Anisha Baghudana

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Anisha Baghudana

Country: Kenya

Organization: MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth / Institute of Business in the Global Context.

Anisha Baghudana completed a research fellowship with the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth and Institute of Business in the Global Context (IBGC) at the Fletcher School. MasterCard and IBGC piloted a new initiative for Fletcher graduate students this year to support original research touching upon the themes of private sector innovation to promote inclusive development in emerging and frontier markets.

Anisha: “I am indebted to the Blakeley Foundation for providing me the opportunity to pursue my career interests and am hugely thankful to Jerry Blakeley for giving me the flexibility to do a research project instead of a traditional internship”

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Anna Valeria

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Anna Valeria

Country: Lima

Organization: Endeavor Brasil / Andean Innovation Red

Anna Valeria joined Andean Innovation Red (AIR) early in the organization’s development. She acted as an advisor, identifying the purpose of every company activity to determine relevance to key objectives. Her main objective was to build a map of the entrepreneurial landscape in Lima. She interviewed entrepreneurs, investors, acelerators and university officials involved in fostering entrepreneurship. As a result AIR attracted for the first time the attention of the community by using a new technological platform (i.e. Google Hangouts) that allowed to reach more audience and to create a virtual platform where entrepreneurs and soon-to-be entrepreneurs can share ideas.

Anna: “Today I feel more prepared and confident that I have been gathering the needed tools, both in terms of the academic work and now during the summer with hands-on experience to start building my own startup with social impact.”

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Jennie Vader

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Jennie Vader

Country: Kenya

Organization: Vera Solutions

Jennie Vader began her internship with Vera Solutions by designing and conducting two assessments of the company’s overall effectiveness and client satisfaction. She contributed to blog posts, information templates, and provided internal knowledge of DM&E processes. She also had the opportunity to assist on a client project, developing theory of change, indicators and assessment tools for Generation Citizen, a nonprofit dedicated to introducing action citizenship into US schools.

Jennie: “I learned so much more than technical skills; I learned a lot about myself, the state of the field, and where I want to head on my career path! Thank you so much for this unique opportunity and for continuing to support Fletcher student. We appreciate all you do!”

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Madeline Thomson

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Madeline Thomson

Country: Mexico

Organization: Grupo Compartamos

Madeline Thomson worked as an Accion Ambassador and Strategic Planning Intern to contribute to the launch implementation of the operations of Compartamos Foundation. She performed site visits and interviews with top organizations and foundations in Mexico to compile best practices, and participated in a week long strategic planning session to define organization purpose, beneficiaries, values, and styles. Upon the conclusion of her internship, she presented findings from her independent research projects on social impact evaluation and technological innovation to the foundation’s management.

Maddie: “Overall, my time at Compartamos was a wonderful experience and I learned more than I could have imagined possible from a summer internship. In being part of the Foundation from the ground up, I strengthened my communications and analytical skills. Most importantly, I realized how much I love working in a strategy role. Thank you so much for your generosity. I cannot express enough how grateful I am to have had this opportunity.”

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Samuel Rosenow

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Samuel Rosenow

Country: Mexico

Organization: FINCA Mexico

Samuel Rosenow designed, managed and implemented a nation-wide evaluation of FINCA Mexico’s social performance. In his capacity as Survey Manager, he completed a randomized and clustered sampling plan and established a field visitation schedule while hiring, training, and managing a team of 7 enumerators as they conducted 798 face-to-face interviews with clients across Mexico. He was responsible for the compilation, cleaning, and analysis of survey data, and prepared tools for econometric impact assessment as well as poverty targeting.

Samuel: “My work stint reaffirmed for me the importance of evidence-based policymaking to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty. Heading a nation-wide impact study not only reined my skills in program management and evaluation but also enriched my understanding of the opportunities and limitations of other micro-based development policy interventions, such as in health or education.”

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Leah Meadows

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Leah Meadows

Country: Indonesia
Organization: Mercy Corps, Agri-Fin Mobile

Leah Meadows was hired for her expertise in gender integration and assessments. While in Jakarta, she researched women’s access to financial services, cellphone technology, and agriculture information. She developed surveys for 160 female and youth farmers, while training local facilitators in how to give 20 focus group discussions in 6 subdistricts of West Java province. She conducted 25 one-on-one interviews and culminated her internship with an office-wide presentation of her 50-page report on how the Agri-Fin mobile project should change to address women’s needs.

Leah: “This internship was truly invaluable. I developed skills that complement my classroom studies, and that will make me more marketable as a working professional. This experience has strengthened my interest in these factions of international development, and I plan to take micro-finance courses next semester to further my career goal.”

