Rachel Moen is an International Political Economy major from Tacoma, Washington. In the summer of 2018, Rachel received an IPE Summer Internship Grant to serve in Manila, Philippines as a Waste Water Treatment Facility Development Assistant. While in Manila, Rachel also volunteered as Squatter Community Engagement and Program Development Assistant for a grassroots organization called Give Jesus Bless Center. Rachel's thesis, Incorporating Indigenous Peoples into Modernity: Growing Appreciation or Further Efforts Towards Assimilation? provides a contextual overview of some of the main challenges that indigenous communities in the Brazilian Amazon continue to face as they encounter national and global institutions and cultures.