Meet the Fellows

Samantha Barthelemy is a Belgian-Brazilian native of Rio de Janeiro and a dual degree Master of International Affairs with the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), with a specialization in Education and Security Policies, Advocacy and Communications.

Barthelemy got her BA in International Relations and Political Sciences from Tufts University in 2008, having spent her junior year at Sciences Po. Following her undergraduate studies in Boston and Paris, Barthelemy worked as a journalist for the Portuguese Radio at the New York based United Nations’ Department of Public Information.

Over the summer of 2010, Barthelemy taught children of Retiro, Ilha de Guaratiba, an underprivileged community of Rio de Janeiro, on the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals and children’s rights. She was invited to share her experience as a speaker at the 2010 World Family Organization’s Paris Summit, "Education for All".

Barthelemy is a writer at samanthabarthelemy.blogspot.com and contributor to The Rio Times and HELO Magazine. After seven years living between Boston, New York and Paris, she returned to her hometown to work with UNESCO and Rio de Janeiro’s Education Secretariat in the coordination of the Schools of Tomorrow Program (Escolas do Amanhã). The innovative program, launched by the current Secretary of Education, Cláudia Costin, seeks to improve 152 municipal schools for over 100.000 children and adolescents living in vulnerable areas of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The goal is to transform schools into islands of excellence and security not only for primary school children but for entire communities.