By Michelle Tong, Office of International Programs
Karina Macosko has been awarded a Princeton ReachOut 56-81-06 Fellowship, an alumni-funded effort launched in 2001 that supports seniors to carry out self-designed public service projects during the year following graduation.
Three other seniors — Alyssa Lloyd, Kaitlyn Greppin and Madalyn Mejia — have also been awarded ReachOut Fellowships.
Macosko, a computer science major, is the recipient of the ReachOut International Fellowship. She will collaborate with the Demonstration School for the Deaf in Mampong-Akuapem, Ghana.
Her project focuses on developing digital bilingual storybooks to address a persistent literacy gap between deaf and hearing students. She will record stories in Ghanaian Sign Language, create a platform to share them alongside English translations, and work closely with the school and surrounding community to introduce the storybooks as supplementary learning materials.
Macosko, from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has studied American Sign Language for four years at Princeton. She has also studied Danish, Spanish and Swahili independently.
On campus, she is a member of the varsity rowing team, a residential college adviser at Mathey College and a member of the communications team for Christian Union Nova. Through the International Internship Program, she interned with Osa Conservation in Costa Rica and with Angels Junior School in Kenya, where she recognized the effectiveness of the storybook model.