Kick-off

I will give you the view of a soon-to-be graduate finishing his degree a little behind curve and trying to move from part-time employment to a full time job related to development in these troubled economic times. Other current and former IDSers will share their various global experiences with you. My classmates have a diverse background and are going in a variety of directions. Hopefully this blog will give you a sample of what we can do.

Location: Washington, DC

I'm one of the few, the proud, the unable to finish the degree without a summer course or two. I'm taking two fantastic classes this summer: War in Africa and Quantitative Analysis. They are great for completely different reasons. Quantitative Analysis is wonderful because I can work with numbers and graphs...things I have a bit of a knack for. War in Africa is great because the professor (Williams) is one of the most engaging and thought provoking I've had. I never zone out as he explains something and he never answers questions that he asks of us. As a former educator (for realz!), I appreciate that. It doesn't hurt that he constantly says "in a nutshell" in his British Accent.

For those who know nothing about the IDS program, it is a Masters of Arts degree from the George Washington University focused on training practitioners in international development. Part of it includes a Capstone Project where students work together to find an organization, plan a consulting project, and work in the field.

For my first post, I'll leave you with a video: