Julien Rentsch

Age: 22

Home Town: Huntington, New York

Education: B.A. in Political Science, International Studies, and Music, Northwestern University

Specific Field Interests: International Public Health, Disaster Relief, Human Rights.

Placement: AIF-MANSI, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand

Area of Focus: Public Health, Maternal and Newborn Care

Fellowship Project: Improve quality of services and coverage of bed occupancy in birth waiting homes for AIF’s Maternal And Newborn Survival Initiative (MANSI).

Highlights: Committed to mitigating global humanitarian crises and bridging transnational gaps, Julien tailored his studies at Northwestern University to focus on international development and cooperation. His interest in the international development space was sparked by his study abroad in Vietnam, where he studied Vietnamese development after 1975. While there, he conducted a month-long independent research project on refugees from Saigon to understand their perceptions of home following the city’s globalization. In the summer of 2023, he travelled to Uganda, where he facilitated, alongside hospital staff, a public health project focusing on maternal health education. At Northwestern, he wrote his senior thesis on disparities in poverty reduction outcomes of Program 135, an aid program for Vietnamese ethnic minority communities led by the Vietnamese government. Julien was the founding president of Northwestern’s University Blood Initiative chapter, where he organized blood drives and educational events. He has notable experience with human rights work, interning with his county’s human rights commission in New York to investigate discrimination cases. Outside of school and work, Julien is passionate about piano, composing music, soccer, basketball, and making art. Julien is extremely excited to collaborate with AIF on their Maternal And Newborn Survival Initiative, working to decrease maternal and infant mortality among tribal populations.