- University News Archive - 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock /news-archive/tag/international-service/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Mon, 25 Sep 2017 13:22:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Bowen student advocates for development projects in Albania /news-archive/2017/09/25/bowen-colby-qualls/ Mon, 25 Sep 2017 13:22:32 +0000 /news/?p=67936 ... Bowen student advocates for development projects in Albania]]> William H. Bowen School of Law student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock spent the summer advocating for development projects in Albania.聽 Colby Qualls, a concurrent student at Bowen and , interned at the Albanian Institute of Public Affairs, where he helped with research and advocacy related to democratization, good governance, and development. What was your Public Service Project, and what did it entail? My Public Service Project was a 10 1/2 week internship with the Albanian Institute of Public Affairs in Tirana, Albania. The organization itself focuses on research and advocacy related to democratization, good governance, and development. My project was a little more amorphous, because I was generally assisting the organization with various projects and conferences that came up rather than spearheading my own. I was involved with a project proposal and early stages of development of regional development hubs for Albania. I prepared a presentation for and assisted in hosting the Youth Festival of Ideas, a conference related to primary school education. I helped advocate for additional resources to expand an online hub for cyclists in the Balkan area, which is part of an effort to reduce traffic congestion and improve better outcomes in environment and health. Describe an average workday. I generally worked Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. I would start each morning with a 40-minute walk to work, and I would end it with the same walk back through a public park. Most days I would spend in the office. However, there were some occasions to travel to a school for an event in a city an hour or two away from Tirana. I was one of a staff of five. My day revolved around researching or proofreading articles or proposals and preparing presentations. Occasionally, my colleagues would ask me to explain unfamiliar English words they came聽across in research. 鈥淪tigma鈥 was one of the words I remember describing. Regardless of the actual project or assignment, there would almost always be a coffee break or two throughout the day at some cafe near where we worked. Albanians love coffee, and they use coffee breaks as a way of both reinforcing relationships and discussing developments at work. In my experience, coffee breaks were as productive, if not more productive, than typical office meetings. What were the best professional lessons learned from this experience? One of the most important professional lessons I learned from this experience was the value of relationship building. To be an effective organization, there needs to be a certain level of trust and camaraderie among colleagues. I noticed that Albanians really put a premium on those relationships, and I think that it serves them well. I learned that it is important to be flexible and open to being outside of your comfort zone. Plans and projects would often change on the fly, so it was necessary to be ready to switch gears at any moment. Finally, I learned how essential communication can be. As someone who encountered a slight language barrier, I became more keenly aware of not only the importance of finding a common language for communication, but being intentional in how you communicate. How did you spend your free time away from work? One of my favorite parts of Albania was the cuisine, so I spent a lot of my free time exploring in an attempt to find new places and new dishes that I had not experienced. I also would travel with my roommate, another Clinton School student, and some of our colleagues. Our mini-adventures would range from taking the longest cableway in the Balkans to spend some time up on Mount Dajt to traveling to other Albanian cities, like Kruje, to explore their markets and castles. What effect, if any, did this experience have on your career pursuits? I think this trip has encouraged me to consider ways that I could use my legal background in the nonprofit sector and maybe even abroad. While I had already been leaning toward either the public sector or nonprofit sector, I think this experience tilted me even more that way. This article was written by Patrick Newton of the Clinton School of Public Service.]]> Bowen student spends summer researching rural health curriculum for girls in India /news-archive/2017/09/22/bowen-natalie-ramm-india/ Fri, 22 Sep 2017 13:22:31 +0000 /news/?p=67932 ... Bowen student spends summer researching rural health curriculum for girls in India]]> William H. Bowen School of Law student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock spent her summer researching and updating a curriculum which teaches girls in India about gender equality, reproductive health, and other health issues. Natalie Ramm, a concurrent student at Bowen and the Clinton School of Public Service, recently completed her International Public Service Project with the Comprehensive Rural Health Project in Jamkhed, Maharashtra, India. What was your Public Service Project, and what did it entail? I spent eight weeks on a research project for the Comprehensive Rural Health Project in Jamkhed, Maharashtra, India. The organization wanted to update the curriculum for its Adolescent Girls Program. This program