Amanda Fabiola Robles López is the 2022 MSFS Futures Scholar. Choosing the International Development Concentration, she desires to develop an expertise on global warming and resource scarcity to design disaster preparedness, recovery, and response policies. In particular, Amanda is interested in Latin America and the Caribbean. Raised in a single-parent household in Puerto Rico (PR), Amanda’s passion lies in advocating for the protection of low-income communities and the inclusion of minority groups in politics. At 17, Amanda designed a bill for the placement of auditive street lights at intersections throughout the island. During the same year, she spoke on the floor of the Puerto Rican Senate in support of LGBTQ+ rights. In 2019, she served as the Refugee Representation Bilingual Intern of Human Rights First, working as an interpreter and assisting immigrants in building cases for asylum. Between 2018 and 2022, Amanda mentored first-generation students, tutored low-income students in literacy and mathematics, and volunteered for AmeriCorps VISTA to help halt the spread of COVID-19 in PR. In 2022, she served as a youth delegate for the United Nations’ US Youth Consultation for UN Climate Strategy, where she discussed natural disaster preparedness concerns for PR and the southern US. Amanda currently holds a Bachelor’s in Politics from the Catholic University of America. After MSFS, she aspires to design and implement disaster management policies capable of promoting economic growth, environmental sustainability, and risk reduction in the Caribbean. Amanda is the recipient of the MSFS Futures Scholarship.

"I chose MSFS because of #1 ranking (top IR program in the world) #2 expertise of professors #3 alumni network."