“Aide de camp”

In 2021, I graduated from Lewis & Clark College, where I received a degree in International Relations with a concentration in the Middle East and Northern Africa region. On campus, I served as the co-chair for the 59th Lewis & Clark International Affairs Symposium: “System Shocks: Finding Clarity in a Chaotic World”. I was also an active participant in the French Club, the College Outdoors program, and the Botany club. During my studies, I had several external opportunities to conduct research projects surrounding humanitarian conflict resolution, environmental sustainability and agricultural adaptation, policy implementation and tribal conflicts in Western Africa. Originally from Alaska and a dual citizen of France and the United States, I had the chance to grow up with diverse narratives from the communities surrounding me. This instilled in me an understanding of the power of perspective, cross-cultural collaboration, and the interconnectedness of the issues our systems face today.

Through my academic and professional career, I sought every opportunity to explore the world — to interact with diverse cultures and environments. In 2016, I founded a project to finance and deliver educational supplies to over 150 children in the coastal village of Gomoa Fetteh, Ghana. In the summer of 2017, I researched and collaborated with an advocacy group in Ollantaytambo, Peru to fund the building of a primary school in the remote, mountainous village of Willoc Alto. Through these experiences, I not only continued to grow my passion for global development, but also challenged myself to see how and by what means others interact with the world around them.

After graduating, I followed my interest in conflict analysis and mitigation and began working as a research assistant in Paris, focusing on the concepts of memory, vengeance, and retributive justice in conflict. I then worked as a paralegal for the International Arbitration team at Bird & Bird LLP, focusing on Middle Eastern and North African arbitral cases. Here, I have gained the necessary technical knowledge on international law, and the mechanisms at work behind international negotiations, treaties, and relations.

Throughout my travels and the different places I have lived, I have been able to keep my connection to my hometown of Palmer, Alaska strong through my favorites hobbies: climbing (both on rock and ice), hiking, snowboarding, and backpacking.

Meeting through a mutual friend, I have had the pleasure and privilege to get to know Sherman Teichman, and in turn, this incredible community he has created. Joining the Trebuchet fills me with both a sense of great pride and of greater responsibility; it serves not only as a network of inspiring global actors, but a wholly necessary conduit for multidisciplinary connections and collaborations that ignite innovative projects for a prosperous future.

[Teichman:] Sandenna is a wonderful friend and an extraordinary asset for The Trebuchet. I recently had a fun moment when having introduced her to Anne Gibbon, who inevitably was impressed by her and asked my permission to hire her away from The Trebuchet, which I immediately granted. And now, as one wonderful outcome of Convisero, they are both working closely together to develop Matri. Matri aims to drive the research agenda and the standard for human machine interfaces, leading the development of software and hardware products that redefine the human relationship to machines and the data language used to communicate with them and measure our world. Sandenna continues to assist me.

Sandenna McMaster

“Aide de camp”

Nitya Srinivasa

Chloe Yau