Barbadian Sabrina Newton has been awarded the prestigious Howard University 2019 Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellowship.
The Rangel Fellowship will support Newton through a two-year master’s degree in an area of relevance to the United States Foreign Service. It is a US Department of State programme that aims to enhance the excellence and diversity of the Foreign Service and includes up to $95 000 of graduate school assistance over two years.
Newton will complete her bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in communications this month.
She considers the fellowship as one the most important opportunities in her career.
“I applied to the Rangel fellowship with the objective of joining the Foreign Service to change the way we view and frame foreign policy,” said Newton.
“I want to combine knowledge with creativity to find effective and sustainable policy solutions for the world.”
As part of the programme, Newton will work for a member of Congress on issues related to foreign affairs in summer 2019.
In the summer of 2020, the State Department will send her overseas to work in a US Embassy to get hands-on experience with US foreign policy and the work of the Foreign Service.
Upon successful completion of the programme, Newton will become a US diplomat. She will work to promote peace and prosperity around the world.
Newton has held nine leadership positions at Howard, including co-founder and Community Outreach chair for the United Nations Association, the head delegate for the International Affairs Society. She was also a participant in the Rangel International Affairs Summer programme for undergraduates.
With a desire to challenge the Howard community to think more broadly, Newton chartered a chapter of the United Nations Association on campus. The organisation encouraged global engagement and helped send 60 students to Model UN, NATO and African Union.
She deepened her own international experiences by travelling to Ghana to intern in the Ministry of Justice’s Legal Aid Scheme.
Returning to the United States, she worked as a global policy research assistant at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. In August, she travelled to Thailand as a United Nations humanitarian affairs delegate and learned about the measures taken to end conflict, famine, and human trafficking globally.
She is now a political economy research assistant at the Institute of Caribbean Studies, where she focuses on enhancing cooperation between the United States and the Caribbean region in areas like trade and the reduction of drug trafficking.
Newton realised that “often times we are too reactionary in our approaches”, so she devoted herself to studying the underlying variables which cause systemic problems.
“Howard has given me a strong and fearless voice as a black woman. When I step into a room I am confident that I belong there, and I always put my best foot forward,” she said. (PR/AC)
