Keisha Toms

Cross Cultural Studies

B.A., January 2005

Institute for International Public Policy Fellow

Thurgood Marshall Scholar

All American Scholar Award

Silver Medal, Egyptian University Athletics, Women’s Basketball, American University in Cairo

NCAA Leading National Rebounder, Division III,

Women’s Basketball

CUNY All Star Team, Women’s Basketball, Medgar Evers College

Dean’s List

Fulbright Fellow

Keisha Toms entered the CUNY BA/BS Program in the spring of 2002 and received a $65,000 Fellowship from the Institute for International Public Policy Fellow in 2003. As an IIPP Fellow, she studied at CUNY and Clark Atlanta University, and she traveled to Egypt and studied Arabic and Anthropology at American University in Cairo (AUC).

She says she chose Egypt “to investigate the contributions of the now marginalized indigenous Africans who are now living on the outskirts of Egyptian society. That was followed by the offer of an internship with the Defense Intelligence Agency. Toms took an internship with the America Prepared Campaign, a non-profit organization that promotes terrorism preparedness.

“The CUNY BA Program’s flexibility gave me the freedom to choose courses and design my major,” she said. “I was challenged academically and respected as an older student.”

Toms also captained the Medgar Evers College women’s basketball team and led the nation in rebounding for Division III. She received a silver medal while playing for the AUC women’s basketball team, and was named to the CUNY All Star Team.

Her faculty mentors were Profs. Patricia Canson, Psychology, and Delridge Hunter, Interdisciplinary Studies, at Medgar Evers College. She has been accepted to Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and to Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Keisha graduated from with her CUNY BA in January 2005 and is currently pursuing research in Yemen through a Fulbright Fellowship. She will begin her graduate studies at Columbia in Fall 2006.