teaches girls about gender equality, reproductive health, karate, self-defense, environment and sanitation, and other important topics. I surveyed 25 girls who have been part of the course in recent years and two instructors to find out how they thought the program could be changed and improved. I used the results from the survey to guide my secondary data research and updated the curriculum for the program. Describe an average workday. In the first couple of weeks, I visited villages to survey girls and instructors. In the week following, I analyzed data from the surveys and created graphs and charts. Afterward, I spent a few hours every day researching new topics to add to the program and new activities and information to add to the existing topics. I also spent time with the current instructor going over all of the material I added to the curriculum to make sure it would translate into the cultural context. What were the best professional lessons learned from this experience? I perfected the ability to manage my time without much oversight from a supervisor. I also learned how important it is to have others review your work, especially when working in a different country. Many things just do not translate and working with someone from India to make sure the curriculum made sense to her meant that it would make sense to the girls, and that the updates would actually make a difference. How did you spend your free time away from work? I spent my free time reading for fun and watching Bollywood movies. What effect, if any, did this experience have on your career pursuits? I choose this project because it was focused on education and, specifically, teaching young women about reproductive health and gender equality. This experience has taught me the importance of communication and cultural awareness when advocating for or discussing sensitive issues like reproductive health. These are skills that will help me in my future work in reproductive justice in the United States. This article was written by Patrick Newton of the Clinton School of Public Service.]]> Bowen student helps indigenous women in Peru start businesses /news-archive/2017/09/06/bowen-brandon-trevino/ Wed, 06 Sep 2017 13:10:30 +0000 /news/?p=67805 ... Bowen student helps indigenous women in Peru start businesses]]> William H. Bowen School of Law student volunteered this summer with a nonprofit organization that helps indigenous women in Peru make money by starting their own businesses. Brandon Trevi帽o, who is also a concurrent student with the , recently completed his International Public Service Project (IPSP) in Peru. Trevi帽o , which helps women start and run their own businesses by investing in their skills and leadership and connecting them to global markets for their traditional hand-woven textiles. What is the mission of Awamaki? The mission of Awamaki is to increase the income for the indigenous women that live in Ollantaytambo and the Sacred Valley of Peru. Originally, when the organization I worked with started, they were involved in all services, and they decided that in order to be more effective, they should shift focus to a specific area where they excel. They looked into what they were doing best, and realized that it was increasing income for women. They did this through the women鈥檚 traditional textiles and giving them access to global markets in order to increase their income. What are some specific examples of how Awamaki invested in women and connected them with different markets? One of the biggest things we did was create weaving centers in two of the communities that we worked with. A perfect example is how Awamaki takes the funds from volunteers paying to be there and reinvests some of those funds into building these centers. Whether it鈥檚 through volunteers doing fundraising while they鈥檙e out there to get more money to invest back into the communities, or sales from the artisanal products, some of that money gets reinvested into the women to make the weaving centers. These weaving centers are important because they provide the women with a centralized place to make products, collaborate on what products to sell, and explore how to make them better to sell, creating larger profits that go back into the community. Also, one of the projects I did that exemplifies how Awamaki invests in the women was empowerment workshops. We would help the women become better business leaders in the communities, and help them establish how to make high-quality products that cater to our clientele. Those are just a couple ways on how Awamaki reinvests in these women and tries to get them connected to the markets. What were the challenges of Awamaki that you didn鈥檛 expect? There were aspects of it that I anticipated through working with a nonprofit in such a rural part of Peru. The communication sometimes is very slow. The pace of life is very slow. A concrete example is how my team and I were charged with doing demographic surveys of all the women, and sometimes we would set it up with the Peruvian staff in a certain community, and they would plan on doing the interviews and demographic surveys on certain days, but once the day of the interviews came, the women weren鈥檛 there because they had forgotten it was that day. So, they鈥檇 have to push it back a day or two. This is just an example of how the pace of life there is a lot different. Even just finding vehicles or finding enough space to take all of us to these communities was hard at times. Those are just a few examples of how different challenges would present themselves in a way that I didn鈥檛 expect, but that鈥檚 the nature with a nonprofit in that area of the world.
Brandon Trevino works with indigenous women in Peru while volunteering with the nonprofit organization, Awamaki.

Brandon Trevino works with indigenous people in Peru while volunteering with the nonprofit organization, Awamaki.

How did you spend free time? Free time was spent going on hikes and going to different communities. Ollantaytambo is located between Cusco and Machu Picchu, and there were so many cool things between those places. Cusco was awesome and a really cool city. Machu Picchu was breathtaking and beautiful. On weekends, there were so many sites to see. Some of the things I enjoyed were the ancient Incan ruins, the salineras, which are salt mines you could visit, and free hikes all around Ollantaytambo. I did one hike that lasted five hours. It was free, and it was up to the top of the mountain Inti Punko, which means sun gate in Quechua. We hiked up for five hours, then we came down and camped overnight, and it was just so fun. There were so many cool things. There was even nightlife in the city called Urubamba. You could go there if you wanted to go to a disco techa, or find a really nice place to eat. Overall, there was a lot to do in Ollantaytambo. How did this effect your long-term career goals? I found out my niche probably isn鈥檛 in international global development. I was thinking about this a little before I left, that I could have the most impact in my own home and my own community. It鈥檚 not that I didn鈥檛 enjoy my time and I think that I could do it in the future, it just reassured me that my biggest impact would be at home where I have the most connections. I noticed that the women who worked in my organization had the most effect on the women we worked with. They were Peruvian staff. They had personal connections with all the women, and kind of connected with them on a different level than I or some of the other volunteers could. I feel like they reacted better to the Peruvian staff who have the same experiences and speak the same language. This made me realize that that鈥檚 the way I can be in my community; I can be a leader in my community. I think people respond more to people who share a connection with them. I feel like that can make a bigger impact. That鈥檚 not to say that people can鈥檛 have an impact internationally and in places where people need help, because that is still needed. Personally, it really solidified for me that I will probably have the strongest impact back home. You are a concurrent student at the Bowen School of Law. How did this experience fit with that side of your education? As far as being a law student and a master鈥檚 student, I wanted to supplement my law degree with something that was relevant to public service. I have always wanted to be in public service, whether that was nonprofit work or governmental work. I knew I wanted to have more than just a law degree, and this was the perfect component for that. I feel like being a lawyer is a form of public service, especially if you鈥檙e trying to help others. I want to be the best public servant, whether that鈥檚 in law or other places, and I feel like the Clinton School has given me that extra education on how to be the most effective public servant. Were there other aspects of the experience that stood out? I had an overall positive experience. This is the perfect way to see your Clinton School work put to actual use in the field. Practicum is great, but after you鈥檝e had that practicum experience and all the classes, when you go out and do your IPSP project, you really see how the Clinton School has led the way to a career in international development, or whatever area you want to do your project in. That was a cool experience for me. I literally could tell you about specific skills from every class that I put to use in the field. In our field research methods class, we learned how to do interviews, surveys, and data collection. I did all of that with my surveys, and I did a couple of interviews. Also, when we talked about program planning and evaluation, we went over logic models and how to plan these programs. I set up empowerment workshops and created logic models for my organization to use after I left. I used sustainability plans that I learned in our program planning class with Dr. Al Bavon, and I actually made those for my organization. Those are just two that I can think of. Even some soft skills that I learned through our global development class and other courses applied in the field. So that was really cool to see. The article was written by Patrick Newton with the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. Photos provided by Amie Alexander.]]>