I am applying for the Kiva Fellowship because I want to understand.
I want to build a career that unifies the fields of international development and foreign policy. My eventual goal is to work for the United States government to help my country shape fair and equitable political and economic policies toward the developing world. Working on the ground in developing countries, I want to coordinate with NGOs and local populations to identify those areas of economic infrastructure and civil society in which American assistance can do the most good, fighting to put the financial resources and political clout of the United States in the corner of those who need them most.
For the past few years, I’ve been assembling the toolbox I need to embark on this path. I’ve been learning foreign languages, with a focus on Russian. I’ve spent long periods of time living, studying, and traveling in the post-Soviet world. I’ve conducted large-scale interview-based independent projects in multiple countries, digging deeply into my host cultures and seeking to understand the convictions and dreams of everyone whose path I crossed. Yet even so, I will not be able to gain a full picture of the developing world unless I have experienced it firsthand – and I have no right to formulate policy for places I don’t understand.
And that’s why the Kiva Fellowship so excites me. Kiva would help me attain two of the things I need most to begin fighting from the inside: a deeper understanding of the developing world, and a chance to work on the ground to help Kiva and its Field Partners improve people’s lives. Having worked one-on-one with microfinance professionals and social entrepreneurs in my current job, I’ve become fascinated with the potential of microfinance, not simply to lift needy people out of poverty, but to provide them with the boost they need to do it themselves. Through on-site work with Kiva’s Field Partners, I would have the rewarding opportunity to meet with dozens of individual borrowers and help them pursue their own dreams, in the process gaining an inside perspective on microfinance and building a repertoire of best practices for my future career. On the ground, I would use my strong writing, interviewing, and foreign language skills to connect borrowers in my host country with lenders at home, furthering Kiva’s mission and facilitating the connections across cultures and classes that I believe are crucial to creating an equitable global society. I can think of few ways to do so much good while coming to so complete an understanding of the country I am working to help.
In short, I am applying for the Kiva Fellowship because I want to understand – and, having understood, to bring my knowledge home and use it to help create a more equitable world.
The Pennsylvania state flag.
