Jesse Lehrman (IPE '14)

It was nice to catch up with Jesse Lehrman (IPE '14), who was visiting campus today. He has spent the last year teaching third and fourth grade students at a school in northern Thailand as part of Teach Thailand Corps. After a short stay in the U.S., he plans to head back to Thailand for a second year of teaching.

Jessica Reichard '10: Public Health in Guatemala

This just in from Jessica Reichard IPE '10:

Pop Wuj Clinic Tour from Timmy Foundation on Vimeo.

Hello Loggers! Have to say, always feels good to greet fellow Puget Sounders.

I’m writing from Quetzaltenango (Xela), the second largest city in Guatemala. I arrived here about 5 weeks ago to work on a multifaceted grant on behalf of Timmy Global Health, an American non-profit working through locally run clinics here in Xela, as well as two in Ecuador and one in Nigeria. I stumbled across Timmy after months of searching for an organization that aligned ideologically with my strong belief in sustainable and locally focused development – in addition to a willingness to cover my minimal in country costs.

The grant itself focuses on improving a number of public health goals within the population served by our local clinic and Spanish school, Pop Wuj (named after Popol Wuj, the Mayan book of mythical history). It funds an 18 month long development program focusing on midwifery, early childhood nutrition, improved stove building, the education of local community health workers, and increased levels of chronic disease care.

I’m sharing the responsibility of this rather intimidating task with another young woman, Anna Pollack, a recent MPH graduate from John’s Hopkins, and Dr. Meg Sullivan, a fantastic pediatrician and director of medical programs at Pop Wuj. I’d love to describe all of them, but I fear I’d lose readership with such a verbose post – however, I’d love to share more, if anyone is interested in a particular aspect of the funding itself.

I’m lucky enough to be focusing specifically on the nutrition initiative, which currently includes about 20 families with children under 2. Myself, Meg, and a group of local volunteers interested in improving nutrition teach about improved food health and nutrition, as well as give out small packages of ‘NutriButter’, a very delicious, sweet peanut-buttery substance that contains essential nutrients to stimulate growth and prevent stunting, and incredibly common outcome of high levels of malnutrition in rural Guatemala. We hope that with both components – one short term to stave off imminent stunting, the other long term to improve overall familial health outcomes – we will be able to make a difference in at least one small Mayan community here in Guatemala. The malnutrition numbers are truly staggering in this country, and I’ve quickly discovered that taking small bites out of a massive problem is the only realistic way to achieve success on this scale.

Taking the leap and committing to a long term of international work – be it volunteer or compensated (ever so slightly) – is both the greatest dream and greatest fear of most IPE majors. From my short experience so far, I can say I have absolutely zero regrets, and feel better prepared every day to continue pursuing my passions both inside and outside of the classroom.

In addition to awesome social entrepreneurship going on here in Xela, Pop Wuj also offers an incredible immersive Spanish program. Those looking for something amazing to do in the summer should really consider a trip to Xela – it’s welcoming without appearing in the least bit touristy, and a fantastic place to carry out meaningful social development. Oh, and did I mention, best hot chocolate of my life? Absolutely to die for.

Jessica Bruce '08 on Peace Corps and Rotary Fellowship

Jessica Bruce '08 will talk about her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa and as a Rotary Ambassadorial Fellow at the next IPE Brown Bag at Noon on Wednesday, November 2 in the WSC Murray Boardroom.

Everyone is invited to attend!

Jessica Frank '08: Social Enterprise in India

Jessica Frank IPE '08 writes from India:

Greetings from India. I'm writing you to let you know about the fellowship I am currently participating in and to welcome any IPE seniors to apply for next year. I've been here since July and have already learned and experienced so much. The fellowship trains post-graduates in social enterprise by placing them as a consultant in a social business here in India. This year, every fellow is placed in an Affordable Private School, but next year placements will likely expand to other sectors as well. We are given great opportunities to make a difference in our schools, but also to work on projects with other social enterprises, attend conferences, and travel independently. I highly recommend the program to any loggers who are open to living in India for a year, are demonstrated leaders, and are interested in how business and non-profit ethics can intersect to create sustainable change with high social impact.

