2022 MDP Practicums
Ricky interned with the Afghan American Alliance of Georgia. He provided technical and communication skills to a range of initiatives, including an awareness raising campaign on family planning for Afghan families in the U.S. as well as capacity building and management advice to families initiating food-based businesses. Most notably, Ricky drew upon his excellent visual media skills to create a video production that highlights the central role of food in identity formation in Afghan culture. |
RICKY DJO
As Corporate Citizenship Intern for Intuit Mailchimp, Adrienne was responsible for establishing new projects, developing partnerships, and strengthening processes for a multi-brand Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy. Most importantly, Adrienne led outreach efforts directed to to 60+ impactful nonprofits across 6 U.S. cities for the inaugural Give Where You Live campaign to build capacity in social media and marketing campaigns. She conducted a cross-industry analysis of best practices in CSR and examined how Mailchimp’s Twitter audience engaged with prevalent causes and cultural events in order to distill critical insights for clarifying brand differentiation. |
ADRIENNE HINES
Kashish interned with Heifer International. Kashish developed training materials for the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning department, focusing on the concept of Living Income Benchmark (LIB). Heifer International determines local living benchmarks during a project's design stage, taking into account household needs including a low-cost and nutritious diet, decent housing, other basic needs, and unexpected costs. Kashish created a podcast episode, a slide deck, and a training manual to enable better understanding of LIB by the organization's internal staff and external partners. |
KASHISH KALWANI
During the summer, Aaron traveled to Kyrgyzstan and worked with the Department of Geology and Sustainability at the University of Central Asia in Bishkek. In his role, he surveyed and interviewed farmers about their use of sustainable water practices, their desire to engage in local food market systems, and the specific barriers faced by women farmers. Drawing upon his field research, Aaron engaged in consultations with key stakeholders, including staff of the U.N. World Food Programme, Kyrgyz Ministry of Agriculture, and national farmer organizations to discuss the opportunities and constraints that smallholder farmers face in contributing to domestic food production and economic development. |
AARON ODUM
Chelsea worked as a summer intern for Research, Evaluation & Insights in the Youth Development team of Boys & Girls Clubs of America at its national headquarters in Atlanta. Her role included analyzing quantitative and qualitative survey data, creating data visualization projects, and conducting secondary research to support initiatives around mental health, recreation, service learning, and more. In doing so, Chelsea learned a lot about developing and applying logic models. She also contributed to the monthly Youth Development Research Round-Up and to the Club Experience Blog. |
CHELSEA RILEY
This summer, Rio served with Plan International Indonesia, contributing to a water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) program by focusing in particular on the impacts of climate change in disaster-prone rural districts. In these areas, Rio interviewed villagers on their perceptions of climate risk and their management responses relative to the WASH sector, such as climate-proofing water sources and latrines. He likewised engaged with local authorites to learn about their ability to integrate climate preparedness in their planning, the availability and allocation of adaptation funding, and their capacity building needs. Rio's research also illuminated the specific barriers that marginalized groups, such as people with disabilities, face in coping with climatic impacts and extreme weather. |
ROBERTUS (RIO) RIOPUTRA
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MADELINE STEINER
Nigel worked with Regreening Africa, an 8-country land restoration program, led by the World Agroforestry Center in Nairobi, Kenya, in particular focusing on the relationship between agroforestry and livelihoods across the Sahelian region. Drawing upon his strong writing and visual skills, Nigel developed a suite of communication materials showcasing the program's impacts and learnings for a diversity of audiences. These outputs were presented to multi-stakeholder conferences in Rwanda and Senegal, during which Nigel had the opportunity to engage with policymakers, rural producers, and other partners in discussions of shared commitments to reforestation goals. In Kenya, Nigel also supported a cross-country conference on faith-based approaches to land restoration. |
NIGEL VAN DER WOUDE
During the summer, Amanda worked remotely, dividing her practicum experience between two different organizations and projects. For Hi Hopes, a grassroots organization in South Africa that provides early intervention services for babies with hearing loss, Amanda contributed to fundraising initiatives and to development of a monitoring and evaluation framework to track and share impacts of their interventions with potential funders. At Habitat for Humanity’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter, Amanda built a knowledge management publication library, gathered qualitative data from labs in five different countries on best practices in mass retail strategies, and collaborated in the creation of knowledge management and communications assets. |
AMANDA WEST