Kalamazoo College Athletics

My Summer

My job this past summer was as a swim instructor at my local LA Fitness for the British Swim School, located in North Brunswick, NJ​. Otherwise, I am currently working on research for my SIP (Senior Individualized Project) in Romania, including conducting interviews with local and national NGOs, and World Bank and UNDP officials, where I will have stayed for a total of around 3.5 weeks when I leave in early September. My SIP is focused on how EU, World Bank, and government support has impacted child poverty in Romania. Also while in Romania, I am spending a week volunteering at Casa Mea, a local NGO that raises orphaned and abandoned children, for my third time. I enjoyed exploring more of Romania, a country that is so fascinating; spending time with the children of Casa Mea; and teaching swimming, something that is always fun in my opinion, and a skill that is often overlooked. This experience directly relates to my Political Science major, since my SIP is focused on the research that I conduct while in Romania. Concerning to my potential future career path, it is highly relevant. I wish to base my future career path around international development, which is essentially what my SIP focuses on. By taking a case study such as Romania's, and studying it in-depth on an issue that is highly correspondent to a country's development, I can use the knowledge I have acquired in analyzing Romania's developments in child poverty and use it to propose solutions to similar problems for other countries (keeping in mind that each country and its difficulties are in need of their own unique, specialized development plans).

What's Next

This final year at K, I look forward the most to playing lacrosse on a team that has seen so much development over the past three years. Having developed as a team, I am very excited to take part in a tight-knit group that has come so far in learning about itself, both on and off the field.