About

Major: Women and International Public Policy
Hometown: Edgewood, NM

My fellowship experience:
At WISE I was able to experience first hand the challenges that many small, non-profit organizations in developing countries face, including funding cuts. Shortly before my arrival at WISE their funding received huge cuts, forcing them to drop many of the programs that I was supposed to work with. I had to work hard and be resourceful to find projects to complete, but was able to conduct health-awareness  programs at the Buduburum Liberian Refugee Camp as well as at several local schools, sit-in on case worker meetings to learn about domestic violence cases, and assist with administrative tasks. To supplement this internship, with the support of the Cornell Fellows Program and my sponsoring professor, I designed a field research project through which I hoped to better understand the lives and challenges of Ghanaian women. Throughout my fellowship I traveled to various markets and shops, conducting over thirty interviews with women entreprenuers. At the end of my fellowship, I felt that I'd learned a great deal about domestic violence, women's advocacy, the lives and challenges of Ghanaian female entreprenuers, and Ghanaian culture. With all of the traveling I did for my field research, several of my Ghanaian friends exclaimed that I knew Accra better than most Ghanaians! The skills I gained from this experience are myriad, including: experience working at a grass-roots level non-profit organization in a small, developing country, the ability to adapt to new surroundings and unexpected circumstances, experience conducting interviews (that later served me well when I interviewed members of paliament for a research project in Oman), and the ability to navigate a foreign country. I am very grateful to the Cornell Fellows Program for awarding me this amazing opportunity.