Sanny Yang served as the Operations Intern at the Humanitarian Collaborative during the 2024-2025 academic year while pursuing her Masters of Public Policy at the UVA Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. In this role, she supported communications, event planning, student engagement, and reporting systems in close coordination with HC Co-Directors and Professors of Practice Lucy Bassett and Kirsten Gelsdorf. During her time at the Collaborative, she helped launch the Humanitarian Horizons Series, a platform designed to foster critical student engagement with humanitarian experts and dialogue on global humanitarian issues.

At Batten, Sanny produced a graduate thesis titled “Strengthening the Program Sustainability of Home-Grown School Feeding” for the UN World Food Programme in Ethiopia. Her project explored policy alternatives to ensure the long-term viability of this crucial safety net for Ethiopian students, families, and smallholder farmers. Sanny also held several leadership and service roles at Batten: Community Data Fellow, Tri-Sector Leadership Fellow, Graduate Teaching Assistant for Research Methods & Data Analysis, Secretary of the Batten Graduate Council, and Student Facilitator for the International Student Support Group. She was inducted into the Raven Society and received a Pilot Award for Leadership Excellence Impact in recognition of her contributions to the Batten community.