About CIPA

As I touched a little before, I interned with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda in summer on a project called “Great Lake Cassava Initiative” (GLCI). The project aims to build and enhance smallholder-farmer’s capacity in East African region, and to achieve high level of food security in the regions by promoting agribusinesses related to Cassava production. Last week, I had a chance to meet donors of my summer internship. It was an opportunity to think back my experience. Today I am sharing my summer internship experience.

How I got the internship

My summer internship was a part of my spring semester course, IARD6940 Group Independent study. The course consisted of two components: 1) development of training materials for capacity building for low-income small-holder farmers in developing countries during spring semester ( I worked on business and marketing skill sets),  2) implementation and revision of the training materials during two-month field trip in summer. In the beginning of spring semester, I participated in an information session of the class, and then submitted one-page statement. A week later, I was accepted into the class and the summer internship.

The reasons to take the internship

My main objectives of summer internship were 1) to have working experience related to socio-economic development in developing countries to have interactions with BoP (Base of Pyramid) population and better understand their needs, 2) to work with an organization at a grassroots level to know the gap between planner of a project and those who implement the project.  After attending the info session of IARD6940, I felt the course and the internship fit my study interest, and would meet my objectives. I decided to take the course and committed to the summer field trip. Regarding the project site, I was told that the project site would be East Africa and that we might have more options. In March, students in the class were divided into two teams – working in India or East Africa (Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda) depending on each student’s interest.

Responsibilities

I had two main responsibilities as follows:

1) To implement the training materials we developed during spring semester through 5 one-week workshops (3 in Kenya, 1 in Uganda and 1 in Rwanda) for the stakeholders including CRS’s local partner organizations, CRS staff, local officials in order to introduce the project and the methodologies with other interns from Cornell (classmates in the class) and Kenyatta University in Kenya, and Beth (Assistant Director at Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development(CIIFAD)).

 Meeting with team members

2) To train local field agents for their coaching skills in order that they in turn train local small-holder farmers, as well as computer skills for effective usage of computer-based training materials at a field agent level.

 Workshop

3) To supervise the trainings implemented by field agents to local farmers, and assess the validity of methodologies and provide effective recommendations to CRS on further improvement in the training materials and approaches.

   Field Training

   Farmer group

Funding

The expenses of the internship including transport, accommodation and food were covered by CIIFAD (the original funding was from the donors I met last week) and CRS.

I am truly satisfied with my experience because I could interact with different levels of stakeholders of an NGO project and saw how an NGO is working in the complex system in the space of international development on the ground. In addition, I could experience a part of the project in both planning and implementing process and better know the gap between them. I think that it was one of the seminal parts of my graduate study at Cornell as well as my career development. While this was first time for me to visit Africa, I really enjoyed experiencing African culture and feeling African spirits. Now I am a big fan of African culture!

Bujagali Falls in Jinja,Uganda          Kids in a village, Kenya

Keiko

Today I am introducing one of the courses I am taking, CRP6120 Devolution, Privatization and the New Public Management. The focus of this class is privatization and decentralization of public service in both domestic and international context. By reviewing theoretical rationale for privatization and decentralization, we discuss the implication from different dimensions such as political and legal concerns and protection of public interest.

The course consists of several components: Class Discussion, Article Summery, Theory Paper, Group Project and Final Project. Class meetings are on Wednesdays and Fridays from 10:10 am to 11:30am. The class is seminar style. We have 3-5 articles associated with a topic assigned for each class. Based on the readings we discuss the topic. The class is mix of American and international students. Therefore, the topics are discussed from different perspectives.

Article Summary and Class Discussion

Article Summary is an important component of this class. Because we summarize articles of 20-40 pages in about 2 pages, it requires us to well understand the articles and pick up the main points. Each article is summarized by the student who volunteered to do so beforehand. Each student is responsible for uploading the summary on the blackboard 24 hours before the class and briefly presenting the main points of the article in the class. Based on the summary presentations, we discuss the topic and Prof. Warner navigates the discussion. In total, a student summarizes approximately 3 readings during the semester.

In addition to Article Summary, we have a chance to summarize a book as a team.  Students are assigned to make a summary of a chapter of the book and put the summaries together and present it as a team in the class. I summarized two chapters of “Planet of Slums” written by Mike Davis. The author describes the situations of worldwide slums and policies implemented in developing countries on the initiative of World Bank and IMF in a very pessimistic view. I really enjoyed reading the book.

Theory Paper

We need to argue a question we come up with in the Theory paper (5 pages). The question should be related to the topics we learn in the class such as privatization, regionalism etc. Each student can choose a topic. Students are required to answer the question using the concepts and readings we learn in the class rather than those outside the class so that this paper is review of the theories we learn.

Group Project

Students form groups of 2-5 and research a topic as a group. Final product should be 15-20 pages. We have been working on the project for a month just after finishing the Theory Paper (in the beginning of October). My group is working on Privatization on the road. Three of my teammates are from City and Regional Planning (CRP) so they bring deep knowledge of public infrastructure and different perspectives from mine. It is the most exciting part of team project. At end of the project, each group does a presentation in the class.

