First, tell me a little about yourself and how you became interested in international development.
I come from a small town in Massachusetts. I had never planned on doing international work. I became interested in different cultures and languages while I was in college at UMass Amherst. It was more of an intellectual and academic fascination at the time, which is what I think usually happens in college. I majored in Philosophy and minored in Anthropology. Then during my senior year, I picked up Swahili.
After college I joined the Peace Corps. I wanted to go to East Africa, but I didn’t get into Tanzania or Kenya. Instead, I ended up getting a slot in Thailand. I had no previous experience with Southeast Asia; I had to do my research, but I did it quickly. It was an adventure. I did community development, working with youth groups on agricultural production, primarily doing community organizing. I was not an expert, but I learned fast. I was a resource liaison for these poor folks in villages. I ended up staying in Thailand for about five years, doing a variety of jobs working with teachers, youth groups and wildlife conservation So, in a nutshell, I got into international development by spending time in Thailand.
Tell me about World Education - where you work and your specific role in the organization.
I started at World Education in 2000, and I’ve been there ever since. I’ve been based out of the home office, but I spent a few years in India where I worked on a project to educate underprivileged children and to get students back into school. I am currently the head of a division which manages a portfolio of about 30 to 40 projects across six countries with a team of 10 or so based in Boston, and a couple of hundred people in those other countries. I manage the operation, fundraise and work directly with countries like Nepal and Cambodia.
What did your experience living abroad in Vietnam, India, and Thailand teach you? Do you have advice for individuals hoping to live abroad as part of their work in the International Development sector?
There’s no direct path or “right way”. I think you need to find a way to get somewhere and spend a lot of time there learning about the place and just see where you would best fit into that type of development work. I think Peace Corps was a great way to get into development work. And the great thing about it is that it offers an opportunity to explore whether you are attracted to a career in development work, but it does not pressure you to pursue that path. A Peace Corps experience can be a very fulfilling and beneficial two-year hiatus from another related career path you may have in mind. The new directive for Peace Corps nowadays is that you can choose the country you want to work in. Other types of internships are great, too. We work with a program called Princeton in Asia that recruits interns and places them at NGOs like World Education for a year. Another good organization is Volunteers in Asia.
The ability to learn languages is also important. I studied languages as an undergraduate, and I was able to learn Thai quickly. As a foreigner, speaking the local language does make a big difference. You can connect with people on a more personal and meaningful level.
What has been the most challenging aspect of working in the international development sector?
There are a lot of challenges just like there are in any career. There’s the challenge of keeping up with the changing world’s political and economic growth because it’s very fast-paced.
Being able to adjust the way you provide services to these countries is hard because it requires that you and your staff are always evolving with the times.
Finding funding for the work we do is also hard. You have to be persistent and follow-up and deliver high-quality services and interventions for these donors. Our organization mostly works in education, so most of the funding we seek goes to education efforts. But there is a lot less funding available for international education than, say, global health.
So, in general, it’s a challenge to work in the education field. Outcomes in the education field are also very hard to measure. The quality of education delivery depends on a lot of observable factors you can’t control, like how many kids had breakfast before school, how many kids came to school on a given day, what mood is the teacher is in, etc. For this reason, I think donors might prefer health interventions because the outcomes in that field are more measurable. Of course, health is also fundamental, and learning will not happen if people are not healthy. Another challenge is that a lot of developing countries are more demanding of their international partners. They have developed institutionally and legally and have stronger institutions and frameworks. They hold us to the task, which is good, but it’s not as easy to work. In the past, just about anybody could get into a country if they had the money to do the good work they wanted to do. These days, it is harder to get permission to work in some countries.
What is the best way for an individual to keep up with a country, since nations are always evolving?
You have to focus on a few places. For instance, when I went to Southeast Asia I studied Thailand. Someone like you could go to Francophone Africa. But the question is, are all those countries similar because they are part of Francophone Africa? I doubt it. Probably in the past, but not anymore. You can’t assume anything. You have to do research. You have a lot of resources to do that. I read Cambodian English language newspapers to stay updated on the news in Cambodia, e.g. Online, I can find out what is happening even in remote districts around the world. The international media is not going to cover everything, but there are a lot of great daily newspapers in major global languages. There is also Devex.com a global media platform started by a graduate student at Harvard Kennedy School where you can find the latest information on development and global news.
What skills would you say are necessary to succeed when pursuing a career in education, and more generally in international development?
I’m a big fan hard skills. I think foreign language knowledge is important and easy to acquire in college. Writing is also important. We need people who can write strong proposals, emails and so on. The ability to work with numbers is also important. I use spreadsheets all the time. My staff uses Excel to analyze budgets, etc. I think someone who has experience teaching and who can develop a curriculum is very useful. Not everybody has to be a teacher, but if you are going to work in education, it’s helpful. There are also skills you can pick up on the job. You don’t have to go overseas. You can do something like City Year in the U.S. for a few years. But ultimately, it’s the curiosity of the individual that is important, as is empathy.
It’s the ability to see the world from someone else’s perspective. One of my most effective program managers was a theater major. And he told me that theater teaches empathy because you play other people’s roles. I don’t know how one develops empathy, but that’s something you need to have. Otherwise, there is no bottom-up, sustainable, grassroots development. It all starts with being open to meeting people where they are and not where you want them to be. I also believe that if your singular goal is to find yourself by doing overseas development or humanitarian work, then you’ll forget why you started in the first place. Your experiences will lead to self-growth inevitably, but that’s not the main goal of getting into this career. So overall, be curious about the world, be adventurous, and have empathy.
Interview Conducted by Mary Cunningham
College of the Holy Cross, Class of 2017
Please feel free to contact mary at [email protected] if your organization is interested in being featured in a blog post