GSC Resources

We are pleased to announce the Heinz Fellows for 2012-13: Ms. Dewi Astuti, of Indonesia; Mr. Robert Maina, of Kenya; and Ms. Sun Ran, of China. 
 
Ms. Dewi Astuti is a native of Indonesia and is a graduate of Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta. Her field was Political Science with a major in International Relations. While a student, she provided Indonesian language instruction and cross-cultural activities for foreign students in the Indonesian Language and Culture Learning Service at UGM. Upon completion of her studies, she taught English at the firm Technigroup Indonesia. Ms. Astuti is currently an economic journalist at the Macro and Global Economy desk of the Bisnis Indonesia, a business and economics focused newspaper. Her work at the paper includes reporting and writing daily stories for the print and online editions on the macroeconomic performance of Indonesia and other countries, including budget and fiscal policies, economic and monetary indicators, trade policy, the political economy aspects of foreign policy and a wide range of development issues.
 
Ms. Astuti’s honors and achievements include the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Journalism Fellowship in 2010. She was one of only 20 economic journalists from Asia, Africa and Europe selected from that competition. Ms. Astuti has interviewed many public officials within and outside Indonesia including Robert B. Zoellick, World Bank President; Barry P. Bosworth, Senior Fellow Brookings Institution; Stephen Smith, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade; Naoyuki Shinohara, IMF Deputy Managing Director; Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former IMF Managing Director; and Sri Mulyani Indrawati, World Bank Managing Director, and former Indonesian Finance Minister.
 
Ms. Astuti will be one of three Heinz Fellows selected for the fall 2012 cohort and will be collaborating with the Global Studies Center to develop our programming.  She will be a Master’s student in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.
 
 
Mr. Robert Maina is a native of Kenya and is a graduate of Moi University in Eldoret and the Kenya School of Law in Nairobi. His field as an undergraduate was Law with a focus on commercial and international law. While a student at Moi University, Mr. Maina was Secretary General of the Law Students' Union and the Legal Affairs Secretary of the East African Students Union, a group that represents all students in East Africa including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. After completion of his studies, Mr. Maina entered a career in commercial and international legal affairs, having become a member of the Kenyan bar. He is currently a consultant, Chartered Certified Accountant and Certified Public Secretary (CPS) with PricewaterhousCoopers (PwC) Kenya. Mr. Maina’s work at PwC focuses on corporate, international, indirect and personal taxes; transfer pricing; and corporate and immigration law. His tenure at PwC has included being seconded to PwC South Africa.
 
Mr. Maina’s honors and achievements include being admitted as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya. His performance on various CPS examinations resulted in two awards from the Kenya Accountants and Secretaries National Examinations Board for being the best overall student in Kenya and one award for being the best student in Financial Accounting. The United Nations designated him as the International Law Student of the Year in 2007 as a result of his exemplary performance at the Annual International Court of Justice Moot Court Competition at the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi.
 
Mr. Maina’s career plans include teaching law at Moi University so that he can have a positive impact on Kenya’s future lawyers and enhance the University’s curriculum. His research interests include intellectual property, taxation and oil and gas law.  Mr. Maina also plans to take an active role in public policy debates in Kenya relative to international licensing of transactions, transfer pricing, and oil and gas in the wake of Kenya’s recent adoption (2010) of a new constitution.  In order to achieve these goals, he plans to study various U.S. models in the areas of federal taxation policies and approaches to transfer pricing, as well as state-level taxation policies.
 
Mr. Maina will be one of three Heinz Fellows selected for the fall 2012 cohort and will be collaborating with the Global Studies Center to develop our programming.  He will be an LLM student in the School of Law.
 
Ms. Sun Ran is a native of China and is a graduate of Capital Medical University’s School of Nursing. While a student, she worked in a research program focusing on educating high-risk HIV/AIDS groups on the dangers involved with certain behaviors and on reducing discrimination and fear toward those living with AIDS. She also served as an intern team leader at the Capital Institute of Pediatrics and the Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, helping other interns and assisting with the distribution of information on birth control methods and care of those with chronic diseases. In addition to her studies and internship, Ms. Ran became very engaged as a volunteer in several diverse projects including water conservation, hepatitis prevention and treatment, and the creation of publicity for her School and University.
 
Ms. Ran’s honors and achievements are based in academics, arts and athletics, including the Won College Outstanding Class Award three successive years at her college and the Beijing Excellent Class Award twice. She also received the Won Social Work Award and second prize in the Beijing Academician Art Performance Award.
 
Ms. Ran will be one of three Heinz Fellows entering Pitt in the fall of 2012 and will be collaborating with the Global Studies Center to develop our programming. She will be a Master’s student in the School of Nursing.