Five Princeton Seniors Awarded ReachOut 56-81-06 Fellowships

Princeton University seniors, Adriana Alvarado, Mahya Fazel-Zarandi, Celine Ho, Katie Horan and Joy Patterson have been awarded Princeton ReachOut 56-81-06 Fellowships, an alumni-funded effort that supports seniors to complete a public service project of their own design during the year after graduation.

Alvarado, from California, is a sociology major with minors in global health policy, Latin American Studies, and Latino Studies. As the recipient of the ReachOut Domestic Fellowship, she plans to work with California’s Dolores Huerta Foundation to continue strengthening outreach and advocacy efforts to increase retention and number of farmworkers insured under the state’s Medi-Cal program. At Princeton, she co-chaired the Student Volunteers Council, is president of the Princeton Latin American Student Association and co-founder of the Campus Food Ethics and Values Think Tank. Alvarado is a two-time recipient of the RISE Fellow Award and a recipient of the John C. Bogle ‘51 Fellow Award for Civic Service. Alvarado is also the 2024 recipient of the A. James Fisher Jr. ‘36 Memorial Award from the Pace Center for Civic Engagement.

Mahya Fazel-Zarandi, the recipient of one of two ReachOut International Fellowships, is a molecular biology major with a certificate in quantitative and computational biology. Fazel-Zarandi, from Toronto, Canada, will collaborate with the United Nations Population Fund in Uzbekistan in a project focused on addressing reproductive health challenges and enhancing gynecologic cancer screening through culturally-tailored education, stigma reduction, and community engagement campaigns to improve women’s health in Central Asia. Fazel-Zarandi is a residential college adviser at Yeh College, co-founder and co-president of the Princeton Association of Women in STEM, and a science writer for The Daily Princetonian. She is also a student researcher at Professor Joshua Rabinowitz’s lab and served as an undergraduate course assistant for introduction to statistics and machine learning. She is a recipient of the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence and a co-author of six peer-reviewed publications.

Celine Ho is the second recipient of the ReachOut International Fellowship. Ho, an ecology and evolutionary biology major, was born in Toronto and raised in the Pacific Islands. For her project, she will partner with the East-West Center and United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs in Vanuatu and the Pacific Islands, working on issues including forced migration, and vector borne illnesses associated with climate change. Ho is a youth delegate to the United Nations, the Asia Pacific Lead for Migration and chairs the youth delegation’s Thailand and Malaysia Human Rights Forums. On campus, she is the president of the Canadian Student Association and serves as a peer academic adviser for Forbes College. She is also a two-time recipient of the John C. Bogle ‘51 Fellow Award for Civic Service, a High Meadows Environmental Institute Fellow, a 2025 Fred Fox Fund recipient, and a James Madison Spirit of '76 recipient. She is a former varsity athlete for Princeton women’s lightweight crew and water polo team.

Katie Horan and Joy Patterson, recipients of the ReachOut Paschen Pair Fellowship, will work at the Camphill Newton Dee community for people with disabilities in Aberdeen, Scotland to develop a new dairy workshop that will provide meaningful jobs producing yogurt, butter, cheese, and ice cream. Horan, from Knightdale, North Carolina, is a religion major with a minor in values and public life and a certificate in African American Studies. She is a residential college advisor at Forbes College and a two-time recipient of the John C. Bogle ‘51 Fellow Award for Civic Service. She is also the founder of All Bodies, All Brides, an initiative working to make the bridal industry more accessible to people with disabilities. Patterson, from Santa Barbara, California, is a computer science major. She is a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society and a recipient of the 2023 Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence.