Tigers of the Week: Darya Nachinkina *06 and Alice Zhang '10

Darya Nachinkina *06, a Woodrow Wilson School master’s graduate, was born in Moscow and has devoted her consulting career to helping nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. Alice Zhang ’10, the daughter of a Chinese democracy activist who immigrated to the United States, is a devoted backer of human rights and a budding lab scientist. Last month, both women received support to continue their graduate studies through the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships, which fund grants for 30 “new Americans” – permanent residents or naturalized citizens born abroad, or children of naturalized citizen parents.

 

The Soros Fellowships were created and endowed by a pair of Hungarian immigrants who believed that “assisting young new Americans at critical points in their educations was an unmet need,” according to the program’s website.

 

Nachinkina came to the United States at age 19, completed her undergraduate studies at Harvard, and earned a master’s in public affairs from the Wilson School. Since then, she has worked for consulting firms in the social sector. She also founded Arts for Crafts, a nonprofit that partners with artists to sell their work. Proceeds are then used to purchase craft supplies for Russian orphans. Nachinkina will use the Soros Fellowship to pursue an M.B.A. at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

 

Zhang, who was born in the United States, has maintained ties with her family’s homeland. During high school, she helped AIDS orphans in China’s Henan Province. She continued her activism on global AIDS and human rights issues at Princeton and graduated with high honors in molecular biology. Zhang is working toward a joint M.D. and a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences at the UCLA/Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program.