Title: Class of 2020 Graduates: Where Are They Now?

Sara Rotenberg (NHS’20), a senior global health major committed to creating an equitable world for people with disabilities, was named a 2020 Rhodes Scholarship recipient from Canada. At Georgetown, Rotenberg studied disability inclusion policies with a focus on global development and conducted research through the Global Health Initiative, India Initiative, and the Department of International Health’s curriculum at the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO) in New Delhi. She worked with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), interned with the Embassy of Canada to the United States, and volunteered with the Advisory Board for Student Organizations at the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service.

What have you been up to since 2020? 

I am currently completing a D.Phil. (Ph.D.) in primary health care at the University of Oxford, where I study how to improve health outcomes for people with disabilities through better health worker training. On the side, I have also done some consulting for organizations like the World Bank, WHO, Missing Billion Initiative and Clinton Health Access Initiative. I have also been involved in the COVID-19 pandemic response doing some advocacy work on including people with disabilities in testing and vaccination programs, and I spent part of last year as a senior policy advisor for Health Canada’s COVID-19 Testing and Screening Expert Panel.

Based on what you’ve learned in the past two years, what advice would you give to yourself in May of 2020? 

My advice would be to learn from the duality of each moment. Doing so will help us learn more about ourselves, our capacity for resilience and the power of community.

What’s your favorite Georgetown memory? 

Hard to pick one — probably the India Innovation Studio class trips to India, a furniture making class I took and long conversations with my professors in office hours. 

Before Georgetown, Pinkins served in the U.S. Army in 23 countries, including three combat tours. He received the Bronze Star Medal and a raft of other honors before retiring in 2017 as a presidential communications aide. President Barack Obama even offered to look over his papers when he found out Pinkins was enrolling in Georgetown Law. In 2016, Pinkins formed a nonprofit, the Pyramid Project, which offers teens, primarily from the Mississippi Delta, a weeklong immersion in the nation’s capital. 

What have you been up to since 2020? 

After earning my J.D., I remained enrolled at Georgetown Law and earned my LL.M. in National Security Law. Since 2020, I have been hard at work in the Mississippi Delta — applying the skills I learned while in law school. 

As an Equal Justice Works Fellow, I have sat in observation of over 700 civil cases in justice court throughout the Mississippi Delta helping low-income community members navigate the justice court system. As a lawyer at the Mississippi Center for Justice, I have organized farmworkers in the Mississippi Delta and brought a law suit on their behalf against predatory farm owners for discriminatory practices that cheated workers out of their wages for decades. In the cold of winter, in Greenville, Mississippi, I helped struggling parents access documentation necessary to prevent their eviction in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. 

I have traveled across numerous counties in the Mississippi Delta to help establish chapters of the Mississippi Federation of Democratic Women, which helps women get elected to office. In the face of discriminatory redistricting tactics, I taught myself how to draw redistricting lines then I worked with the Vicksburg Chapter of the NAACP to redraw county redistricting maps to ensure all community members have equal representation. I sued the State of Mississippi, specifically Governor Tate Reeves, over Mississippi’s discriminatory Supreme Court voting districts lines.

Based on what you’ve learned in the past two years, what advice would you give to yourself in May of 2020? 

• All the hard work in law school is totally worth it. Particularly, the public interest experience I gained at Georgetown Law will play a significant role as I move forward and begin my legal career.
• Most importantly, don’t change a thing. Take advantage of all the experiences law school has to offer, jump in head first — even when you don’t fully understand what’s going on in some of your classes.
• Enjoy the law school experience because you will meet some wonderful people, have some amazing experiences, and come out of law school much stronger as a person than you were when you started.

Born and raised in Benghazi, Libya, Almenfi worked with a group of friends to co-found an organization called Rugby 2018, which aims to build a community for young people while schools were closed due to ISIS activity in the region and teach youngsters about social responsibility, peace and mental health issues. His experience with peacebuilding, cultural diplomacy and forging a national identity inspired him to learn more from the Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program. 

What have you been up to since 2020? 

I have been working with the social protection global team at the World Bank Group as a research analyst. I have been working mainly on supporting countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and now on how governments can protect livelihood in the current price shock crisis induced by the Ukraine war.

Based on what you’ve learned in the past two years, what advice would you give to yourself in May of 2020? 

Probably I would recommend striking the right balance between developing hard skills (e.g., data analysis and visualization) and soft skills (e.g., presentation skills) at school.

What’s your favorite Georgetown memory? 

My favorite memory from GU is when we did the Syria negotiating simulation with top experts in the matter. This experience gave me great insight into managing and navigating such difficult country-level discussions and negotiations.