Online allAfrica.com Intern United States
Alex was born in Berkeley, California and grew up in the neighboring city of Oakland.  He attended Oakland Technical High school, and in the summer of 2004, before entering his senior year, he went abroad to Cape Town, South Africa on a scholarship from the World Affairs Council of Northern California in San Francisco. 

In Cape Town he worked at a small youth newspaper called Just Youth for four weeks.  He wrote one story, discussing the response of young people to the then newly initiated LoveLife program.  Inspired by the experience of living and working in Africa, he took an active interest in Africa and began embarking on a career path that he assumed would eventually land him there.

In 2005, Alex graduated high school and went to Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota where he remains, completing a degree in Sociology with an emphasis on African Studies. 

During his freshman year of college, Alex undertook an extensive sociological fieldwork project involving music and identity formation among Somali, Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants and their children in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of the neighboring city of Minneapolis.  The project was well received, and one year later it became the subject of a self-written magazine piece in the magazine of the college's student newspaper, The Mac Weekly. 

In the second semester of his sophomore year, Alex became an editor at The Mac Weekly.  Reluctant to join at first, he did so anyway because he assumed it was the most reasonable way to work towards a journalism career.  At The Weekly, Alex wrote a regular collumn called 'All Around the Liberal Arts' covering the news at other Liberal Arts colleges, and wrote regular stories about academic affairs and events around the campus. 

In fall, 2007, Alex interviewed the notable Kenyan writer Ngugi Wa Thion'go with a fellow editor during the author's visit to Macalester.  The story was published in the newspaper with an extensive piece that Alex also wrote on the contextual significance of Ngugi's life and writing. 

In spring, 2008, Alex studied abroad in South Africa for the second time, this time at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban.  He spent five months in Africa, including a two week trip through Botswana and Zambia, two seperate trips to Swaziland and three weeks in Cape Town following the end of the school term, where he stayed with friends from his 2004 trip. 

During his semester abroad, Alex applied and was accepted for an internship at the Washington, DC office of allAfrica.com.  En route back home, Alex attended the internship for four weeks.  He will be returning to Macalester to complete his degree at the end of August, 2008. 

In the future, Alex hopes to spend signficant time in Congo-Kinshasa and tour East Africa.  A journalism job in Africa still seems cool, but he's considering other options as well.