International Development Program Students

The International Development Program has approximately 100 students in residence. They are an exceptionally diverse group, representing all regions of the world and speaking more than forty languages. Many students entered the program with previous experience in international development, and most engage in practical training during the program through internships and research in Washington D.C. or overseas.

Awards and Fellowships

The International Development Program is very proud of our students. Our students are awarded some of the country's most prestigious awards and fellowhsips year after year. In 2006 our students were awarded the following:

2006 Presidential Management Fellowship Finalists:
Angeli Kirk
Rebecca Jones

2006 Boren Fellowship:
Alison Pflepsen

2006 US Department of State Critical Language Scholarship:
Christian Doolin

2006 American Unveristy Awards:
Monica Price - Graduate Award for Service to the School of International Service
Helen Markelova - International Student/Scholar award for Academic Excellence
Ajani Husbands - Multicultural Leadership Award

Students are also very active in development related organizations both on and off campus. Both the International Development Program Student Association (IDPSA) and the Fair Trade Student Association (FTSA) were founded by students in the ID Program.

Check out the International Development Program Student Association homepage at http://www.idpsa.org

International Development Program Student Profiles
These are just a few of the talented students we have in residence in the ID Program. Prospective students should feel free to email any student listed for additional information about our program or other advice or questions.

Mohammed Abu Asaker, M.A. International Development, 2007
Originally from Gaza , Palestine , Mohammed got his B.A. in English from the Islamic University of Gaza and has attended leadership, management, and peace trainings in the United States , Japan , Egypt , and Palestine .  He worked for three years with USAID sub-contractors in Gaza as a project coordinator and project manager. Additionally, in 2002 Mohammed published a human rights report in The Palestinian Human Rights Monitor entitled, “Misfortunate Rafah: Destruction and Suffering Everywhere.” Mohammed is concentrating his studies on Conflict and Development and NGO Management. Mohammed is also the Vice President of the SIS Graduate Student Council and is the founder and Executive Director of Tomorrow International.
Email: mabuasaker@yahoo.com

Hala Hanna, M.A. International Development, 2008

Hala received her BA in Economics from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon where she grew up. She has been active since her high-school years within the Lebanese civil society working on poverty reduction, women's rights and youth development. She left Lebanon on the day of the cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel in July 2006 to join the SIS International Development program. She is concentrating on Development Economics and is very active on campus both within the community of international students and as the president of the Council On Middle East Studies. After graduation, she is joining the World Bank Institute's Governance Unit as a Junior Professional Associate.

Douglas Kandt, M.A. International Development, 2008

Doug is a second-year student concentrating in Development Economics. His main interest lies in Africa. He has worked at a rural hospital in Tanzania for a couple months, and traveled extensively from Egypt down to South Africa. His main international work experience, however, happened in South America where he managed a program on improving labor rights for banana workers in Ecuador. He has also taught English in Guatemala, and studied and traveled throughout Mexico. In addition, he spent some time backpacked in Southeast Asia and the Middle East for several months. Besides getting to know the local culture and people, one thing he loves to do when visiting a new place is to explore. Diving is one of his favorite activities, and has loved having the opportunity to dive in places like the Galapagos, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Egypt, and Honduras.

Attached picture: Observing a march/rally in Ecuador (the soot on my face is from some tires marchers had set on fire in order to create a roadblock on a nearby highway).

Joanna Kimball , M.A. International Development, 2009
Joanna graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio in 2003 with majors in Music History and Theory and German Studies. As an Oberlin student she spent a semester studying abroad in Munich, Germany, which spurred her interest in International Affairs. From 2003 to 2005 she worked as a secondary TEFL Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan. Joanna was involved in several activities outside of teaching responsibilities. For example, she volunteered at a summer camp for girls, where she ran the library and provided random fiddle accompaniment. She also acted as a protester/tree-hugging environmentalist at a mock-UN assembly. During her two years in Uzbekistan, Joanna became interested in issues of gender and environmental sustainability, particularly women’s empowerment and dealing with problems of ecological degradation caused by modernization/development.

Meghan Olivier, M.A. International Development, 2007

Meghan received her B.A. in French from Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama. She spent a year studying French and German in the bilingual town of Fribourg, Switzerland, and it was during this year that her interest in international development was sparked by her travels throughout Croatia. Before moving to DC, Meghan worked as an ESL teacher at an international school in Switzerland, a French teacher in a Birmingham school for teenagers with learning disabilities, and as Program Coordinator for the Office of International Programs at her alma mater. Meghan is focusing her development studies on community development. She has interned with Partners of the Americas’ USAID-funded Farmer to Farmer Program for the Caribbean Basin region, and thanks to the Tinker-Walker Fellowship, she spent a summer volunteer-interning for an agricultural organization (Pastoral de la Tierra) and a small Fair Trade cooperative (www.kuchubal.org) in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. She also took advantage of her time in Guatemala to learn Spanish and visit farming communities to gather research for her SRP. Meghan currently works as a teaching and research assistant to Professor Deborah Brautigam.

Hailing from Texas (originally Houston but prefers to say Austin for obvious reasons to anyone who has been there), Corbett came to SIS by way of Korea and Japan where he sang songs with children and taught English to all ages. He credits his interest in trade and labor rights to one episode ("David and Goliath") of the best radio show on the air, This American Life.  He is currently working at the Fair Labor Association to strengthen his knowledge of labor issues in relation to the global economy. He hopes to find employment in trade policy and labor/human rights in South or South East Asia after graduation.