Final Paper

Students are required to individually work on the Final Paper due on the end of semester.  Each student chooses its own topic and writes up 15-page paper. We need to submit a proposal to Prof. Warner next week so she can advise us on which direction we should move forward.

While my concentration is international development, this class is a good opportunity to look at and think American public policy.

See you soon!

Keiko

As I touched before, I am taking five courses in this semester. I am going to introduce each course little by little. Today I am talking about AEM 4420 Emerging Markets. This course focuses on analysis of business in emerging economies. During the course, we identify particular challenges and opportunities to emerging markets and discuss how we can address those challenges and opportunities, using case studies.

The course consists of three components: lecture, discussion and assignments. The lecture is taught by Professor Christy on Wednesday from7:30pm to 9:30pm. One-hour discussions are divided into five different time slots. I am joining one at 9:30pm on Wednesdays, just after the lecture.

Lecture

Prof. Christy talks about a topic such as micro-finance institutions, financial markets and crisis, marketing etc. every week. Students are required to read materials related to the topic of the week before the lecture. Although the class size is large – approximately 100 students, the lecture is interactive. Prof. Christy asks us questions and reacts with humor. He explains basic theory of each topic, using examples of products and corporations familiar to us.  

Discussion

The discussion is led by students through presentation. Every week, a team of 3-4 students in the class are responsible for the presentation of a case study. In the beginning of the semester, students are assigned to a case study so that every student in the class needs to give a presentation once during the semester. Based on the presentation, we discuss the case. Most of the case studies are businesses in emerging markets.  

Assignments

Almost every week, we have an assignment – either one page write-up or four-page write up, depending on the week. Students are required to analyze a case study which will be discussed in discussion of the week.  During the lecture, Professor Christy usually introduces us frameworks to use for analysis of an assigned case study. Since writing the paper requires us to understand information given and situations in the case, we can be fully engaged in discussion during discussion section. In addition to the papers, students need to complete a final project (12 pages) at the end of the semester. It requires deeper analysis of an issue related to emerging markets. Since I haven’t decided a topic, selecting a topic for the project is one of my priorities this week. 

While I was struggling with the assignments in the beginning of the course, I am currently enjoying this course.  Since my focus is socio-economic development in developing countries through business/market approach, reading and analyzing business cases is interesting and helpful for my research. 

Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Teams (SMART) Program

I applied for a field study program called Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Teams (SMART) that Professor Christy organizes. I will work on a Kenyan company exporting vegetables and fruits. The program consists of two parts: a field trip during winter break and a half semester course to write up a case study of the company during spring semester. I am going to Kenya to visit the company in January.  I am really excited to go to Kenya again. I will update the progress of the program in January!

Colloquium

Colloquium, a part of CIPA program, is held at 4:30pm on Thursdays. CIPA invites practitioners working on issues related to public affairs. At colloquium, CIPA students wear business casual attire since colloquium is an opportunity to expose ourselves in professional interaction with speakers as well as to broaden our perspectives of issues on public affair. However, we don’t have to be nervous because all speakers CIPA invites are always friendly and approachable. Many students ask questions at the end of and after the lecture. On October 22, we had a wonderful speaker, Prof. John Lowe from George W. Hutchison Professor of Energy Law, Southern Methodist University, talking about U.S. Energy Policy. He is the father of John Lowe, our second year classmate of CIPA, as well. Prof. Lowe talked about how U.S. energy policy has been transformed with growing energy demand and how the policy needs to be balanced with environmental sustainability. Although I am not very familiar with energy and environmental policy, the lecture was easy to follow and makes me interested in the issues.

CIPA-NOLA Discussion

On October 23, Friday at noon, CIPA-NOLA held a first discussion group this academic year. We invited Kevin Triskett, a first year CIPA student, presenting his volunteering experience in New Orleans. He brought up the issue of emergency crisis. From that point, we discussed the role of federal government and local government in the case of emergency like Hurricane Katrina. The discussion moved to how extent federal and local government should prepare for emergency and support residents, and how to balance individual choice with public role in emergency. It was really fulfilling discussion.

Movie Night

On October 24, a movie, "Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai" was played on campus by Cornell's Society for Natural Resources Conservation. This screening is a part of the International Day of Climate Action. We could see how environment has been degraded in Kenya, and how Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, has been fighting for environmental conservation and women’s rights with local women group. Since I went Kenya and worked with some women groups in summer, the movie reminded me of memories of my internship.

As I introduced, there are many seminars, cultural events across campus at Cornell. Most of events and seminars are open to Cornell students. I never feel lack of resources for my academic and cultural stimulus. There are many exciting seminars this week too. The only trouble is that I am often in a dilemma about which seminar I will participate in.

See you soon!

Keiko