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Keith Mangam

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Keith Mangam

Country: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Organization: FINCA International

Keith Mangam’s worked as part of FINCA’s Client Research Fellows Program, helping FINCA to measure and manage its social performance throughout the world. His main task was to act as the Survey Manager, leading a comprehensive survey of 439 households throughout the DRC branches. He helped to recruit and train local surveyors and staff in the use of smartphones as a tool for facilitating data collection.

Keith : “I believe that this experience has given me first hand experiences with cultures in conflict and has given me a more realistic expectations of how societies react in post-conflict settings. I gained good insights into the world of micro-finance, both the perspectives of those offering the services as well as the beneficiaries of those services.”

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Julia Leis

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Julia Leis

Country: Burkina Faso
Organization: Millennium Challenge Corporation

Julia Leis was selected to work on the Diversified Agriculture Activity, a $30 million project of the $490 million Millennium Challenge Compact with Burkina Faso, designed to increase rural incomes and employment and to enhance the competitiveness of the rural economies in the Sourou Valley and the Comoe Basin. She completed an extensive value chain analysis of the project’s deliverables, synthesizing different activities along the supply chain within certain sectors, providing insight on the multitude of interventions taking place in the regions over the past few years.

Julia: “Working with MCC and Burkinabé colleagues was an incredible experience. I gained an understanding of the complexity of contract management and program implementation in the field. While I have studied international development during my undergraduate years and now graduate school, it was incredibly valuable to see how complex projects are managed and implemented on the ground, and learn about the importance of partnerships with local communities. I now feel more prepared and committed to pursuing a career in development in West Africa and I’m very grateful to have had this opportunity.”

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Aditya Ashok Kumar

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Aditya Ashok Kumar

Country: Nigeria
Organization: The Tony Elemelu Foundation (TEF)

Aditya Ashok Kumar worked with the Tony Elemelu Foundation to help African entrepreneurs scale-up and improve competitiveness. He was selected to create products and services fir a struggling financial services company (Financial Trust Company) based in Lagos. Aditya interviewed capital market participants, competitors and regulators to understand the pulse of the industry, conducted primary market research, and held discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commissions for product approvals. His work led to the creation of the FTB Balanced Agricultural Fund, a close-ended NGN 1 Billion fund that invests in agriculture ventures in Nigeria, due to launch early next year.

Aditya: “My objectives for the summer were met and I am lucky I got to do what I wanted. This opportunity helped clearly define and refine both my long term professional and personal goals.”

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Tommy Galloway

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Tommy Galloway

Country: Myanmar
Organization: MasterCard, MDRI-CESD (Myanmar Development Resource Institute, Center for Economic and Social Development)

Tommy Galloway travelled to Myanmar with the goal of identifying lessons about the financial habits of rural and urban communities in Myanmar that could aid in developing better financial tools to improve Myanmar citizens’ financial stability. He partnered with MasterCard to co-author a report that identified ways in which these lessons could be developed into points of market entry as well as ways that MasterCard could contribute to ongoing reform in the region.

Tommy’s research team was able to successfully reach a range of communities in Myanmar, helping to create important connections amongst local organizations that work on social and financial reform. In his second partnership with MDRI-CESD he developed qualitative survey questions and conducted interviews to identify themes about the financial habits and needs of Myanmar’s communities.

Tommy: “Given my abiding interest in Myanmar before arriving at Fletcher, and my intention to focus on the crossroads of development economics and business while there, this summer work was perfectly situated to allow me to step closer to my long term career goals.”

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Chuck Dokmo

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Chuck Dokmo

Country: Chad
Organization: Enterprise for Vocational Development (ENVODEV)

Chuck Dokmo acted as a market researcher, networker, strategist, project Designer & Manager for ENVODEV, a small start-up NGO with vocational and energy projects in southern Chad. He was responsible for growing a network of contacts within N’Djamena, conducting market research on charcoal in the region and assessing the sustainability and scalability of ENVODEV’s charcoal project. His findings helped to determine the course of ENVODEV’s future strategies for meeting urban demand.

Chuck also led a team of 5 to develop two new models of clean, efficient cookstoves, and worked with the International Director to explore several new partnerships.

Chuck: “This internship was a landmark experience in my life. It pushed me well outside of my comfort zone, and I enjoyed the numerous challenges we faced. Most of all, I thoroughly enjoyed the people with whom I worked.”

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Dhriti Bhatta

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Dhriti Bhatta

Country: Uganda
Organization: FIT-Uganda Pvt. Ltd: an agro-consulting firm in Kampala

Dhriti Bhatta worked as a member of the consulting team at FIT, developing a rollout strategy for FIT’s latest product, FARMIS (Farmer’s Record Management System). She conducted value chain analysis for the coffee sub-sector, wrote proposals for consultancy projects, and conducted analysis for FIT’s trademark product, the Market Analysis Report (MAR) 2013, a comprehensive collection of price information of over 40 commodities from over 35 markets in Uganda.

