Natalie Beckford

Natalie is a first-gen and fourth-gen college student from our nation’s capital. She is an International Affairs and Religion & Politics double major and a Posse Scholar at Lafayette College. Natalie has spent countless summers interning for local government officials and NGOs (Posse Foundation, Black Professionals in International Affairs, DC Councilmember Brooke Pinto, DC Deputy Mayor of Education, National Forum for Black Public Administrators). She is highly involved at her college, serving on the Student Government and Dear Lafayette boards and executive positions of the Association of Black Collegians and NIA Sisterhood. Natalie also helped create Lafayette Mutual Aid, a student-run mutual aid effort for Black and Indigenous people of color (BIPOC) community members in the Lehigh Valley. Natalie’s passion for cosmopolitanism, migration studies, and service has prompted her involvement in the Lafayette Initiative for Malagasy Education, being a Princeton Public Policy and International Affairs Junior Summer Institute Fellow, and her Spring 2023 study abroad experience in Geneva, Switzerland, where she did an Independent Study on the weaponization of Middle Eastern refugees. She has traveled to Jamaica, Trinidad, Canada, China, France, Monaco, Egypt, Morocco, Mexico, Madagascar, Belgium, and Italy. Natalie is particularly interested in migration and refugee studies focusing on humanitarian assistance and human rights. After completing her master’s degree, Natalie intends to become a Crisis, Governance, and Stabilization Officer in the USAID (United States Agency for International Development) Foreign Service. Natalie enjoys painting, knitting, crocheting, drawing, and dancing (since she is classically trained). She is incredibly honored and grateful to be selected as a 2024 Payne Fellow.