During the summer months, PON sponsors grants for select students at Harvard University, MIT, Tufts University and other Boston-area schools who undertake internships or summer research projects in negotiation and dispute resolution in partnership with public, nonprofit or academic organizations. The Summer Fellowship Program’s emphasis is on advancing the links between scholarship and practice in negotiation and dispute resolution by supporting students interested in exploring career paths, either professional or academic, in this field. Through this program, PON hopes to prepare students to assume leadership positions in the field of negotiation and dispute resolution, to forge new links between our academic community and worldwide organizations involved in the practice of negotiation and dispute resolution, and to encourage students to reach for opportunities that would otherwise not be available to them due to financial constraints.
We are excited to announce our 2023 PON Summer Fellows:
Tara Opalinski
The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University
Tara Opalinski is a graduate student at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, and a candidate for a Master’s in Conflict Resolution & Coexistence and a Social Impact MBA. Tara is interested in identifying innovative ways to approach negotiation and dispute resolution, including leveraging technology to facilitate experiential learning and greater understanding of differing worldviews. This summer she will be working on a research project that will explore the potential effectiveness of a video game to provide students and educators with strategies and tools to combat bullying – an experience consistently identified in most school shooters – with the overarching aim of reducing the risks of school shootings. The research will focus particularly on the types of age-appropriate simulations for a video game to be implemented into schools.
Nishant Warwade
The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University
Nishant Warwade is a career civil servant from India, belonging to the Indian Administrative Service. He is a Conflict Resolution and Coexistence student at The Heller School for Social Policy & Management, Brandeis University. Nishant focuses on conflict resolution as an essential skill for leadership and on what works best for building and leading diverse teams for efficient public service delivery. His interests are in studying the differences in incentives and motivation among diverse stakeholders in challenging real-world field scenarios. Before joining the Heller School, Warwade served in various administrative positions in Madhya Pradesh, India. His most recent tenure was as Commissioner/ Head of the Department of Medical Education, where he served as the nodal officer for COVID-19 pandemic treatment and testing of COVID-19 samples for the state. For this Fellowship, Warwade will work on further developing the existing climate negotiation summit simulations used by different schools under the supervision of Professor Alain Lempereur. He will also explore possible links between academia and governments involved in the negotiation and dispute resolution in COP negotiations to implement the Paris Agreement under UNFCCC.
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