Do you have a piece of advice you would give to your undergraduate self?
Take advantage of study abroad opportunities. While I did participate in a three-week long Art, Architecture, and Design trip to France and Spain between my junior and senior year through University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, my one regret is that I did not do a semester abroad to increase my international experience and understanding of another culture (and possibly language). I think such experiences are valuable to provide perspective and change your thought processes, while also building your ability to go outside your comfort zone to challenge your worldview and become more comfortable in uncomfortable situations.
Can you share a bit about your career path since graduating with an International Studies major?
Following graduation from the International Studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I interned at a small environmental sustainability-focused non-profit in Chicago, until a job board featured a role with a large international non-profit association, Rotary International, which I had had some familiarity with from my grandfather who was a Rotarian in my hometown. I was fortunately accepted for employment at Rotary, and began as a generalist, providing administrative support to our constituents in the western half of the United States, providing organizational policy guidance and training to club and district leadership.
Once I got a better handle on the scope of the programmatic side of Rotary after a few years of employment, I decided to move to more of a specialized role with the Rotary Youth Exchange program once a position opening became available. As a former short-term exchange student myself, I understood the transformational experience of an international exchange program, so I was particularly drawn to this opportunity. I spent six non-consecutive years in two roles with the program, both as a Youth Protection Specialist, ensuring worldwide compliance with organizational youth protection policies for both Youth Exchange as well as Rotary’s other youth-serving programs, and later served as the program’s supervisor, directing strategic planning and program management in tandem with Rotary’s Youth Exchange Committee and staff. It was during this time that I had the opportunity to travel around the world to most continents conducting onsite program evaluations to ensure compliance with youth protection policies, while also offering forums for sharing best practices about program administration. I also presented at conferences around the world about the program, and oversaw two Rotary Youth Exchange Pre-convention meetings at our annual International Convention.
In between the Youth Exchange roles, I also served as a Stewardship Specialist for Rotary Grants, providing financial and operational audits to ensure delivery of services using proper financial management practices. I again had the opportunity to travel abroad to the Philippines and Thailand to conduct onsite operational audits of Rotary grant projects and provide grant management training to our constituents. Since Youth Exchange, I’ve worked with Rotary’s Data Services, managing a team to provide customer support on our members’ data, ensuring compliance with organizational data privacy policy, working with our third-party club management vendors to ensure integration with Rotary’s database, handle any subscription issues for the organization’s official magazine, Rotary, and work with the Internal Revenue Service to update the tax ID statuses for our entities here in the United States and its territories. We also work closely with our colleagues in the Rotary InfoTech Office in Pune, India, and I have traveled to Pune and hosted our colleagues from Pune here in the United States several times over the past five years to provide training.
What inspired you to pursue International Studies, and how has it shaped your career or further education?
I have always appreciated the opportunity to travel abroad and get to know other people and cultures, as it not only helps me to appreciate what we have here in the United States, but also challenge some of my perspective on our own culture and political systems and how we might do things better. I think the part of the International Studies program that most affected my future employment trajectory was understanding the influence of state and non-state actors. I was intrigued by how there could be limits to the power and influence of state political systems and governments in affecting positive change in the world, and in those cases a non-state actor like my current employer, Rotary International, could fill that gap and in some cases have more influence. I have seen this first hand given that we have an association of over 1.4 million members around the world, so having those community leaders on the ground in different countries helps to open doors to humanitarian service work that might otherwise be viewed with suspicion if they were approached by another government or private entity.
A perfect example is Rotary’s efforts to eradicate polio worldwide. In places where polio is still endemic, including the final two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the polio vaccine has been viewed suspiciously by local tribal leaders as a western influence into their cultures. Having local Rotarians in those countries helps to allay such fears, and provides in-roads to some of the most remote areas of the countries where vaccination efforts are most needed. Without my experiences and studies in the International Studies program, I don’t know that I would have recognized the influence of such international non-governmental humanitarian service organizations like Rotary, and that has deeply influenced my career interest to continue to work in the international humanitarian service field.
How did your coursework prepare you for post graduate degree professional life?
I think the interdisciplinary approach of the International Studies program was integral to my post graduate degree professional life. The integration of not only political science, but also economics, business, and other international studies coursework reflected the reality of working for a non-governmental organization like Rotary, as the work that we do is not one-dimensional. We have to contend with the political, cultural, and economic realities of the countries and people that we work with and having that background makes you more prepared to face those realities and come up with solutions working in cooperation with your colleagues and constituents from all over the world.
It is what also led me into my post graduate area of study at the Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology here in Chicago. My area of study was environmental sustainability, and that program also featured an interdisciplinary approach to environmental issues that incorporated economics, business, law, and environmental coursework to contend with the realities of environmental issues not only here in the United States, but around the world. I really think that the integrated approach of the International Studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, helped to make me more successful in my post graduate coursework given that it mirrored this approach to the curriculum.
How did networking play a role in your career development, and do you have any tips for students looking to build connections?
Networking has played a big role in my career development. My first position at Rotary actually came by way of networking, as my (now wife’s) friend was studying at DePaul University’s Nonprofit Management program with a friend of what would become my first supervisor at Rotary. Working through her friend, my wife helped me to connect with her friend’s classmate, who then made a personal reference to my future supervisor. Just by that connection alone I believe is what got my foot in the door at Rotary, so do not overlook any connections you may have, even if they are not directly linked to the role or company itself.
Once I was hired by Rotary, I made it a point to make myself available and connect with Rotary staff in a positive way, which helped to land further roles, as each new hiring manager that I was interviewing with would remark that they were told good things about me from other staff and how I would be valuable to their team. That word of mouth around an organization can work in your favor, so even if you don’t work directly with someone, or perhaps they are not working directly in the role that you want to obtain, just the fact that they can vouch for your reputation with other staff and hiring managers is important to make sure that you make those connections within the organization and keep positive relationships. You also never know when those connections might help make a connection with another person, role, or organization that you never even considered, so the more you network, the more other opportunities will become open to you.
Interview by Molly McCormack
Peer Advisor
International Studies Major