Introducing PiA’s Newest Fellow in Thailand
We are thrilled to announce that two new PiA Fellows are in post in southern Thailand! Eva Dickerson and Aryele Jackson are our newest Fellows at Rajaprajanugroh School 35 (R-35) in Bangsak, Thailand.
PiA first sent Fellows to Thailand in 1976 for fellowships at Srinakharinwirot University and since then, 565 Fellows have immersed themselves at 39 different host organizations. While we have already introduced Ray, Benji, and Sarah, who are also serving as Fellows in Bangkok and Chiang Rai, Thailand, read on to learn more about Eva and Aryele and their work in southern Thailand. Click on their photos to watch their video greetings!
Eva Dickerson
Eva graduated from Spelman College in 2019 with a degree in Comparative Women’s Studies.
Eva Dickerson is passionate, driven, and works towards a freer, greener future for herself and the communities she loves. She sees her work connecting culturally relevant food justice strategies to global climate solutions as an integral part of getting to that green future. She spent a year as a Luce Scholar in Chiang Mai, Thailand, researching the intersection between colonialism, the climate crisis, and food justice while developing conversational Thai language skills. Studying under Black earth stewards, farmers, agrarians, and climate activists of the south, she was initiated in the Black radical tradition of building self-determined communities through cooperative agricultural practices.
After apprenticing on both scale production farms and urban education gardens in Atlanta, she developed her own theory of change, Constellation Architecture, the practice by which communities support individuals in the work that makes them feel most brilliant. At Spelman College, she worked across departments to develop the Spelman Fresh Food Market, the college’s first ever community farmer’s market. Later appointed as manager of the West End Farmers Market, she was able to demonstrate at scale how food sovereignty, community development, and climate change intersect. At R-35, Eva aims to continue to improve her Thai skills while immersing in the student culture and surrounding community.
Aryele Jackson
Aryele graduated from Western Washington University in 2021 with a degree in Behavioral Neuroscience and Minors in Chemistry and Psychology.
Aryele is thoughtful, compassionate, and dependable. She has a year of experience tutoring and co-teaching English as a tutor to an online Ukrainian student and in in-person classes at her local college. She played rugby at university and became involved in leadership, where she was able to coach and plan practices for incoming players. In recent years during the summer season, she helped lead practices for young girls interested in rugby. Over the last two years, she gained strong research and writing skills working as a research associate in an Asian American culture and well-being lab. She became the head research associate and was able to mentor incoming lab students.
Aryele is interested in immersing herself in a culture that is different from her own so she can bring culturally-inclusive experiences to her future work in education. She has an intermediate level of French after two years of French classes, studying abroad in France, and having conversations with her French grandmother. Aryele believes the fluidity necessary to transition between her bicultural background has better prepared her for being respectful and open to other cultures while still representing herself, and looks forward to sharing her experiences and perspective while being open to others’ while in Thailand.
Rajaprajanugroh School 35 (R-35) - Bangsak, Thailand
R-35 is a government-run, K-12 boarding school located in the small coastal town of Bangsak in Phang Nga. The school was constructed and established in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami that devastated the region. At the time, it served as a boarding school for students whose houses were destroyed by the event; it continues to serve as a boarding school for the region’s children. PiA Fellows have served as English teachers at the school since 2007. Fellows have also become involved in longstanding community-based projects focused on water safety, swim lessons, marine-life education, and tutoring of Burmese refugees.
Please join us in welcoming Eva and Aryele to PiA!
Do you have fond memories of time spent in Thailand? Share a memory from your experiences with the PiA family by posting to Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag #PiA1898!