Like Long Journeys, International Careers Begin with the First Step

Some students arrive in an IFE program with a road-map of their hoped-for future, but not many. Most IFE alums who end up on a life-path involving other cultures, other languages and travel or residence abroad did not set out for IFE with a plan to make that happen. Instead, IFE is often an early step in that direction, as students orient their semester around a specific topic encountered in studies or volunteer work back home or simply the urge to speak someone else's language and learn someone else's culture.

A student at IFE Strasbourg from DePauw University, in 2017, Maya Cotton's trajectory illustrates what can happen when following one's desires and commitments instead of a map. Maya came to DePauw interested in the intersection of culture, religion and politics and began volunteer work with refugee resettlement in Indianapolis and adult education helping non-traditional students finish schooling, while learning French. Maya then enrolled in IFE Strasbourg with the objective of gaining a deeper experience of immigrant support work and related skills, while continuing to learn about the effects of the policy environment on such organizations, and hoping at the same time to add luster to an application, someday, to a public policy graduate program.

In Strasbourg Maya joined the staff of a large social and cultural center in the diverse neighborhood of Neuhof, working on a variety of projects with neighborhood youth groups while researching the impact of multiculturalism in Neuhof on the center's practices. She also got to know IFE's Strasbourg Coordinator, Tarek Amraoui, and liked to get him talking about his family roots in Morocco. Back at DePauw after France/Strasbourg/Neuhof, Maya was restless and applied for a Gilman Scholarship in order to be able to go abroad again, this time to study in Bangkok. Back in Indiana to finish her degree, Maya's thoughts turned to her conversations with IFE's Tarek, and all the friends she had made at the Neuhof center, which prompted her to apply for and land a Fulbright Fellowship to teach university-level business English in... Morocco. Back stateside – to WDC – to work with a border-management consulting firm and learn more about the policy framework affecting immigration, Maya's experience with the Gilman and Fulbright programs got her thinking about a Pickering Fellowship to fund her dream of graduate school. Well, she won a Fellowship, used it to study at Harvard Kennedy School, gained entry to the US Foreign Service and a posting with the US embassy in Panama. At last word, she has been promoted to Economic Officer.

(Photo: IFE alum Maya Cotton)

Two other mini-profiles from the IFE annals: Sophia Gerdes was studying Economics and International Studies and French (and Arabic) at Macalester College when she enrolled in IFE Paris in the fall of 2015 (resolutely staying after the Bataclan terrorist attacks), hoping to gain some professional experience in general while following her love of languages and cultures. Sophia's classroom work and independent research based on experience working alongside French professionals as a trade assistant with US Commercial Services in Paris provided the needed tools to enroll directly upon graduation in Sciences Po Master's degree in International Economic Policy. From France it was off to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a contractor with the NGO Action Contre la Faim (ACF), where over the last five years she has risen to Area Coordinator for ACF's many operations in central Africa.

Liana Bianchi came to IFE Paris in 2000 from her native Idaho, via Vassar College and, except for going back to finish her B.A., has lived mostly abroad ever since. Conducting research at Sciences Po's European Studies Center led, after graduation, to two Peace-Corps-like years training teachers in Benin with IFESH (International Foundation for Education and Self-Help), after which Liana entered the Master's program at Johns Hopkins' SAIS to study International Economics and Social Change and win a Luce Scholarship for a summer project in Cambodia. Degree in hand, it was back to Southeast Asia and Africa to build a career as a development consultant and program manager until – a few years ago – Liana began work with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Asia, where she is presently Senior External Relations Officer for Asia and the Pacific.