Colloquium | Members

Orlando Economos

Orlando Economos is a sophomore at Tufts. He hails from northern New Jersey, but his ancestors came to the USA from Greece, a heritage of which he is very proud. He is majoring in International Relations with a concentration in Economics. He has a passion for photography and film and is currently working as the Director of Photography on a new web series being produced at Tufts, as well as writing and shooting a photography blog for the Office of Admissions. He also founded and sings in Tufts’ all-Disney a cappella group, Enchanted. He enjoys poetry, cooking, and history jokes, and is always interested in learning something new.

Hanna Ehrlich

Hanna Ehrlich is a sophomore on the pre-vet track, majoring in biology and community health. A right-outside-of-Chicago native, she has spent most of her suburbia life surrounded by dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, turtles, bearded dragons, and the occasional tarantula. During summers at home, she usually swims in Lake Michigan and volunteers for various social justice organizations in the city, including a labor union and environmental justice group. She hopes to someday meld her enthusiasm for both animals and human rights, perhaps by attaining a combined DVM/MPH degree. At Tufts, Hanna is part of the IGL’s BUILD India and also volunteers in an after-school learning center for kids in public housing. This past summer, she traveled to South Korea to research Alzheimer’s disease treatment in a neuro-medical institute. Hanna enters EPIIC with particular interest in zoonosis and epidemiology, but she is confident that alongside the sharp decline in her social life will come a greatly amplified awareness for many issues in global health.

Jack Eidson

Jack Eidson is a sophomore intending to major in Environmental Studies and Quantitative Economics. Born and raised in Atlanta, Jack attended Wesleyan School, where he ran cross country and edited the newspaper. While in high school, he also developed passions in politics and environmental conservation. At Tufts, Jack has been able to pursue these, both in the classroom and through extracurricular activities including Tufts Wilderness Orientation, the Sustainability Collective, and Eco-Reps. He spent this past summer working in Washington, DC at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). While it was a great summer, Jack is very excited to be back at Tufts and is looking forward to spending the year exploring global health through EPIIC.

Maria Jose Fabre

Maria Jose Fabre is a sophomore majoring in International Relations with a concentration in security and Political Science. Although she was born El Salvador, her family is Argentinian-Italian and she spent seven years living in Colombia. Maria Jose, or MJ as most of her classmates refer to her, has been involved in Ballroom, Model UN, and ALLIES during her time at tufts.  She speaks Spanish, French, some Portuguese, and has recently started learning Russian. This summer, MJ spent her time at the Center for International Private Enterprise working on projects researching anti-corruption, entrepreneurship, and democracy building in the Maghreb and Latin America. In her free time, she enjoys reading, kayaking, playing guitar, and making art.

Li Fan

Li is a freshman from Shanghai, China. She is passionate about social justice and considers Peace and Justice a potential major to pursue. Her fascination with the Middle East was kindled by a trip to Turkey, where she immediately fell in love with this amazing country and considered Istanbul the most beautiful city she had ever seen. She spent the last summer interning at the Access to Sport department of Nike and plans on engaging herself in social entrepreneurship and NGOs in the future.  

Jackie Faselt

Jackie Faselt is a freshman at Tufts University with plans to study International Relations and Arabic. She attended Bronxville High School where she participated in varsity basketball, local community service projects, and graphic design. There she completed an independent science research project on the enhancement of Solar Water Disinfection, mirroring her interest in global health issues. In EPIIC Jackie is looking forward to learning more about the socio-political relationships in the MENA region.

Max Fathy

Max is a senior from Newton, Massachusetts majoring in International Relations with a concentration in International Security.  He worked on President Obama's 2012 reelection campaign and has interned for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and ActBlue, an online Democratic fundraising group.  At Tufts he has studied Spanish and Arabic and spent his Junior year spring semester studying at the University of Seville in Seville, Spain.  Max is very excited to deepen his knowledge of the Middle East and North Africa through participating in EPIIC this year.

Matt Felsenfeld

Matt is a sophomore at Tufts and grew up in New York City.  He is double majoring in history and political science.  At Tufts, Matt is the Curriculum Director for the Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES), the Trip Planner for Tufts History Society, and is currently serving his second year on the FieldEx planning committee.  On that committee, Matt helped organize an immersive simulation experience on ethno-religious conflict.  EPIIC is one of the reasons that drew Matt to Tufts, as he thought it would provide a fantastic resource in learning about an area or topic—in this case, Russia.  Matt is excited to study Russia both because of the current situation in Eastern Europe and because of the evolving role of Russia on the world stage. 

Maria Ferraz

Maria is a junior transfer student at Tufts University, majoring in Economics. She grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where she attended a German high school and later the University of Sao Paulo. She is fluent in English, Portuguese and German. During the spring of 2014, Maria sailed around the world as a Semester at Sea student, visiting and taking classes in almost twenty countries across Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe. Throughout this program, she was involved with University of Virginia’s Social Entrepreneurship Program and was a Resolution Project finalist with her proposal on malaria prevention. EPIIC's "The Future of Europe" really interests her because she has studied abroad in Stadthagen, Germany and Rome, Italy and because she is passionate about political affairs, economics and newspapers. She hopes to deepen her knowledge in International Relations at EPIIC.

Ethan Finkelstein

Ethan Finkelstein is a sophomore at Tufts University from New York City studying International Relations. On campus, Ethan is involved in a number of student-run organizations, holding leadership positions on Tufts Democrats, Tufts Community Union Senate, Tufts Hillel, and J Street U at Tufts. Throughout his first year at Tufts, and continuing this year, Ethan has contributed significantly to the discourse and political action on campus revolving around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ethan has attended a number of political conferences in Washington, DC, and Boston, as well as lobbied politicians on the federal level for support for Israel and the peace efforts. Ethan has been involved with promoting civil campus discourse on the conflict by taking part in a number of discussions, hosting important speakers, and moderating a panel discussion with two notable political activists last spring. Ethan has visited the Middle East a number of times spending time in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan. Though Ethan has spent a large amount of time and effort on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he is also interested in French and social entrepreneurship in regions of conflict.