Trude Raizen

Hometown: Boston, MA
High School: Boston Latin School
Intended Major: Public Policy, Political Science, Peace & Conflict Studies
Possible Career: International Development and Refugee Assistance

In high school Trude served as a member to the Student Advisory Council to the Massachusetts Board of Education and was an active member of the Student Coalition for Alternatives to the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System Exam (MCAS), working to affect curriculum change at the local and state levels. Because she believed the MCAS exams were biased against those with learning disabilities and ESL, she boycotted the exams putting at risk her ability to graduate formally from Boston Latin. She was a member of the Student Council and the National Honor Society, president of the Gay-Straight Alliance, assistant editor of the news section of her school newspaper, the piano accompanist for the concert choir and the jazz ensemble, and played JV soccer. Trude also worked as a lab assistant for Brigham and Women's Hospital.

At Swarthmore Trude was a member of the debate team and was active in Swarthmore Sudan, lobbying members of Congress to address the ongoing genocide in Sudan. During the summer of 2005 she used her Evans grant to travel in Africa for 11 weeks, working at a refugee camp in Ghana and at an orphanage in Uganda. Trude spent the summer of 2006 interning for the Deval Patrick campaign for governor of Massachusetts. She spent the fall semester in 2006 abroad in Vienna and travelled extensively. During the summer of 2007 she worked as an Everett Intern for the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children.

Following graduation, she was a member of the Swarthmore Bosnia Project team, teaching English and communication skills to children in Bosnia for a month. She then backpacked around the Balkans for two months. In addition to her many other interests, Trude is a diehard Boston Red Sox fan.

Trude is interning at UNHCR in Geneva and will be joining the Peace Corps in 2010 in French-speaking Africa.