Alina Rekhtman
Photo: John Jameson
Alina Rekhtman has been awarded the Henry Richardson Labouisse '26
Prize, which will allow her to pursue a postgraduate project working
with homeless children in Bahia, Brazil.
The Labouisse fellowship provides $25,000 in funding to support
research in developing countries by a graduating senior or a first-year
alumnus or alumna who intends to pursue a career devoted to problems of
development and modernization.
Rekhtman, a member of the class of 2005 who was a Woodrow Wilson School
major, will be living in one of the poorest, most underdeveloped
regions of Brazil. She will work with Projeto Axe, which uses music and
martial arts to draw in children who have left home and are living on
the street. The organization re-integrates the children into society by
helping them return to school and by offering them vocational training.
"Some people who work in international development make policy
decisions from Washington or Geneva, but I think you need to actually
spend time in these places and know the language," she said. "I'm sure
I will learn a lot from these kids."
Rekhtman was born in Moscow, Russia, and lived there until she was 13,
when she moved to Rockville, Md. After learning English, she mastered
Spanish. Last year she started studying Portuguese.
"Alina is an extraordinary person," said Woodrow Wilson School faculty
member Stanley Katz, her thesis adviser. "She has an indomitable and
always optimistic spirit about everything she does. She is a wonderful
example of what new Americans can do, for she is making the absolute
most of the talents and opportunities she has been given."
During her sophomore year, Rekhtman led the Cruz Blanca Initiative,
which took student volunteers to Mexico to build a sports center in a
village. She traveled to Chile last year to volunteer with Hogar de
Cristo, an organization that works with the homeless. She spent a
summer in Afghanistan on an internship program with the transitional
government through the student group SPARKS.
This summer Rekhtman will be teaching capoeira, a Brazilian martial
art, to youngsters from the Middle East, Afghanistan, India and
Pakistan at a camp in Maine run by Seeds of Peace, which teaches
leadership skills to young people from regions of conflict. Capoeira,
which she studied at Princeton, will also come in handy with the
homeless children in Brazil.
"Alina is brilliant and engaged -- and worldly in unique and singular
ways," said Jeremy Adelman, the Walter Carpenter III Professor in
Spanish Civilization and Culture.
After returning from Brazil, Rekhtman is planning to attend graduate
school to study public policy or social entrepreneurship. She hopes to
have a career in international development.
