Alia Whitney-Johnson ’09, participated in the MIT Public Service Fellowship program and Student Leaders in Service program, part of Americorps. Alia founded Emerge Global to help empower young girls and women through jewelry making, and provide them with the skills necessary to become confident, respected, self-reliant members of society in the wake of the tsunami in 2004 and general disrespect of women in Sri Lanka. Alia has received a Truman Scholarship and a Rhodes Scholarship.