As a self-proclaimed citizen of the world, I no longer spend much time in my hometown of New York City. But when I do – be it in a drugstore, a café of relative hipness, or the subway – I see Wellesley alumnae everywhere. This comes as no surprise, I am sure. One big surprise in my post-undergraduate life has been my apparent knack for bumping in to Wendies in the least likely places.
After graduation, I joined the United States Peace Corps as a Health Education Extension Agent in rural Mali. I applied many of the skills I picked up in our beloved blue-and-orange Science Center (aka: home sweet home to the math major and chemistry minor that I was) in training community leaders and creating tools to help them solve problems. In my cohort was a fellow Wellesley alumna, who put her economics background to good use working in ecotourism development. (Fun fact: we lived in the same dorm for two years, but met for the first time during Peace Corps training.) My own service focused on teaching basic hygiene, malnutrition management, and disease prevention to my community. Needless to say, serving in the Peace Corps instilled in me an enormous sense of gratitude for my education.
When I was suddenly expelled from Mali following the March 2012 coup d’état, I found myself back in New York, emotionally unprepared to face today’s job market. I picked up some part-time work in retail and childcare (I cared for the adorably progressive child of a Wellesley alumna running her own business) and volunteered for a small New York based non-profit by day, while I applied for international public health positions by night. Having dabbled in research as an undergrad, and observed the challenges of international development first hand, my interests gravitated toward the field of monitoring and evaluation. Despite my efforts to leverage various professional networks, including our very own W Network, it became clear that a master’s degree was the next step in developing my career. And thus began my adventure in grad-school-application-land.
As many of you know – or will eventually find out – applying to graduate school is no small feat. It took weeks of research only to select which programs would be a good fit (of course, I met another remarkable Wellesley grad on a campus tour of Columbia’s School of Public Health) and many more weeks to shape a convincing personal statement. Ultimately, the application process equipped me with the confidence to pursue this professional degree. I feel confident that Wellesley has prepared me for any academic challenges ahead and I feel confident that my experiences have provided considerable clarity both in my personal interests and my professional objectives.
Meanwhile, my tireless attempts at networking actually paid off and I was hired as the program coordinator for an NGO in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Now I split my time between the field and the office, which is the perfect way to bridge my experience in Mali with my upcoming graduate studies. This world is my classroom and its people are my teachers. From the toddlers in uniforms, to the local construction workers, to the awesome Wellesley grad working on rabies control, to the distinguished Ophelia Dahl (DS ’94, co-founder and now president and executive director of Partners in Health) there will never be a shortage of people to learn from.
If my adventures have taught me anything, it is how much I love to learn. In fact, I live to learn. And it is my greatest aspiration to make sure that never stops.