Prior Innovation Scholars

Kaitlin Davis is a Gallatin MA student studying community-engaged theater, education, and performance. As a Burch Scholar, she will be creating a multimedia project that focuses on the importance of connection and conversation in early motherhood. Her goal is to help women feel the therapeutic properties of sharing our transformative stories during a time that can often feel profoundly isolating.

Mia Gradelski is a senior at Gallatin studying fintech and entrepreneurship. As a Burch scholar, she strives to de-stigmatize personal finance and break down the gender and wealth gaps within investing to promote financial literacy among students through her team’s fast-growing startup, Atticus. In an effort to democratize investing, a subject traditionally not taught in the education system, Atticus is on a mission to provide investment support and financial resources in the most simplified, inclusive, and enjoyable way possible.

Estella Struck is a Gen Z innovator, thought leader and social media influencer in the sustainability and climate action field. Her Burch Scholar project is Viviene New York — the world’s first Gen Z run sustainable product marketing agency. Estella and her team empower sustainable brands across industries to bring them to the forefront through the power, reach and influence of social media. She is currently a junior at NYU Gallatin studying the effect of digital marketing and social entrepreneurship on social change with an emphasis on climate.

Gabrielle Narcisse is a junior at Gallatin studying Creative Direction with a focus in magazines, art curation, and fashion. She is an artist that utilizes multiple mediums such as painting and collage. Through the Burch scholar program she will continue to grow her organization Black Girl Fight Club. Black Girl Fight Club started in June of 2020. BGFC is an organization dedicated to the betterment of black women. They strive to provide a safe personal and professional support network of black women. BGFC has fostered a community by hosting several events including an art show/BGFC magazine release party showcasing all art and writing by black women. Through the Burch scholar program Gabrielle will have another artist showcase this spring, as well as fund other smaller events.

Siegrid Tuttle is a sophomore at Gallatin studying equity and social change. Over the summer she and three co-founders launched Arcturus Community Endeavors, a nonprofit dedicated to building stronger communities by helping small businesses. Her Burch Scholar project focuses on creating a program within that nonprofit dedicated to addressing issues faced by woman business owners.

Kate Guardino is a senior at Gallatin studying fashion design and sub-cultural aesthetics. Her Buch Scholar project is an exploration of handmade clothing and sustainable practices in the fashion industry. Kate and her collaborator Alyson Cox are developing a collection of knitwear and silk garments made by them personally, sourced entirely in the New York Garment District. Their goal is to raise awareness on the subject of fashion waste and highlight practices that everyday consumers can partake in to reduce their fashion carbon footprint and encourage global brands to make changes for a healthy future.

Jennifer Qian is a masters student at Gallatin studying art and data science. She looks to examine agency and impact on artistic creation through the lens of humans and environments in the age of artificial intelligence. In the past year she started exploring the meaning of food and cravings as well as their primitive forms through space and time. Hence the journey of project “Hugge” began. Her Burch Scholar project “Hugge” will focus on knowledge, food, and recipes that embrace a mood of coziness and comfort with feelings of enjoyment and contentment through neurobiology, psychology, and food science.

Pilar Cerón is a junior at Gallatin studying art, theater, fashion, and media with a focus on highlighting marginalized voices and stories. As a Burch Scholar, she is creating a digital/physical archive of recipes from friends and family that explores the ways gender, ethnicity, cultural background, sexuality, etc. impact and are connected to cooking and food. This archive is an investigation of the ways we can use food and cooking to reclaim power and express ourselves! 

Ayden Mallory is a senior at Gallatin studying political mobilization. As an Innovation Scholar, Ayden is developing Scrappy Interns: a clothing brand rooted in upcycling. The products are dyed with 100% natural dyes made from food scraps donated by local restaurants. At the core of Scrappy Interns is its commitment to sustainability, accessibility, and community. Scrappy Interns opens its social platform to interns (influencers) to not only promote the brand but to create a space for passionate and scrappy individuals to share and interact with one another. Scrappy Interns also has a seminar series that teaches different communities how to dye using their own compost. It is a project all about slow fashion and the value of working with your hands.

Victoria Montenegro is a senior at Gallatin studying Creative Entrepreneurship through Female Empowerment. Her Spring 2021 project is a Youtube channel chronicling her NYU student debt repayment journey. This series is meant to show viewers just how expensive college really is. By showing all of her loans, Victoria hopes that others will be inspired to take control of their own student loans and build a community of financially literate young adults. She will be sharing all of her tips and tricks for staying motivated while in repayment as well as share some of the ways she’s been able to save money while still in school.

Mekleit Dix is a second-year Gallatin MA student writing a thesis titled “Employing Mechanisms of Black Kinship and Cultural Specificity in Medical-Resource Scarce Communities as a Catalyst for Effective Trauma Informed Sexual Wellness  Intervention.” Mekleit’s Spring 2021 Project, Everyone You Date Is A Loser, is a triple threat: a podcast, an online resource library, and a digital sexual wellness community for persons healing from sexual trauma. Everyone You Date Is A Loser strives to create a tonally safe and welcoming digital space to affirm persons on their sexual healing journey. In this fragmented and hyper technological era, EYDIAL’s intention is to become a medium for positive sexual reclamation for all people but is dedicated to centering sexual wellness resources for black and brown women, femmes, and gender non conforming people.

Sara Fuchs is a junior studying Financial and Social Economics at Gallatin. Her Spring 2021 project, Independent Contractors & Inequity, is a grassroots movement with a twofold purpose: to raise awareness about the absence of sexual harassment and other anti-discrimination workplace protections for workers who are independent contractors, and to remedy this inequity. Sara’s goal for her project is to bring attention to this timely issue, encourage people to coalesce, and help spark change by working to pass legislation that provides independent contractors with the right to work in an environment where they are legally protected from sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination.