war crimes in Bosnia and Rwanda. In addition, Erica has done volunteer work in rural Costa Rica through Peace Works International; helps international students to practice conversing in English through UCSD Extension; and volunteers for the YWCA's English in Action program. Erica is from Playa Del Rey, California.

James (Jamie) Giganti is a second-year M.A. student at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, graduating in May 2009. She received her B.A. in Russian Language and Literature, with a minor in Dance Studies, from Emory University in May 2002. During her time in graduate school, she has interned at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University, a not-for profit think tank run by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz. While there she has assisted in the completion of four forthcoming books: The Washington Consensus Reconsidered: Towards a New Model of Global Governance. James has participated in the 12 Hours of Dialogue program, which in 2008 employed teleconferencing technology to engage young women from America and Tunisia in discussions about personal, local and international issues. She also served as Editorial Assistant to the Journal of International Affairs and Managing Editor of the The Emory Wheel, and received the Award for Excellence in Language Studies, at Emory. James hails from Abbeville, Alabama, and her research interests include the role of UN peacekeeping operations.

Benjamin Lee graduated magna cum laude from the University of San Diego in May 2007 with a double B.A. in English Literature and Theological and Religious Studies. He studied at Oxford University in the spring of 2006, where he was a Blackfriars Scholar. During the spring of 2005, Ben participated in the Tijuana Spring Breakthrough, and in the summer of 2006 he volunteered for seven weeks in the urban slums of Manila, where he lived and served at a foundation for boys separated from unstable home life. While at USD he served in the office of University Ministry as a residential ministry leader; a retreat leader; and a tenor in the Men's Ensemble of the Founders Chapel Choir. Ben is currently working full-time as the Coordinator of Youth Ministry at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Poway.

Azaam Samad is a senior at Whittier College in Whittier, California, majoring in International Conflict Management. He studied at the American University in Cairo during fall 2007, and during that time taught introductory English to underprivileged Egyptians, through the Better World NGO. Also in 2007, Azaam interned at the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). At CAIR, he specialized in government relations and politics, and wrote letters to the editor, including one published August 9, 2007 in the San Diego Union-Tribune, on the plight of a San Diego elementary school facing controversy over its efforts to accommodate Somali immigrant children who are devout Muslims. Azaam has participated in Model United Nations and had an issue paper on safe water and sanitation published in the Model United Nations Issues Book. The son of Sri Lankan parents, Azaam grew up in San Diego and visited Sri Lanka most recently in the summer of 2007.