The program is called IDEX Fellowship in Social Enterprise and it is run though a US company called Gray Matters Capital.

http://www.idexfellowship.com/

Hope all is well at UPS!

Jessica

Here are details:

Gray Matters Capital (GMC) is proud to announce IDEX Fellowship in Social Enterprise is now accepting applications for the 2012 cohort. IDEX is a 10-month fellowship that builds future social enterprise practitioners. The program launched by GMC in 2010, aligns with the Foundation’s mission to empower social enterprises with access to financial and human capital enabling them to achieve greater scale and expanded social impact. This will be the third year that IDEX provides college graduates with a professional, cultural and social immersion into the field of social enterprise across India.

Ideal IDEX Fellow
We are looking for passionate change-agents who are committed to support the development of enterprises that serve low-income populations while creating a positive social impact. We seek individuals who have a proven track record of leadership and are enterprising and innovative in their approach to identify opportunities and implement market-based, sustainable solutions.

Who can apply?

Passionate college graduates and professionals who want to apply their skills to supporting social businesses. They have an academic background or have worked (usually but not required) in one the following areas – Strategic Planning, Finance and Accounting, Economics, Human Resources, Sales, Marketing, and Operations.

Application process and selection process:

- Apply online www.idexfellowship.com

- Application deadline – January 15, 2012

- Fellowship start date – July 2012

Hitachi Job Night 10/12

Econ alumus Joe Woolley adds ...

We’ll spend some time during the Q&A talking more generally about applying for jobs in the business sector with an econ/IPE degree, how to leverage the skills that come with an econ/IPE degree in cover letters and interviews, what additional experiences strengthen the resume of applicant majoring in econ/IPE, etc. Hopefully, including these topics makes the session beneficial to anyone applying for jobs before or after graduation, regardless of their year – juniors and sophomores should be able to pick up some valuable tips as well.

Coming Soon: Hitachi Consulting Job Forum

This just in from Joe Woolley, UPS grad now at Hitachi Consulting:

Hitachi Consulting Info Session for Economics & IPE Dept’s

Wednesday, Oct. 12^th at 7:00pm in MC 303.

This informational meeting will be for any economics or IPE students, especially first semester seniors interested in participating in our recruitment process that runs from mid-October through November. At the meeting, 2-3 Puget Sound econ/IPE alums will give an overview of what our firm does, what types of projects we work on, what we look for in applicants, and how the skills we received from our Puget Sound Econ or IPE degree are put to use in the workplace. We will allow ample time to explain the application process and answer any questions throughout the session. (Our goal is to have it be as interactive as possible).

Econ majors from Puget Sound have done a wide variety of things within our firm and one of our VP’s has even said that she’s always been impressed by the analytical skills that economics students bring to the table. We currently have 5 individuals who majored/minored in Econ or IPE at Puget Sound. In total, we have 12 Puget Sound alums based out of our Seattle office.

For more info: www.hitachiconsulting.com

Alumni Report: Kate Eberle and the Muslim Alliance of Indiana

This just in from 2011 IPE graduate Kate Eberle:

Marhaba min Indianapolis zimlaa IPE! Hello from Indianapolis fellow IPErs! It seems crazy that little over a year ago I was preparing to go back to UPS, with little to no plan after Senior year, and here I am, two months after the soggy Sunday that was graduation, an AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer serving in Indianapolis with the Muslim Alliance of Indiana (MAI)! For those of you who are new to AmeriCorps, or have only heard of the direct service branch NCCC, AmeriCorps*VISTA is a professional development service program that places college graduates (many recent grads) with nonprofits dedicated to eradicating poverty. VISTAs serve for a one year term, working with their hosting organization on capacity developing projects.

So far, my time with the Muslim Alliance has been amazing. My specific assignment for the next year is to create a survey that assesses the needs of this population, and then to develop programs that meet those needs. So far, ideas on the table have ranged from a refugee oriented microfinance program to the expansion of our pro bono legal clinic services. I’ve had the opportunity to work with awesome non-profits across the city, from battered women’s shelters to refugee resettlement agencies.

