School of Arts and Sciences junior Jhohanna Perez has been awarded the CIEE Frederick Douglass Global Fellowship—a fully funded, four-week leadership program for students of color that is set in Ireland and focused on peace, social justice, and conflict resolution. Ms. Perez was selected as one of the 16 fellows from more than 700 applicants who were chosen based on their demonstrated leadership and communication skills and their commitment to agitating for positive social change.

Ms. Perez was born in the Dominican Republic and now resides in New Jersey. A neuroscience major, she is currently enrolled in a Penn Global Seminar, for which she will travel to Mongolia to explore nomadic traditions as they relate to modern society. Her international focus and commitment to positive social change has been a significant part of her work and engagement at Penn and beyond. Ms. Perez has become an active member of the global community through her co-presidency of Penn’s Global Brigades chapter and her participation in Paper Airplanes. As a recipient of the Hassenfeld Foundation Social Impact Grant, she founded a human rights summer program for high school students. Through these projects, Ms. Perez has served communities outside of Penn by providing care packages to Uyghur refugees in Kazakhstan and establishing vocational training for orphanages in Yemen.

As Ms. Perez looks forward to becoming more involved in the social impact sphere as a Frederick Douglass Global Fellow, she is eager to learn more about injustice and conflict resolution as she converses with leaders in the field. More than anything, she hopes to apply what she learns in this fellowship to her current social endeavors.