And here I go

I think this summer is the beginning of a period which will be drastically different from anything I've ever experienced. Finally a push in the direction which I'd been tending towards but unsure of for a long while? From here on I foresee a trajectory that resembles the following:

1. Summer 2010

An opening into the non profit/NGO sector

Life in DC, possibly the place I want to be after graduation

Enriching encounters with people, professional or just outrageous

2. Senior year

The past three amazing years culminating into one which will produce the fruit of my academic and intellectual journey

Delving deep into and synthesizing the issues that have captured me

Legitimizing my place in the professional world

3. Post-graduation

¿Quién sabe? but

Preferably the US for a couple of years, and then a donde me lleve el viento

I guess this space will be one in which I lay out my unrefined thoughts as I try to answer the philosophical, intellectual and spiritual questions that confront me in the next year or so. I'm not even trying to be dramatic; the two and so weeks since I left Middlebury have already been full of such inquiries.

This is the one-pager I turned in to Andrew and Paulina (my bosses at the Amazon Watch DC office and abroad):

CELINE’S FORWARD-LOOKING LIST

Tasks to accomplish

§ Produce a good report through fruitful research and collaboration with others in working group

§ Organize successful campaigns/protests

§ For myself: Acquire a good understanding of Banks’ and IFIs’ environment-related strategies, existing mechanisms and programs geared towards developing countries

Skills to develop

• Be able to present a case in its entirety à write a good policy brief: Do good research, understand an issue well enough, present the case, provide policy suggestions that are feasible and critical
• Be able to carry myself well, especially when conversing and working with professionals in the field
• Be able to think critically about the work of iNGOs, multilateral institutions and issues of development in general
• Develop a stronger, better-defined personal philosophy on development. Reconcile for myself what development means and what strategies should be included in the process.

Contacts to acquire

§ AW’s partner NGOs in South America, some I could potentially work with or be in touch with

§ People at the IDB, World Bank, BIC etc.

§ Staff at Amazon Watch!

§ People in related NGOs- that deal with natural resources, especially the WWF and WRI

Impact to make

§ To contribute to Paulina’s work, producing the report to disseminate to counterparts in Latin America

§ Successful campaigns which make news in the media + educating through telling

§ Have my family and friends curious and seeing the value in what Amazon Watch does

What needs to happen for these three months to have been valuable?

§ Produce something valuable

§ Have good conversations and reach breakthroughs (in my mind or in others’)

§ Figuring out if I want to and can work in an NGO/ in the non-profit sector: Area of specialty? Field or office? People/environment I work best with/in?

§ Realize the value of advocacy as part of the development process. Gain a more comprehensive view of development

§ Learn something about organizational management and what makes for a successful NGO

§ Meet people and make friends who share the same passions!

How/where it fits into my personal and professional trajectory

§ First professional experience in a non-field/project site setting. Understanding that the field comprises of both (office and field jobs), interning is a good starting experience of the former

§ Academically, search for thesis/independent study project ideas

§ Exploration of interest areas. Indigenous rights is a relatively new area, building off my interests in natural resource management, PPGIS à community mapping around territorial rights. Exploration of how the environment and development come together

§ Hunt for career opportunities! Through networking and finding out where the opportunities are out there that I might not have known before. Get a job? I need one in exactly a year's time!