In addition to researching and creating programs, I’ve also had the opportunity to get to know the community I’m serving. Last month, all four VISTAs at my office accompanied one of MAI’s partner organizations and thirty Iraqi refugees to Chicago. Many of them had never seen the city (nor had I), and with Ramadan approaching, wanted to take advantage of the Arabic districts bounty of Arab grocery stores. It was a great chance to practice my (bad) Arabic and connect on a personal basis with the refugees. I also recently attended MAI’s Seventh Annual Governor’s Iftar (the breaking of the fast for Muslims during Ramadan) held at the Indiana Statehouse and mix with some of Indiana’s most respected Muslim leaders.

Had I not graduated during a recession, I might not have considered national service as an option. I’m so excited that I’m using a lot of what I learned as an IPE major, and even some of the information I gathered from my thesis. Many other recent UPS grads are also embarking on the AmeriCorps*VISTA adventure and I can’t say enough good things about it!

Photos: The top photo shows staff in Kate's group with the Executive Director on the bottom left. The Maghrib Prayer is taking place in the Indiana Statehouse at the Governor's Iftar"

Alumni Report: International Law Conference

Inder Datta (IPE '09) is starting his second year at the University of Oregon School of Law. He writes that ...

"I've recently been selected to be on the Oregon Review of International Law, and am excited to begin editing some of the premier articles in the field of international law."

"We will be doing a symposium the weekend of October 21st, and it would be great if you could tell students about it, even if they cannot come. Here is the website, http://waynemorsecenter.uoregon.edu/twail/ "

Congratulations to Inder on his law journal appointment. The conference he is organizing looks very interesting -- check it out!

Boeing Internships

Marc Phillips (UPS '10) passes along this information about internships at Boeing.

I wanted to quickly let you know about some upcoming information sessions for Boeing Internships. Below are the scheduled dates and times.

May 24 - 9:00 AM PDT
June 7 - 2:00 PM PDT
June 29 - 11:00 AM PDT

The details for calling in, as well as a list of the internships available, can be found by clicking the link below.
e-flyer<http://www.boeing.com/events/marketing/college/NW_Business_Majors/> (http://www.boeing.com/events/marketing/college/NW_Business_Majors/)

Emmy #2 for Greg Groggel IPE '06

Greg Groggel (IPE '06) recently received his second Emmy Award. Greg and his ABC Sports team received the Emmy for Outstanding New Approaches to Sports Programming for their coverage of the XXI Winter Olympic Games.

Greg has recently been producing a series on Rugby in America for BBC America. Here is a clip from one of the episodes.

Rugby Fitness Fiasco from Greg Groggel on Vimeo.

Landsea Rural Development Institute Internships

This just in from Brad Vickers IPE'05. Landsea's global headquarters are in Seattle.

I serve on a non-profit board (Around-n-Over) with a person who works for Landesa rural development institute (http://www.landesa.org/). Landesa works with governments and other local organizations to create tailored approaches to expand land rights to the rural poor.

They have several internship openings for this summer and next fall. Please forward this onto any IPE students that may be interested in working with Landesa. The internship description is available at:

http://www.landesa.org/who-we-are/careers/program-intern/

The deadline for applying to the summer internship is May 9. This may be too short of a turn around, but there's plenty of time to put together an application for a Fall internship.

All the best,

Brad Vickers '05

Jeff Bale IPE '07: On the Global Health Career Path

Where will your IPE degree take you? Here's an report from Jeff Bale, IPE '07:

Greetings fellow IPErs! My name is Jeff Bale and I was an IPE graduate in ’07. Upon graduation I joined the Peace Corps and recently decided to pursue a masters in global health. I will be attending Emory University next fall to do just that. I’m writing to give you a brief explanation of how I arrived at this decision.

