This month, I've been living the life of a student again. Every day, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., I'm in class with 13 other graduate students in a program through Boston University's School of Public Health's Summer Institute Program.
The course is a one-month certificate in "Managing Disasters and Complex Humanitarian Emergencies." My classmates are from around the U.S. - and one even came from Ethiopia just for the course! They are all interested in relief and development work on an international scale - and the course has been fantastic. Most of the students have international experience - the Peace Corps in Asia, teaching English in East Africa, doing health surveys in Kenya, working with an NGO in Paris, and more.
The program has taken us an inch deep and a mile wide through the wide world of humanitarian work - landmines, mental health, UNHCR, water/sanitation, nutrition, communicable diseases, field management, donors, and on and on. We just have one week left before I head to work, and I've learned so much in just three weeks! I'm looking forward to starting to use some of the knowledge when I return to my job - and it's also made me continue to think about the possibility of returning to school in the near future.
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