Tryphena Awuah

IOE-Faculty of Education and Society at UCL

Tryphena graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and a minor in African Studies. During her time at Princeton, she served as the President of the Ghanaian Student Association. Tryphena’s student leadership coupled with her experience as a Twi heritage language learner inspired her senior thesis: an ethnography of African and Caribbean heritage language students’ experiences with language learning at Princeton and the impact on identity formation and community building. With the Fulbright, Tryphena will pursue an MA in Higher Education Studies at UCL IOE to better understand how the UK’s higher education policy reforms of 2012 have increased low-income student participation in higher education, and how this has transformed students and graduates’ perceptions of higher education and social mobility. Tryphena hopes to contribute her time in the UK to shaping higher education policy in the US that will increase equity for first generation and low-income college students. In her free time, Tryphena enjoys plays, dancing and traveling. She plans to explore London’s diverse food scene and attend performances at the Arcola Theatre in East London.