Second Year

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Spring is in the air, even if it is 10 degrees below the historic average. I can even envision my summer plans. A vastly majority of PAIA students stay for one year. MAIR students begin in August and spend their summer and third semester off campus. MPA students begin in July and graduate the following June. Spending an extra year in Syracuse is an outlier, the lonely 2.5% at far end of a normal distribution. Yet, there are some students who think that more pain is virtuous and another year at Maxwell equals another year of fun! Or become excited at the thought of two masters degrees on our resumes. I added my name to the pile late last year. The MAIR/MPA programs are to my knowledge unique among its peers in allowing a matriculated student to add another degree program after one semester in another.

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Even Lincoln has stopped shrivering

It hit home yesterday when I viewed an apartment for the fall and spring. After a refreshing summer of the real world, I will return to all those months of biking through the snow, rain and bitter cold would repeat themselves just to rub it in. While enjoying some long reading by a cold winter’s fire, many of my classmates will undoubtedly have jobs or interviewing for jobs. I can see the Facebook and LinkedIn statuses now, just hired at a private consulting firm, the federal government or even into a dream career of mine. Jealous? Of course not because I will enter that party a little late, posting in all caps HIRED at ….

Maxwell Students Take D.C.

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The Maxwell School is known for its passionate and enthusiastic alumni. Some even refer to it as the Maxwell Mafia (yes, we have t-shirts) and are well-known in public policy spheres. Last weekend, about 70 students traveled to Washington, D.C. for the annual student networking trip. A majority of my classmates will spend most of their professional lives in the area.

Personally, I harbored a few doubts how helpful a networking trip would be for me, given that I just bumped my graduate date to more than a year away. But thanks to free housing from a generous alum, the decision to go was still relatively easy.

For Thursday and Friday, site visits were in order. My first stop was U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). When natural disasters strike abroad, OFDA usually gets money to the field in 24-72 hours, often in the form of direct aid to organizations already on the ground such as the Red Cross. One of the jobs the alumni described would be a perfect fit for me as it is collecting and articulating information on disaster response worldwide. I was also impressed with the focus on disaster mitigation in addition to traditional rapid response.

Next stop was the U.S. Department of State. It was a question driven discussion and seven employees represented the foreign and civil service. One takeaway was when applying to the foreign service, apply for a cone you actually want rather than an “easier” one to get in. Otherwise, you must commence “conal rectification” which is as unpleasant as it sounds. Another takeaway was on the professional development side. State has only done large scale, professional training since Secretary Colin Powell and it is still very employee driven, meaning you have to ask. Ambassadors (including political appointees) receive only two weeks of formal training. Nicholas Kralev detailed it more last week.

The Maxwell networking happy hour was where I learned some of the more valuable information. I talked to several alumni who worked in the international development sector and learned a great deal about how to get in. It was great to meet a variety of alumni, from very recent graduates to mid-level professionals and even a handful at the peak of their careers.

On Friday, some students visited the ████████████████████████. After clearing security, a public affairs officer explained what students were seeing and allowed a tour of the ████████████. Students then spoke to two officers who briefly described their careers, current positions and answered students’ questions.

Later that evening, I attended a dinner with several alumni who were in the middle of their careers. It was more intimate and personal than the site visits allowed. There was more talk about what the alumni were working on and where they hoped to advance to next.

One of the most valuable parts of the entire trip were the breakout sessions on Saturday. My day began with a mock interview given by a recently retired alumni. I thought I interviewed fairly well but came away with a list of answers to spruce up and rewrite completely. There were several breakout sessions going on at once but I chose to attend the international organizations and international development session and federal government careers session. In the former, one alumni had not only ran an organization I am considering working for but actually turned it upside down, necessary for a successful turnaround. It was also great to hear from current federal employees and they had entered and advanced successfully through the system.

Seeing the Mafia in action was impressive all in itself and it was well worth the trip. With such a supportive group, I cannot wait to begin my career.

Summertime

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In the depths of another snowy winter, Gershwin’s Summertime provides a pleasant outlet. A large part of the Masters of Arts in International Relations program is summertime. While the next round of MPA’s are slaving through public budging, some MAIR students will be fighting actual slavery. Yes in this century, slavery is still an issue in Ghana. I am not talking about the slave castles in Cape Coast and Elmina but children forced to fish on Lake Volta.

Back to summertime, MAIR students are required to do a Global Internship between the summer and their final fall semester.  The program is very flexible on what students do and even when. There are Global Programs in Washington, D.C. for the summer and for the fall. You can even find your own internship. Many students opt to do both, simultaneously look for their program while applying to one of the university’s programs.

Syracuse runs a fairly new program called Survey of Current Issues in African Migration with International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s Ghana office. If migration sounds dry, check out what is actually going on in Ghana. There are many development issues tied to displaced populations. From educating students on the dangers of child slavery on Lake Volta to assisting displaced foreign nationals from Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria and other neighboring countries, IOM works to address a host of migration issues.

What do students actually do? IOM offers placement in the field or within their local headquarters in Accra, Ghana’s capital. Field work usually supports local staff with their projects which draws on new knowledge and skills from two semesters of practical coursework. There is also a possibility of creating a community needs assessment under the supervision of a local supervisor. Presenting the assessment to relevant community leaders caps off the experience. It is the sort of work which international development organizations find relevant during the hiring process and serve almost as a more practical version of a thesis.

Stay tuned for more. Regardless of where I go, there will be blog posts!