Despite being able to read and understand spoken Spanish, he blames his wife when he responds in Japanese. He's planning to pursue Korean and one additional language when his time is not consumed from his studies or occupied by his personal interests of music, movies, cooking, baking bread, fixing bikes, disturbing automotive traffic and smoking. Corbett can often be found drinking coffee, smoking and riding his bike (often at the same time) at various locations on campus, or on his back porch. He has a fondness for parenthesis and socks.

Originally from Arizona, David earned his undergraduate degree in environmental science from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. David was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tanzania for two years as an environment and community development extension officer. David moved to the Washington, DC area and worked as an associate at ECODIT, an international development company, for over two years. His concentration at American University is Rural and Community Development, and after he graduates, he hopes to continue working in Eastern and Southern Africa in the fields of agro-forestry and natural resource management. In this picture, David standing in front of one of the trees he planted four years earlier, Nyololo Shuleni village, Tanzania

Alice Würmli, M.A. International Development, 2008.

Alice Würmli was born and raised in Switzerland but has dual citizenship (Swiss/US). After Gymnasium she worked for Swiss Re, one of the 2 largest Reinsurance companies in the World for 2.5 years. This work increasingly did not satisfy her and she felt the urge to go back to school. She then did her undergraduate studies in International Affairs and Governance at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. During her 5th semester, in 2004/2005, she decided to go to Peru and interned first at a small NGO working with street children in Cusco, then with a governmental organization at a municipality in Arequipa doing legal counseling on children's rights. After her internship and writing her Bachelor Thesis on "Human Security, NGOs and Development" and a Term Paper on "Stiglitz' criticism of the Washington Consensus" she felt compelled to pursue a MA in International Development with a focus on development economics. After two months in Argentina, mostly in Buenos Aires, this past summer, she has decided to go back next summer to conduct field research on the 'Cartonerso' (scavengers) of Buenos Aires.

Jobs and Internships

These are just a few of the places that our students work or intern.

Alison Plepsen,Worked at Winrock International (www.winrock.org) and currently interns with Tostan (www.tostan.org)

Ann Hershkowitz, has interned with the Overseas Cooperative Development Council, in Arlington www.ocdc.coop/ and the Education Development Center (EDC) for the EQUIP3 project, in DC www.equip123.net/equip3 Summer 2006 she interned with Twana Twitu, in Kenya, www.twanatwitu.org

Caroline Low, is a Program Associate/Communications Specialist at Management Systems International www.msiworldwide.com

Claudia Patricia Rodríguez-Alas, interned with the United Nations Development Program in El Salvador www.pnud.org.sv

Dave Whitfield, Works for the Minority Business Development Agency, U.S. Department of Commerce, business development.

David Tye, works at the Program Assistant at ECODIT, Inc. www.ecodit.com ECODIT is an International Development company that works in Environmental and Water- related fields, mostly in the Middle East . As a program assistant, he supports the company associates and consultants in the filed in numerous tasks. He assist in proposal preparation, budgets, formatting CVs, ECODIT's Past Performance Reports, and basic research for the company and projects.

Elizabeth Bryan, is the Program Assistant, Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars www.wilsoncenter.org

Elizabeth Minor, In 2005 Elizabeth worked with the Academy for Educational Development as a recruitment intern, www.aed.org and was the Agricultural Intern to Poland and Lithuania for the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, www.fas.usda.gov

Ellie Klerlien, works at the National Council of La Raza, the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the US , www.nclr.org

Jaime Holland, Will be working with a youth business incubator in Asuncion , Paraguay for 3 months in the summer of 2006. The internship is with Fundacion Paraguaya, one of the largest NGOs in Paraguay . www.fundacionparaguaya.org.py.

Jocelyn Farrington,Works as a Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant, SEA Corp and in the summer of 2006 will intern with Partners For Development, Nigeria , www.pfd.org

Juliette Gelbard, currently works at Development Alternatives (DAI) as a Project Associate and has also worked at Citizens Development Corps (CDC) and a Project Assistant. Both organizations have intership programs.

Kang Yue, In 2005 Kang Interned for the Center for Development and Population Activities www.cedpa.org and durring the summer of 2006 she interned in Calabar , Nigeria.

Kerry O'Brien Wilson, Manages English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program for local international visitors and immigrants, including language classes, field trips, cultural programs and social activities at The Falls Church Episcopal, Falls Church , VA.

Melaney Monreal, works in the Scholar Selection and Services office, Woodrow Wilson Center www.wilsoncenter.org.

Meredith Kruger, interned full-time with MSI (www.msiworldwide.com) in 2005-6 on a support contract with the USAID Global development Alliance office (think public-private alliances). Summer 2006 she interned with USAID in Malawi on developing ways to reduce input costs for poor farmers.

Mohammed Abu Asaker, durring the summer of 2006 he interned with Citizens Development Corps (www.cdc.org) expanding their Middle East projects.

Monica Price, interned with InterAction (www.interaction.org) in the Office of Membership and Standards. This is a good internship for people interested in NGO Management, outreach to NGOs, helping NGOs improve their management by complying with InterAction's Standards. Great way to get "into" the NGO field and meet lots of different relief and development NGOs. Monica also interned in Ghana with POSDEV, an pan-African coalition of NGOs working on development issues, www.posdev.org

Tammy Alexander,interns at the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, the advocacy/education wing of the United Methodist Church , working on raising awareness about issues in the Middle East and Latin America , www.umc-gbcs.org

Terri Bales, interns at Population Services International, Eastern Europe, Part-time Program Assistant Intern, www.psi.org**I highly recommend this organization, particularly to anyone interested in health-related issues of development.