Welcoming Our 2014 Program Fellows
Through our prestigious Fellowship Program, BFI welcomes a small number of outstanding students and early-career practitioners to our team for four months each summer. The fellowship is designed as an interdisciplinary collaborative, and provides a unique opportunity to contextualize systems thinking through immersion in the Fuller Challenge cycle through research, writing, and dialog with BFI staff, partners, and senior advisors.
We are thrilled to introduce our 2014 Fellows: Aasha Abdill and Megan Ahearn.
A Brooklyn native, Aasha supports community organizations in their efforts to understand, assess and report the significant impact of their programs. Aasha holds a Masters in Quantitative Methodology in the Social Sciences from Columbia University and is currently a doctoral candidate in Sociology at Princeton University. Her research interests include culture, organizational behavior, the intersection of race and class, and urban ethnography.
“In an urban built environment, especially within a developed nation, it is easy to overlook the direct connection humans have to the natural world. The BFI Fellowship allows me the opportunity, space and dialogue to zoom my lens on the significance of the environment in the design of socially and economically sustainable systems. Plus, being inspired by brilliant initiatives from all over the world makes a Brooklyn summer all the more awesome.”
Megan recently completed her master’s degree in Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, specializing in international comparative development and natural resource management. During her B.A. in Anthropology, Megan struggled to come to terms with the legacy of humankind as one species among many. This led her to complete her B.S. in Sustainability and the Built Environment, when she began to explore the reharmonization of human systems with nature. Originally from South Florida, Megan’s experiences are with non-profit and research institutions in Europe. She is excited about her nascent career in the midst of a global paradigm shift, and hopes that her future work will be an expression of “informed love” for the planet, in the words of David Orr.
“As a first endeavor after finishing my master’s degree, I feel I have landed on a pillow of intellectual stimulation at BFI. It is inspiring to learn that Bucky’s mission is being actively given so many ambitious forms. Emerging out of a world of academic discourse, it is so refreshing to read about diverse projects imbued with idealism, wholly embodying the tenets of sustainability, that are are actually taking root all over the world.”
Welcome Aasha and Megan!