“After daily classes taught by internationally renowned food systems leaders, I’ll spend afternoons studying alongside my 12-person cohort or tending to crops at our campus experiential learning farm,” she said. “In doing so, I’ll investigate food systems at all scales, from digging my hands in the soil to drafting policy.”
After graduation, Gray moved to Vermont, where she has worked as the community-supported agriculture coordinator at Jericho Settlers Farm until April, when she became a food access fellow at the Intervale Center in Burlington.
Lydia Kim
Lydia Kim will pursue a master’s degree in global security and borders at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland.
“My research focus in the program will be on climate change migration along coastal communities, culminating in the dissertation during the summer term,” Kim said. “I aim to understand the experience of these groups and visualize a responsive framework for coastal migration and refugee displacement. I’ll be using photovoice to understand those perspectives across the Emerald Isle.”
Photovoice is a qualitative research method where people share their lived experiences through photography and collaborate to approach a community issue. A photographer, Kim believes that storytelling through imagery is a powerful way to engage with others.
Kim, of Fairfax, completed her undergraduate program in December, earning Bachelor of Arts degrees in global commerce in culture and society and in environmental thought and practice.
Kim said the Queens University program merged her interests in sustainable development and the environmental challenge of rising sea levels. She developed an interest in coastal communities and climate solutions while writing her capstone projects. The course parallels these topics and the complexities of migration and belonging, particularly through Ireland’s history with the United Kingdom.
At UVA, Kim was co-president of Simple Charity at UVA, a college chapter focused on growing in solidarity with people experiencing poverty and injustice, president of SEEK His Face Interfellowship Ministry and a contributing writer and designer for Bearings, an Augustine Collective journal.
Owen Robert Selden
Owen Robert Selden will pursue a master’s degree in global health science and epidemiology at the University of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England.
Selden, of Charleston, South Carolina, graduated in May with a degree in human biology, with highest distinction, and a minor in health, society and ethics. He became interested in health systems while researching a pediatric intensive care unit in Kigali, Rwanda, as a rising third-year student.
“This interest in systems and their impact on health led me to pursue research on environmental health in Kathmandu, Nepal,” he said. “The connection between the built environment, a social construction, and social problems with clinical outcomes have inspired my interest in becoming a physician-scientist and clinical ethicist. I aim to address structural problems outside of the clinic through research and ethics consultation, while combating their impact in the clinic for patients.”
Selden said he was influenced by Paul Farmer, a medical anthropologist and physician, and his writing on the role of structural violence and historic inequities in shaping global disparities in life expectancy. Selden sought to understand how violence and poverty have influenced the distribution of global mortality from preventable and treatable diseases.
Selden was an Echols Scholar, the B.H. Rutledge Moore Family Jefferson Scholar and a Paul B. Barringer II Scholar. He was a three-time Center for Global Health Equity University Scholar, and a recipient of a Burns Family Global Health scholarship, a Harrison Undergraduate Research Award, an Ingrassia Family Research Grant, and a College of Arts & Sciences Small Travel and Research grant.
A Raven Society member and a Lawn resident, Selden was the team coordinator and cofounder of the Partners in Health Engage Undergraduate Chapter, co-editor-in-chief of Grounds: The Virginia Journal of Bioethics, senior resident on the Lawn, a Center for Global Health Equity intern, a trainee on UVA’s Ethics Consult Service, a research assistant for multiple professors and a biomedical ethics intern at the Center for Health Humanities and Ethics.
Alexandra Zaffuts
Alexandra Zaffuts will pursue a Master of Science in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Zaffuts, of Great Falls, graduated in May with a degree in integrated bioethics and a minor in astronomy. She said she became interested in public health and policy after becoming an emergency medical technician. “As an EMT, you see firsthand the inequities in our health system and its impact on individuals,” she said.
“Studying public health and health policy in the United Kingdom is compelling to me due to how fundamentally its health care system juxtaposes the U.S.’s system,” Zaffuts said. “I’m excited to gain new perspectives on how to begin tackling our systemic problems while deepening my research skills at the same time.”
Zaffuts said she is interested in academic medicine, where she can combine clinical care with research, teaching and community health.
“As an undergraduate at UVA, I had the opportunity to pursue all these disciplines and saw how interconnected they can be,” she said. “In the future, I hope to work in a similar environment as a physician, where I can care for individuals while also advancing the care provided in my community.”
Zaffuts was an Echols Scholar, co-head ambassador of the Echols program, two-time recipient of the Ingrassia Family Research Grant, and recipient of the Harrison Undergraduate Research Award. While at UVA, she was an EMT with the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad; a research assistant in professor Weibin Shi’s radiology and medical imaging lab; a teaching assistant in the Physics Department and the Nursing School; a clinical ethics intern at the Center for Health Humanities and Ethics; a weekly volunteer at the University Medical Center; and a member of UVA’s concert band, double-reed chamber ensemble and marching band.
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