While at Puget Sound I spend my time between two departments, IPE and Biology. I joined the Peace Corps after college and spent two years in Namibia working as a secondary school teacher just south of the Angolan border. My job as a teacher was continually interrupted by infectious diseases that spread among my students. The rains brought mosquitos and malaria as well as an outbreak of cholera. HIV/AIDS threatened the lives of my teachers and students. I spent the majority of my second year teaching HIV/AIDS, malaria, and cholera prevention and working with the community to develop adequate water and sanitation.

Leaving Namibia was difficult, and although I left many friends there, my commitment to global health continued. I currently work at a biotechnology company in my home state of Utah developing tests for tuberculosis and other diseases. This fall I applied and was admitted to my top choices for graduate school. I chose Emory University because of its excellence in preparing professionals in global health and because of the opportunities to work with infectious disease at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

I know my career is far from planned out, but I know I’m on the right track. The IPE major has been wonderful in preparing me to delve into global health; global health requires an understanding of social structure and political economy, in addition to the biology of disease. My Peace Corps experience was not a detour, but a foundation that provided me with experience and determination. It’s been immensely rewarding to spend time in a developing country working on global health issues at a community level. I want to spend my career designing effective global health interventions in infectious disease. If you have any questions about global health or my experience in Namibia, don’t hesitate to contact me, jeffbale@gmail.com.

How Microfinance Lost its Soul

The Huffington Post has just published an article on "How Microfinance Lost its Soul" written by 1996 Puget Sound IPE grad Aaron Ausland. I'll copy the first few paragraphs below. You can read the whole article here.

Microfinance has lost its soul. Six fundamental shifts in the practice of microfinance have left it operating more like a for-profit bank and less like an innovative pro-poor movement.

I don't have much against banks; they mostly do good things for people who can access their services. But, if you happen to lack title to property, a credit history, or official identification, as many of the world's poor do, banks are little more than sets of closed doors. Until recently, the only options for accessing credit and savings services were informal networks and local moneylenders. That all changed with the invention of microfinance -- a pro-poor social innovation that has provided access to financial services to millions of people previously thought to be "unbankable."

Over the past three decades, a massive scale-up has taken place as NGOs, banks, foundations, and private investors launched MFIs in every corner of the globe. Even I got swept up in the excitement and led a 1999 launch of an MFI in Bolivia. At some point though, a good part of the movement got hooked on the hubristic notion that we had to provide credit to every person on earth, and in order to do this we'd have to access the formal capital markets, which it was assumed (falsely) are driven solely by financial incentives. And so, without hardly a look ahead at what it would mean, profitability became the leading indicator of success. Instead of talking about how many people had been helped to move out of poverty, MFIs began bragging about low rates of portfolio at risk and high rates of ROI. Mission statements were revised to soothe investor apprehension. Healthy assets were prized over healthy borrowers. In short, microfinance lost its soul.

Here are six fundamental shifts in the practice of microfinance that accompanied us down this path.

1. Shift from targeting poorest of poor to the moderately poor.

There are two problems with lending to the poorest of the poor when you are concerned more about profit than poverty alleviation. One is that they are very vulnerable to external shocks. A late rain, a death in the family, a run-over pig -- these are economic catastrophes for the poorest of the poor. They don't have savings or other sources of credit to fall back on. When faced with a choice of surviving or repaying their loan, these will survive. Second is they don't have a huge appetite for credit. They generally don't need or want large loans. To make any money, a lender either has to charge very high interest rates, or have very low per loan operating costs. Many lenders began sidestepping these issues by abandoning the very poor and lending instead to the moderately poor -- a safer and more profitable lot.

2. Shift from rural to urban.

Other lenders pushed down operating costs by focusing operations in cities. With a high population density, the time and cost required for a loan officer to service his caseload is reduced. Simultaneously, the nature of the loans shifts from agriculture to commerce, which keeps capital cycling quickly through the loan portfolio, generating more cash for the lender. But, the rural poor, who already had the least access to financial services, were further abandoned.

3. Shift from starting businesses to growing businesses.

To decrease risk and increase repayment rates, MFIs began shifting away from start-ups and toward business growth. When they worked with the poorest of the poor, they were providing seed capital that gave the poor entrance to income generating activities. But, most new businesses fail, especially when led by inexperienced entrepreneurs, whereas established businesses have a better shot at profiting from an influx of additional capital. So, those who already had some capital and income generation were given access to more, while those who had none lost the opportunity.

