Sarah Schell, Class of 2012
Global Studies Major, Business Administration and Political Science Minor
Sarah, a 2012 GS graduate, currently works at AECOM in Washington DC, a provider of professional engineering, consulting and project management services for development projects. When she first interviewed, she thought she did not have the development rules and rights knowledge they would need. However, her experience as an Executive Assistant at a law firm gave her valuable experience that landed her the job. She works on a large USAID project. USAID is an international agency that contracts projects to companies like AECOM, DAI and Chemonics. USAID will extend a project to these companies and select the best to complete it. Most projects are 3-5 years. Her project, Viable Support to Transition and Stability in South Sudan has a year and a half left. This program seeks to prevent the spread of communal violence and calm tensions in areas of conflict. She manages the logistics and administration. Since this is a grant based project, the team has a budget to work on local community programs, religious organizations, community organizers to organize peace dialogues. The project supports trade and promotes community engagement.
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Two examples of local community programs in Juba, South Sudan with the VISTAS project:
Wrestling Tournament (pictured left) and a Peace Dialogue (pictured right).
Wrestling Tournament (pictured left) and a Peace Dialogue (pictured right).
Here are Sarah’s 5 points for finding employment after you graduate:
- Get internships while you can.
Internships are a helpful way to gain experience in various fields and discover your interests. Employers often value internships over grades on your resume. While still at Bryant, there are internship opportunities in Providence or if you have a car there are even more options. Working and living in D.C. at some point in your career is great for building a resume for grad school. Sarah’s internship on the Hill after graduating set her apart from many other recent college graduates. She felt that is was a great “transition internship to get a feel for the city and get familiar with people in the field.” Not only was this a great experience for networking, but it is beneficial to have the internship on her resume so early in her career. After, she began to work at a law firm as an Executive Assistant at a law firm. Although the job didn’t fit directly with Global Studies, it was helpful to build on her skills. - Understand different sides of International Development.
Different areas of employment where you’re on the ground working in other countries or in DC working with operations or project management. Sarah emphasized the importance of “understanding the different roles that you would have depending on where you live in the scope of your companies work”.
Here are the different forms of employment and the skills needed:
Technical: You will work with your organization to apply the practical solutions to problems on the ground. There are lots of layers to this, from (roughly) identifying the issues, designing the activities which will hopefully support solutions, planning and executing the activities, and lastly analyzing the effects using your monitoring and evaluation indicators. Depending on the type of organization or program that you work on, this type of work can be done over an extensive period of time (via a 1, 2, 3 year work plan that your'e expected to follow), or if you work for a more responsive mechanism, the project's work can be much more flexible and reactive in their approach.
Operations: You will also work in the field, but on the finance, procurement, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and human resources side, supporting whatever the needs are from the technical side to implement programming. For procurement, this could mean ordering supplies for an event at a university, peace dialogue, building a physical structure for a traditional court. For finance, this means paying your vendors and consultants who assist in facilitating the events/programming. For M&E, during & after programming, it is their job to evaluate what the effects of the programming is, what the demographics of participation are, and what can be done to improve.
Project Management: Your job is to support the financial, administrative, and regulatory (in terms of USAID, UN, etc. rules and regulations or following the rules & regulations for whoever is funding your work) needs of the program/organization.
- Build a network.
Sarah emphasized the importance of making valuable connections as a student and throughout your career. She stated that “it is really hard to get a good job or internship in D.C if you don’t have connections”. When she moved to D.C, joined a professional organization called Young Professionals in International Affairs in order to meet like-minded individuals in her field. This organization planned events, networking events and has relevant presentations and discussions throughout the year. There are similar organizations like this in most cities which can be really helpful to meet people in your field and have connections at companies you would like to join. - Get field experience.
Sarah advises that Bryant students who want to get into International Affairs or International Development, should gain international experience in a region to specialize in for at least a year. She emphasized the importance of getting involved with community service now, as students, to gain vital experience necessary for the future. Teach abroad is also a good idea for students with foreign language skills. Looking at long term, Sarah is applying to the Peace Corps so she can get the valuable field time she needs for her career. She is applying to be a Health Extension Volunteer. After, she is looking to move over to the business development side of AECOM. She wants to get into the field and focus on conflict resolution and peace building in conflict zones. - Graduate School.
Once you discover your interests and choose a region, graduate school is a good option. Students have the ability to specialize in specific area of interest, making them a stronger candidate for jobs. Most graduate programs look for 2-3 years of experience after graduating from college. We compiled a list of graduate programs related to GS.