Sheyann [shy-ann] “Shey” Barnett is a proud first-generation Jamaican American from the South Bronx. What started off as a genuine curiosity about the world, its diverse peoples, and colorful languages as a shy third grader led Sheyann to embark on many domestic and international adventures.

Sheyann graduated from Duke University with a B.A. in International Comparative Studies and Korean Studies in May 2021. As a 2019 DukeEngage South Korea participant, she taught North Korean defectors and migrant multicultural children in Seoul. She later returned to South Korea as a study-abroad student at Yonsei University in the fall of her junior year. That following spring, she studied abroad in the United Kingdom at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Upon graduating in 2021, she earned a Fulbright South Korea English Teaching Assistant grant and returned to South Korea for the fourth time. As an ETA, Sheyann taught English to elementary students in Gangwon-do in 2022. Her Fulbright experience is one of her most formative experiences because of the memories she made with her students and host family using her high proficiency skills in Korean, a linguistic feat that began a decade ago as a high school freshman.

Sheyann is a 2023 Charles B. Rangel Fellow and is deeply passionate about human rights and the intersection between global health, education, and displacement crises. She is excited to become a U.S. diplomat after graduating from the GHD program in 2025. Outside of academia, Shey loves cooking, traveling, doing TikTok dances, listening to cultural music, reading, watching romantic comedies, and shopping.