Alumni Update: Julie Goldenberg, IPE '02

Since graduating from the IPE program at UPS in 2002, I have been granted several amazing opportunities. I have completed my Master of Public Administration with an emphasis in International Public Service and Development (IPSD) from Rutgers University. My 2^nd an 3^rd years of the IPSD program were spent serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras, where I worked with local groups in areas of community health, education, and youth development. Upon completion of my Peace Corps service, I was invited to work as a Crisis Corps Volunteer with small communities in El Salvador devastated by the aftermath of Hurricane Stan and the untimely eruption of Volcano Ilamatepec.

After my service in El Salvador (December of last year), and not yet ready to come home, I found myself seated on TicaBus with a one-way ticket to Honduras. Fortunately, I was able to work in a friend’s bakery in Tegucigalpa while job hunting. I landed an interview with the Alison Bixby Stone School (ABSS) and began work in mid-January. ABSS is a well-respected bilingual primary school that provides an innovative and rigorous education to children from all walks of life. It is a progressive institution with a social mission to grant scholarships to economically-disadvantaged children in the rural villages surrounding the school (check us out at www.zamorano.edu/abss).

I worked for eight months as an administrator, translator, substitute teacher, and fundraiser. It came to our attention quickly the need for a full-time fundraiser working in the U.S. in order to resolve the school’s issue of historically unpredictable funding as well as to help expand our scholarship program and institutionalize our efforts in training public school teachers. Problem solved (at least, partially): I am now working in Seattle as a fundraiser (out of my parent’s house!) for the Alison Bixby Stone School. We are doing our best to stay afloat as we continue to search for seed and salary monies. If interested in learning more about my story or ways to become involved with ABSS, please contact me at jgoldenberg@zamorano.edu.