Myesha Jemison ’18

Myesha Jemison ’18, of Virginia Beach, Virginia and Atlanta, Georgia, studied global health at Princeton, graduating with a degree in Spanish and Portuguese and certificates in African studies, African American studies, environmental studies and Latin American studies. Since graduating, she has worked as a project manager and operations leader in the supply-chain and logistics industry while studying computer science and education at Columbia University. Jemison pursued a wide range of leadership and service activities at Princeton. She served as president of the Undergraduate Student Government, the first Black woman at the University to have that role. She was a Forbes College residential adviser, community engagement co-chair for the Black Student Union, senior member of the Black Leadership Coalition, co-chair and volunteer at Community House, president of Princeton Caribbean Connection, member of the Princeton Hidden Minority Council, diversity fellow with the Fields Center, and served on the Council of the Princeton University Community Committee on Naming. She also founded the Jemison Scholarship Fund, raising funds for high school students to attend select colleges. She is co-director of strategic initiatives for Edmobilizer and the 1vyG conferences, which aim to create pathways to broaden college access and success for undocumented, first-generation and/or low-income college students. She co-piloted the “No Apologies” Initiative to eliminate application fees for first-generation and low-income college applicants.  Jemison was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow and a fellow of the Princeton Scholars Institute Fellowship Program. She received Princeton’s Class of 1901 Medal, which recognizes the senior who, in the judgment of the student’s classmates, has done the most for Princeton. She was a research intern at the University of Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Unit in South Africa where she worked on Harvard’s Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI); a Mellon Mays undergraduate researcher in Cuba, Brazil, and Mozambique; and studied Swahili through the Princeton in Dar Es Salaam summer program in Tanzania. She also was an intern with Amazon.com.