Patricia is originally from Manhattan, New York, but spent most of her childhood upstate in the suburbs of Albany, growing up in a multicultural Georgian-American family. She completed a semester abroad in Izmir, Turkey in the fall of 2014, where she studied Turkish geopolitics and policies towards minority populations in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. She earned her bachelor’s degree in History from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 2015. From 2016 – 2018, Patricia served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kareli, Shida Kartli, Georgia, where she worked with members of the community to teach English to over 400 students levels 1-12. At CERES, Patricia hopes to delve further into Soviet and post-Soviet minority rights and nation building in the South Caucasus while improving her Russian language abilities. After CERES, Patricia hopes to find meaningful work in the South Caucasus region. Her interests include savory foods, watching TV shows with subtitles, and being outdoors in general.