Click here to read the rest of Aaron's article.

Building Competitive Advantage: Business & IT Consulting in today’s Economy

Joe Wooley, a recent Puget Sound grad, has asked me to pass on this information to you. This is a great opportunity for those of you who are considering business careers! (And especially seniors who are about to enter the job market.)

Special thanks to Joe and fellow almunus Jim Adams for bringing this information back home to Puget Sound.

Mike Veseth

Hi Mike,

Below are the details for next week’s event. While the presentation will be specific to the consulting industry, it should be beneficial to any economics/IPE student considering a career in a business-related field, especially those seniors that will potentially be going through interview processes this fall and next spring.

Building Competitive Advantage: Business & IT Consulting in today’s Economy

October 14^th, 6:00 pm in McIntyre 107

Topics to be discussed:

· The difficulties companies face in today’s challenging economic climate and the role business and IT consultants play in helping companies (including non-profits) compete.

· The unique skills that economics majors and minors bring to the table and how those skills can be leveraged in both the recruitment process and in the workplace.

· Upcoming recruitment opportunities with Hitachi Consulting.

Presenters:

Jim Adams ’06, Sr. Consultant

Joe Woolley ‘10, Consultant

Best,

Joe

ASK Night: Thursday 10/7

ASK Night = Alumni Sharing Knowledge Night = student/alumni job search/networking opportunity

Alumni Sharing Knowledge (ASK) Night 2010

Thursday, Oct. 7: drop by anytime between 7:00 and 8:30 p.m.

Wheelock Rotunda

Light snacks provided.

About ASK Night • Complete list of participants • Networking tips • Get your Fast Pass!

Staying for Tea: International Development Alumni Blog

Aaron Ausland (IPE '96) writes a blog called "Staying for Tea: Good Principles and Practice of International Development" that analyzes the issues that he deals with as an international development professional. His most recent post, for example, talks about the challenges and opportunities of "voluntourism." Readers who are interested in international development would do well to follow this blog.

Aaron is a development practitioner with over a dozen years of experience designing, managing, and evaluating development projects in over two dozen countries with a variety of organizations, including the Mennonite Central Committee, World Concern, Agros International, Trickle Up, and World Vision.

His diverse work has included launching a microfinance program in Bolivia, consulting a multinational mining corporation on their corporate social responsibility strategy, evaluating a multi-million dollar emergency response to the Indian Ocean tsunami, creating an econometric model to help combat corruption in Peru, and leading a multinational team of operations auditors.

He is the founder and editor of The Global Citizen: a Journal for Young Adults Engaging the World Through Service, which is published by The Krista Foundation for Global Citizenship, where he also serves as a Board member. He has a Masters in Public Administration in International Development from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a BA in IPE from Puget Sound. (Aaron's senior thesis studied "macrofinance" versus "microfinance" as development tools.)

He currently works for a large development organization as the Associate Director of Independent Research and Evaluation and lives in Bogotá, Colombia with is wife and two children.

A Peruvian Wedding

Colleen Dyble (IPE '00) is beginning year #2 of her Five Talents Fellowship in Peru, where she is director of a microfinance program.

You can follow Colleen's work and adventures on her blog.

Colleen's most recent post is about a Peruvian wedding. (Not her's!)

Follow Clint's Watson Adventures

Clint Agresti (IPE '09) has just begun his year as a Thomas Watson Fellow, traveling the world to explore folk music -- a true global/local project.

You can follow Clint's project by reading his blog, "Folk Sounds from All Around."

Here is complete information about Clint's project and the Watson Fellowship program.

University of Puget Sound graduate Clinton Agresti ’09 has been awarded the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to pursue an independent project overseas during 2010–11. Agresti was one of 40 college seniors from 23 states and three foreign countries to receive the grant, in a contest that the Thomas J. Watson Foundation described as especially competitive this year.

