Opening Our Minds and Facilitating a Greater Understanding of Careers in International Development

Claire Amabile, MSW/MPH 2023

Amanda Caswell, MURP 2023

After a week in Washington D.C. attending UCLA’s Global Public Affairs’ (GPA) global careers meetings, we are left feeling optimistic about our ability to create tangible, sustainable, and effective change on a global scale. Our trip to Washington D.C. offered insights into the ways in which our varying interests of law, environmental justice, violence and war and conflict overlap and interact, and how these challenges can be tackled through a variety of professional career tracks. The opportunity to listen to and learn from the various UCLA alumni that spoke throughout the different presentations opened our minds to the possible professional avenues that we will be able to pursue after graduating from UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs with certificates awarded through GPA. While we are currently studying different degrees – one MSW/MPH and one MURP – this week facilitated our understanding of how our educational experience at Luskin is providing us the skill sets to be successful in the ever-connected global world. 

We are incredibly fortunate to have been given the opportunity to speak with UCLA alumni who now work for organizations such as Namati, USAID, Millennial Challenge Corporation, and the Accountability Lab. The presentations offered insight into how, upon graduation, we may be able to have quite an impact on improving the health and wellbeing of others at the global level. While global work is inherently immensely diverse, GPA’s global careers meetings in Washington D.C. highlighted some of the ways in which varying systems of oppression deeply interact with one another, and that to tackle one area of marginalization is to tangentially tackle others. Overall, this trip demonstrated that there are plentiful opportunities to pursue careers that will have lasting impacts on communities that have historically been impacted disproportionately by different social, legal, economic, and environmental problems. 

Leaving the hustle and bustle of Washington D.C. behind, we returned to Los Angeles feeling inspired to continue our journey of fighting for social justice at the global level. While we are and will continue to be pursuing different academic and professional fields, Amanda in climate justice work and Claire in violence prevention, we know that our work heavily intersects with one another. We are endlessly appreciative of the opportunity to have joined fellow GPA students this global careers program in Washington D.C., and for the chance to converse with the alumni presenters. We look forward to utilizing the networking opportunities we were given to (hopefully) secure a summer internship or future employment with one of the amazing agencies we spoke with during this trip.