MAIR/MAECN

Robb Woodruff’s Professional & Cultural Experience in Southeast Asia

Singapore is a unique city that offers a cosmopolitan experience in the heart of Southeast Asia. Culturally, it is a mix of neighboring Asian nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. There is a parallel to the New York City metaphor of a “melting pot” of people, religions and cultures. This can be seen especially through all the different types of food that you can find in the food centers.

Shifting from academic life to professional was an adjustment but a welcome one. I worked in the finance department of Pratt & Whitney, an American aerospace firm that produces jet turbines for commercial and government aircraft. My work focused on performing invoice price verifications, asset inventory identification and management and generating comparative tables for hours workers logged. I was fortunate to have supportive coworkers that assisted me with understanding the different tasks and projects that were assigned to me.  I ended each day at 4:50pm which left me time to enjoy parts of the city with some daylight still left.

Robb Woodruff with Singapore program participants
Robb Woodruff (back, 2nd from L) with SU Singapore program participants and Program Director, Professor Gary Lapoint (middle, 2nd from L) plus fellow Maxwell MAIR student, Mark Aludino (middle, 1st from L)

Despite being a small island, there are many areas to explore in the city and always something new to see. Our program group was fortunate enough to travel to Malaysia and Indonesia as well. In Malacca, there were bike taxis decorated in vibrant colors and booming stereo systems. It was fun to see the wide array of taxis, and how the drivers chose to personalize them. Indonesia was a nice escape to a little resort with an amazing beach. The water was piercingly blue, and crystal clear which made leaving after two days even more difficult. All in all, the Singapore program was an amazing experience that gave me professional and culture experience in Southeast Asia.

MAIR Program at the Maxwell School
Singapore Summer Internships Program
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Carol Tojeiro, Doing Business at World Bank

This summer I had the opportunity to join the Doing Business department at the World Bank. Doing Business is an annual flagship report which measures business regulation in 190 economies. Each economy is ranked according to 11 sets of indicators. There are combined into an overall “ease of doing business” ranking.

Read the Report: http://www.doingbusiness.org/en/reports/global-reports/doing-business-2019

I was part of the Registering Property indicator, where I worked with my team to measure the time, costs, and procedures needed to conduct a transfer of property between two local parties. We closely followed the Doing Business methodology, which you can read more about on http://www.doingbusiness.org/methodology.

Working in the Doing Business department was a truly rewarding experience. It did not only enhance my communication and analytical skills but also taught me about the strategies and components that go behind a ranking report. The working environment was also very international, which made me feel very welcome and taught me about other working cultures.

Carol Tojeiro at World Bank

MAIR/MAECN Program at the Maxwell School

Maxwell-in-Washington Program

Carol Tojeiro Featured in Cornell Policy Review

Carol Tojeiro at the UN Migration Agency in Ghana

Jorge Valdebenito, Well Rounded Ed Through Study in China

I embarked on an adventure by spending my Fall Semester in Beijing, taking classes in the School of Public Policy and Management (SPPM), the #1 public policy school in China, at Tsinghua University, one of the most prestigious universities in the world. My class topics included Economics, Development, Governance and International Politics of China, and they were taught by Chinese policy makers and highly influential scholars. My peers in class were a mix of students from different backgrounds, countries and goals, which provided the perfect set up for a world class experience.

My first-hand knowledge in Latin America’s industrial sector complemented my learning about China’s industrial and trade policy, while my master’s study at Maxwell provided me with western economic practices, politics and relations. Therefore, my goal coming to Beijing was to complete a full circle in my academic and professional formation. There is a sea of difference between reading about China and experiencing it: experiencing the country, the culture, the people, the transportation, the day to day, and above all, the food.

Jorge at the “Birds Nest” in Beijing
Jorge on the Great Wall

Beijing is a mega city with more than 20 million people, and the city is connected to the rest of the country by an incredibly advanced and reliably fast train system. This system allows one to travel more than 1,000 miles in just a couple of hours to every corner of the Asian giant.

Jorge in Tianjin

The structure of the semester in Tsinghua allowed me to experience not only the capital, but other incredible parts of the country. I was impressed by the very modern city of Shanghai and the hard-contrasting differences between it and Beijing. As an economist, I was amazed by the development policy of the country, where, for example, in a small rural town called Liyang, located 3 hours to the west of Shanghai. An entire city is being built – “growing like grass” –  while thousands of 30+ floor towers are being built in every direction.

Jorge in front of the Bund in Shanghai

Language was definitely a challenge and a barrier to life in Beijing. However, the fast pace of internationalization of the city and of its people, makes it possible to find a piece of the world in any corner. You just need to look hard enough and pass though the massive pile of bikes parked all over the city.

Jorge with bikes in Beijing
Jorge in Tianjin
Jorge in Tianjin

Jorge Valdebenito is a joint MAIR/MAECN student in his final semester at the Maxwell School.

MAIR Program at the Maxwell School

Tsinghua University, World Partner Program

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Carol Tojeiro at the UN Migration Agency in Ghana

Carol Tojeiro is a joint MAIR/MAECN student who will complete a Master of Arts in International Relations and a Master of Arts in Economics. She will be completing an internship at the Organization of American States in Washington, DC this fall.

This summer, I had the opportunity to intern abroad with IOM, the UN Migration Agency, in Ghana. My decision to pursue an internship abroad was to gain practical field experience with an international organization in a development context. During my internship, I had the opportunity to work on migration and child trafficking related issues, and to travel to different regions of the country.

Following the first week of orientation, along with other SU interns, we travelled to the Brong Ahafo region where we interviewed migrants who returned from Libya, Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, and Algeria. They shared with us the hardships they faced when travelling irregularly, which we later narrated in the iamamigrant.org Campaign. This campaign, spearheaded by IOM, aims to promote positive perceptions of migrants and to combat xenophobia. During the following weeks, we also interviewed potential migrants to learn about their own perceptions and we participated in the Safe Migration sensitization campaigns conducted by IOM and Ghana’s Immigration Service.

During the second half of the internship, we travelled to the Volta region to observe module rollouts and gather visibility materials of the Child Protection and Child Trafficking Prevention Campaign. This campaign, funded by UNICEF and implemented by IOM, educates community members on how to raise a child, about children’s rights, and on the importance of investing in their future. It also aims to reduce child trafficking in the region, given that children are often sold to fishermen when families find themselves in destitute situations.

Overall, it has been a rewarding experience which has provided me with essential skills to pursue a career in the humanitarian field. My most memorable experiences were visiting the Egyeikrom Refugee Camp, the slave castle in Cape Coast, interviewing returnees, and the traditional dances performed by the school children in several of the Volta communities.

Carol Tojeiro wearing the IOM vest at a village in Ghana

Learn more about Survey of Current Issues In African Migration: A Fieldwork Practicum

Carol Tojeiro Featured in Cornell Policy Review

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Maxwell African Scholars Union