Agresti, an international political economy major and 2005 graduate of Walla Walla High School, will receive $25,000 for 12 months of travel and independent research. The student from Rockaway Beach, Ore., plans to visit Mongolia, Ukraine, Ghana, and Bolivia, while documenting a series of music ethnographies. These will consist of photographs, music recordings, and written material documenting musicians and musical groups who participate in oral traditions—defined by Agresti as those “passed down orally and learned by ear.”

“Clinton is an outstanding student who commits himself enthusiastically to all he takes on,” said Sharon Chambers-Gordon, director of the Fellowships Office at Puget Sound. “There were 150 finalists competing on a national level and we are proud, though not surprised, to see him among the selected recipients.”

Agresti’s project, titled “Beneath the Sounds: Exploring and Preserving the Music of Community,” will aim to create a better understanding of the relationship between music and culture by exploring the subjective worlds of individual musicians against the backdrop of their communities and traditions.

“It is essentially about understanding the unique human drive to invent music—music that draws from and contributes to the values, worldviews, and ways of subsistence of the community,” Agresti said.

The Watson fellow will frame his research with questions that may reveal more about the creative process of musicians in foreign cultures. He will also seek to discover common strands of inspiration among the far-flung musicians. Agresti plays several instruments, including piano, percussion, and guitar, and intends to actively participate in his host communities’ music.

Agresti will spend time with the Zakhchin people of the Khovd region in Mongolia, the Hutuls of the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine, the Asante of central Ghana, and the Aymara of the Lake Titicaca basin in Bolivia, all of whom practice largely agrarian or pastoral lifestyles. With the persistent advance of modernization, these ways of life, and the musical traditions they spawned, are fading—a reality that underscores the importance of the project.

“This Watson project began when Clinton picked up a saxophone at the age of eight,” said David Tinsley, Agresti’s faculty mentor and a Puget Sound professor of foreign languages and literature. “It certainly will not end when he records Zakhchin long songs in Mongolia or jams with the Aymara in Bolivia. What he hears will become a part of what he plays and shares with fellow musicians for the rest of his life.”

Chambers-Gordon and Tinsley, who chairs the Graduate Fellowships Advisory Committee, assisted Agresti in submitting his application, which he wrote while studying abroad in New Zealand. Other members of the committee are Alyce DeMarais, Kate Stirling, Patrick O’Neil, Katherine Smith, and Jeff Grinstead. The committee reads about 16 applications, interviews eight students, and nominates three or four, who go to the next level of the competitive process and are interviewed by a Watson Fellowship representative.

The Watson Fellowship is awarded to graduating seniors who are nominated by participating colleges and universities. The Thomas J. Watson Foundation looks for people likely to lead or innovate and allows them a great deal of independence in pursuing their interests.

University of Puget Sound has had 21 Watson Fellows since it began its affiliation with the foundation in 1993. The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program was established by the children of Thomas J. Watson Sr., the founder of IBM, and his wife, Jeannette Watson, to honor their parents' longstanding interest in education and world affairs. Fellows have gone on to become college presidents, chief executives, MacArthur “genius” grant recipients, politicians, artists, diplomats, journalists, and researchers across a wide range of sciences and engineering disciplines.

Kiva Fellows Program Opportunity

Kelsey Quam (IPE '09) is just finishing her Fulbright year in Peru (read her blog here) and is about to start her next project as a Kiva Fellow. She suggests that new and recent Puget Sound graduates seeking international development experience might want to consider this program, too.

Kiva is the web-based microfinance institution that has done so much to introduce microfinance to a wide audience. The Kiva Fellows Program offers individuals a rare opportunity to travel abroad and witness firsthand the impact and realities of microfinance, by working directly with a host microfinance institution (MFI). The Kiva Fellow is an unpaid, volunteer based position designed to increase Kiva's impact and to offer participants a unique insider experience. Past participants have found the fellowship to be a great first step in a career in microfinance or international development.

I'll paste some basic information taken from the Kiva website below. Thanks, Kelsey, for the suggestion. And good luck in your investigations!

