Over the summer, two La Follette School MIPA students traveled to Geneva, Switzerland to study in an international policymaking program.
Avery Bluey
Bluey chose to study in Switzerland and specifically Geneva because of the incredible opportunity the city offered to visit many international organizations all in one place. “Geneva is the center of international policymaking, and the headquarters of the UN and many other international organizations are located in the city,” she says. During the program, Bluey learned about humanitarian actors and systems in the international community, as well as the types of careers the international system offers. Bluey says she is drawn to the field of international policymaking because of the intriguing use of coordination to solve global problems. “There are a wide range of global actors working on international issues and responding to crises, and they have attempted to implement a system through the UN that provides for coordination of actors to more effectively solve these issues,” she says. “In Geneva, I was able to learn more about this system and think about how it could improve.”
In a week-long case study competition, Bluey and her team of students from policy, humanitarian aid, and global health courses were tasked with developing a healthcare plan in a refugee camp to address urgent and long-term needs. “We spent the week working together to implement a comprehensive healthcare plan and presented it to a panel of judges on Friday,” Bluey says. “The judges included our professors and professionals from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and Doctors Without Borders. It was a great experience that allowed us to put our experiences throughout the week together and receive feedback from professionals in the field.”
According to Bluey, her La Follette education prepared her with a solid background in topics of international policy, policy analysis, and economic factors that allowed her to excel in the program. Bluey’s time in Geneva built upon her policy education by providing more specialized lessons and opportunities to learn about the range of humanitarian actors that are working and coordinating to solve problems all around the world. “Being in Geneva, going on site visits, and hearing from professionals expanded my knowledge of the international system and was a unique opportunity to learn from professionals who are doing the work,” Bluey says.
Bluey hopes to work for an international organization in the future and believes that her Geneva experience positioned her well for a future career by providing her with a network of current and future professionals within the field.
Ben Jaccard
Jaccard says he was attracted to the Duke Global Policy Program because it presents an invaluable opportunity to hear the advice
of seasoned professionals that have field experience around the world, living in one place. “Geneva offers an unparalleled chance to engage directly with a host of international non-governmental, multilateral, and governmental organizations, particularly in the humanitarian and global health space,” Jaccard says. “The program’s professional focus allowed me to turn from my academic background toward the beginning steps in my career.” Jaccard’s passion for his work stems from his curiosity about the systems that drive our globalized world, and his desire to contribute positively to the global community by improving those systems.
While in Switzerland, Jaccard was exposed to many different policy organizations that each adopt a different approach to the common goals of humanitarian and global health work. Jaccard says that despite their differences, the need for humanitarian responses centered on human rights with community actors at their core remains paramount. During the program, Jaccard and his group won the policy proposal competition for a humanitarian response in a Ugandan refugee camp that houses Congolese refugees. The team balanced domestic and global interests based on a bio-psycho-social health model to lay out a plan for advancing health outcomes. Jaccard and his team got to present their work to UN and Doctors Without Borders experts. Jaccard says that La Follette courses like international governance were particularly helpful in his experience. “One strength of the MIPA program lies in its flexibility, allowing students to deepen their knowledge of various areas of international policymaking through elective courses,” he says. “I am grateful for the preparation that global health and political science courses gave me for this experience.”
In the future, Jaccard hopes to combine his undergraduate studies in strategic communications with his MIPA degree to pursue a career abroad in the global health or humanitarian fields. Jaccard says he is also very interested in international law and would like to one day attend law school.
– Story by Clare Brogan