DC is a really cosmopolitan, diverse, and also troubled city with some really fascinating opportunities for students to get involved. So whether it's in public health research, the crossroads between sexuality, and health education, or in my own field research on environmental justice and environmental racism.
I work with a federally qualified health center, called La Clinica del Pueblo. I've been able to involve many SIS students to connect with and identify with a community that's local to them, also to work on issues of migration and how migration affects health.
I have really been able to make that connection between the local and the global-- working with this population. I was really able to bring that experience and that knowledge from research with Nina to now apply to my current position and really understand what the impact of our projects really is.
Every master's student in SIS completes a capstone research requirement called the practicum on a problem that connects our research emphasis with the kind of training that our master's students need to be thought leaders and practice leaders. For the last almost a decade now, I have been taking students to the Middle East, and working on water recycling and sustainable agriculture programs with partner organizations on the ground.
And we have partnerships all over the world-- And these partnerships are also in international affairs schools.
We've had students go to Lima, Peru, to study at a diplomatic academy there. Students studying international development in Geneva, Switzerland. Students have gone to the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica, looking at peace and conflict resolution, human rights.
We try to push our students out of the building and take advantage of what's going on in the city. Move abroad-- bring people to us and give people a really connected experience.