Dhriti: “This experience was important for me, as I got a a sense of how rural Uganda still is and how difficult it is to operate businesses there. I was pleasantly surprised by the farmers’ groups we came across there. The leaders of these organizations seemed quite entrepreneurial and were excited to test out a product like FARMIS. Overall, my experience in FIT Uganda was quite important to my academic and intellectual interests. I learnt a lot more about how the agriculture sector works, specifically in East Africa. Also visiting a growing East African country gave me a sense of how those markets are expanding and increasingly becoming more important globally.”

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Mari Kenton Wright

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Mari Kenton Wright

Country: Malawi
Organization: Population Services International (PSI)

Mari Kenton Wright worked as an M&E and Program Officer with responsibility in the Reproductive Health Department for the launch of a family planning social franchise network, SafePlan, and working with a Malaria/Child Health team. She conducted baseline assessments at 30 clinics, participated in high level policy meetings and presented her findings to members of Malawi’s parliament

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Katie Walsh

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Country: China
Organization: China Sustainable Energy Program (CSEP)

Katie Walsh’s responsibilities ranged from working on research and grant reporting in Beijing to participating in site visits to southern China relating to urban planning practices and opportunities

Katie: “The experience provided me with insight into the realities of urban planning and successful efforts in supporting sustainable development in China… and will help me make informed decisions about my next steps.”

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Nate Stell

/ Start Up! India/
Nate Stell

Country: India
Organization: PCI

Nate Stell carried out an evaluation of the OVC team’s vocational training model which provides services (skills, education, microfinance and life skills eduation) to street children, Orphans and Vulnerable Children through interviews with prior participants and key staff to determine if the processes being used are being optimized for success.

Nate: “One key attraction was that the focus of my internship was on designing and implementing an evaluation of a well regarded vocational training program. I was interested in developing a skill set in program evaluation because I am planning my career in the nonprofit management field.”

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Hannah Schiff

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Hannah Schiff

Country: India
Organization: Start Up! India

Hannah Schiff’s work included in-person interviews with villagers, experts in the field, and other social entrepreneurs as well as exposure to a wide variety of social enterprise models. She gained experience helping social enterprises define smart business strategies and processes and created questionnaires, guides and other content for Start Up! India’s Incubation Tool Kit.

Hannah : “This was a powerful internship through which I gained many insights that will be useful in my academic and career decisions going forward. The experience helped me to refine my idea of what I am looking for in a future work environment.”

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Sarah Ryan

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Sarah Ryan

Sarah Ryan focused on the Fundacion’s reading glasses microfranchise and investigated new microfranchise opportunities for FP. She was able to meet with microfranchises, loan officers, and potential suppliers. Her business plan suggesting strategic changes in order to grow sales and expand the number of vendors was presented to the directors.

Sarah: “It was extremely useful to get on-the-ground experience in a developing country… and to understand the cultural differences which impact the speed and implementation of new operational models.”

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Kyle Muther

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Kyle Muther

Kyle Muther conducted a value chain analysis of four selected commodities in Uganda and Indonesia to identify market opportunities for bundling farm and crop management tools and financial services on mobile platforms. He attended meetings of the Indonesia World Economic Forum working group on Maize.

Kyle: “The internship was very useful for my career development… with a lot of interaction with high level MercyCorps staff. My main accomplishment during the summer was getting exposure to an exciting field – mobile agriculture information services and mobile money/banking.”

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Max Mattern

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Max Mattern had responsibility for implementation of a survey of FINCA Jordan clients. FINCA is an international microfinance institution with a mission to provide financial services to the world’s lowest income entrepreneurs and so they can create jobs, build assets and improve their standard of living.

In this capacity Max designed the sample and survey strategy, hired trained and managed a team of five surveyors located throughout Jordan. He performed an analysis of the social performance indicators and wrote a report and presented his findings to the CEO of FINCA. The findings will be used to set poverty outreach targets and improve products and services.

Max: “Overall, the internship was an invaluable experience that will surely advance my career goals. I can confidently say that have experience managing a complex proess that employed logistical and analytical skills, as well as personnel management. …I now feel confident that I have the knowledge and skills necessary to begin a successful career in microfinance after graduation.”

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Liz Henry

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Liz Henry

Country: Ecuador
Organization: Root Capital

Liz Henry was assigned by Root Capital’s office in Lima, Peru to investigate and formulate a plan for expanding its loan activity into Ecuador. Using her Spanish language she was able to engage with diverse stakeholders, include personnel international: agencies such as USAID and NGOs such as Catholic Relief Services, directors at the Inter-American Development Bank, representatives from commodity trading firms, employees and consultants at Ecuadorian government ministries, CEOs of SMEs and rural cacao and coffee farmers

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