Peace Corps Fellows Program

Nicolas Stahelin has worked in the field of experiential learning, international and cross-cultural exchange, school-community partnerships, and urban educational development for nearly ten years. Originally of Swiss-Brazilian nationality, Nicolas lived for twenty years in Brazil and Venezuela, and is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and French. He obtained a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Oberlin College in 2002, and subsequently worked as a program coordinator with the School for International Training in the Amazonian region of northern Brazil. He began working for the Peace Corps Fellows Program in 2006 developing service-learning initiatives, leading professional development workshops with over 40 teachers in more than a dozen public schools. He has managed the AmeriCorps Professional Corps grants since 2008, and as Director he now oversees all program operations. Nicolas holds a M.A. in International Educational Development from Teachers College, in which he focused on school-community partnerships for the education of immigrant youth in New York City, and currently works towards an Ed.D. in the same field.

Kim Swanson is an alumnus of the Peace Corps Fellows Program. After earning her B.S.B.A. in International Business and Economics from Ohio Northern University, she served as a Small Enterprise Development Volunteer in Senegal for three years, where she worked as a business counselor, trainer, and facilitator for individuals, associations, and small companies. While in Senegal, she also coordinated service learning workshops in local schools, collaborated with the U.S. embassy to conduct summer English camps for high school students, and initiated a scholarship fund for girls at risk of dropping out of school as Coordinator of Peace Corps Senegal’s Gender and Development Committee. Upon leaving Senegal, Kim earned her M.A. in TESOL from Teachers College. She taught high school ELA to ELLs where her curriculum focused on social justice education. At her school, Kim started a Girls Leadership Group, a Photography Club aimed at increasing students’ literacy skills, and partnered with the Sierra Club Inner City Outings to provide students with opportunities to connect with nature. She also served as a Teacher Leader and a mentor to new teachers. With the Peace Corps Fellows Program, she oversees all activities related to teacher development and support. She currently works towards an Ed.M. in Sociology and Education with a policy concentration.

Emily Taylor is a graduate of Connecticut College, where she earned a B.A. in American Studies with a concentration in Race and Ethnicity, and was certified in Elementary Education. After serving as the Partnership Coordinator at a New York City high school, she began studying at Teachers College, where she is currently pursuing her M.A. and Ed.M. in School Counseling. In her current position as service-learning coordinator, she works with second-year Peace Corps Fellows to facilitate meaningful service-learning experiences in their classrooms, which ranges from brainstorming project and topic ideas to connecting fellows with community organizations and resources. Additionally, she supports fellows with mini-grant applications, which provide funding for service-learning projects and excursions.

Anahid Modrek is from Los Angeles, California and comes from a multicultural family originally from Armenia. As an undergraduate at UC Berkeley she received a B.A. in Psychology and Public Policy, where she intertwined the study of human development from a micro intrapersonal perspective in psychology, as well as a macro organizational perspective through the study of policy. Anahid has worked abroad in countries such as China and Armenia, with children and students of all ages. During her undergraduate career at Berkeley, she worked with junior high students at a local middle school in Oakland, California, an experience that led her to move to New York to pursue her doctorate studies in Developmental Psychology at Columbia University. Her research and career interests include studying development in education and how researchers can work with policymakers and practitioners to improve education interventions. Anahid has been a member of the Peace Corps Fellows Program team since April 2012.