Shane Ogunnaike
Hometown: Irvington, N.J.
High School: North Brunswick Township High School
Major: Education and Sociology
Minor: Psychology
Possible Career: Psychological analyst, FBI or CIA
Shane was active in many organizations in his high school including serving as captain of their Robotics Team, which was an International Championship Finalist. During the summer before his senior year, he was selected for the LEDA Scholars Program (Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America) at Princeton University.
Shane came to Swarthmore with a passion for education, sparked by the college application process. He took courses during freshman year that helped him focus his research. He continued this interest over the summer following his freshman year, traveling often from his job as a camp counselor to interview LEDA scholars for a research project on the effectiveness of educational policies.
The summer after his sophomore year, Shane interned at CommunicationWorks, an education focused public relations firm in Washington, DC. There, he worked with the Fordham Foundation to plan the release of a report on the Common Core Standards, in which they would grade each state and compare each state's standards to the national standards. He also worked with the Schott Foundation and The Urban League to organize a last minute televised panel with the nation's top civil rights leaders. There, leaders such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would address their stance on Barack Obama's education policy.
Shane spent the fall semester of his junior year at Goldsmiths University of London. This past summer, Shane worked at Google in the People Operations division on the Google Alumni team. With the Google Alumni team, he corresponded with former employees for career and other information and worked with the team to establish the first run of an alumni fellowship that awards grants to nonprofit organizations employing Google Alumni. He also coordinated giveaways and a networking event.
At Swarthmore, Shane has been involved with ABLLE (Achieving Black & Latino Leaders of Excellence) as president. He has served on the Dean's Advisory Committee and is working as the current Large Scale Events Coordinator. Recently, Shane was selected as a Woodrow Wilson-Rockefeller Brothers Fund Teacher Fellow and will be attending graduate school in the fall.