Successful Kiva Fellows tend to share certain skills and characteristics:

• Overseas experience (preferably in developing countries)
• High degree of flexibility, self-motivation and problem solving
• Excellent writing skills
• Enthusiasm for Kiva!
• Familiarity and comfort with various web applications
• Dedication to working in the field with a microfinance institution
• Ability and commitment to fundraise for their trip
• Sincere interest in microfinance
• Longer stays (4 months +) are preferred

Furthermore, past Kiva Fellows with the following skills have found great success in the program:

• Fluency or advanced communication ability in French, Spanish, Russian, or other language in a country where Kiva has a presence
• Background in economics/finance/consulting will greatly enhance your ability to provide support to the host MFI

Kiva Fellow Core Responsibilities:
The Kiva Fellow is an integral part of the Kiva Team, acting as Kiva's eyes and ears in the field and helping to extend limited resources to maximum effect. Kiva Fellows fulfill tasks set out in a Work Plan, defined by Kiva along with the host microfinance institution (MFI).

1. Facilitate Connections between Kiva's Borrowers and Lenders
   Your journal entries, business postings and blog entries will help build the rich content that bridges our borrowers and lenders and makes Kiva's model work!
   • Interview no less than 15 businesses per week to assess loan impact, verify data, and gather information for journal updates
   • Develop innovative ways to facilitate connections via creative journaling, YouTube video and other means
   • Write a blog entry every two weeks on the Kiva Fellows Blog
   • Promote awareness of the host MFI and its programs to the Kiva lender community
   • Promote an understanding of the Kiva lending community to borrowers
2. Assist Communications and Maximize the host MFI's Partnership with Kiva
   Tasks may include some or all of the following:
   • Assist the host MFI to regularly collect and post borrower profiles for funding onto the Kiva website
   • Observe, learn and document the MFI's operations and its use of the Kiva platform, including recommendations as appropriate
   • Transfer skills to MFI staff on Kiva processes, policies and best practices
   • Create working documents and templates for the MFI to use during and post-fellowship
   • Complete additional projects for the MFI as time allows and skills match needs
3. Support Kiva's Mission, Product and Procedures
   As a Kiva Fellow, your work will help support Kiva's product, marketing and organizational development. Your consistent feedback is invaluable to Kiva's growth.
   • Communicate regularly with Kiva
   • Understand and promote Kiva Policies
   • Provide updates and feedback through weekly progress reports and a final end-of-fellowship report within one month of returning
   • Create Entrepreneur Press Profiles, as frequently as possible
   • Complete other tasks for Kiva as needed

Brown Bag 5: From Intern to "Hired" at the World Affairs Council of Seattle

Rachel Moshier (IPE '09) will discuss her work with the World Affairs Council of Seattle at the the semester's final Brown Bag discussion.

Meet Rachel and hear about her experiences as Program Officer for the International Visitor Program at WAC on Wednesday, April 21 at Noon in WSC 101.

The World Affairs Council is a membership-based nonprofit dedicated to providing everyone opportunities to practice global citizenship. As a hub for all things international in Greater Seattle, the Council enriches local civic and cultural conversations with world insights and perspectives.The International Visitor Program of the World Affairs Council promotes citizen diplomacy by coordinating educational and professional programs for international delegates visiting Greater Seattle.

The IV Program hosts approximately 1000 international professionals and youth from more than 90 countries each year. The majority of the visitors hosted by the International Visitor Program travel to the United States through the U.S. State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, International Visitor Leadership Program after being recognized and nominated as rising stars by American embassies in their countries.

As part of her job description, Rachel concurrently designs and implements creative professional development exchange programs for professionals and young leaders using organizational models and creative program design to maximize impact and cross-cultural exchange.

Rachel graduated from UPS in 2009 with a degree in IPE and a focus in Asian Studies. During her time at UPS she was the Vice President of Alpha Phi Sorority and she participated in the Pacific Rim Program where she spent nine months in Asia. When she is not thinking about Asia or world affairs, she enjoys reading, cooking, eating and being outside. Rachel loves zombies, kale and cats.