One more November visit with the Class of 2008.  Today, let’s learn what Kallissa Apostolidis has been doing in her five years since graduating from Fletcher.

Having graduated with a Philosophy degree from Smith College (2004), I returned to Greece and worked at a think-tank, called the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), and at the Press Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then I went on to do a paid internship (stage) at the European Commission.

With this professional experience behind me, I entered Fletcher and focused on International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and International Security Studies.  All the courses were excellent and I vividly remember classes with Professors Babbitt, Drezner, Chigas, and Aucoin.  During my last semester, I was naturally preoccupied with what to do after Fletcher and engaged in long discussions with fellow students and professors.  These discussions and exchanges helped me narrow down the organizations and institutions I wanted to target in my job hunt, and led me toward Interpeace.

Interpeace is an international peacebuilding organization based out of Geneva, with 18 programmes throughout the world.  It started out as part of the United Nations.  In 2000, it became an independent organization maintaining a unique partnership with the UN, which allows it to use both identities and to implement programmes either as Interpeace or as the UN.  I joined Interpeace’s team in Geneva in December 2008 with a UN contract as a Programme Assistant, supporting our local teams in Liberia, Cyprus, and Israel.  In my position it was very interesting to see the strengths and weaknesses of both institutions: the UN and a much smaller, more flexible NGO.  Having stayed in that position for about two years, I then became Programme Officer for the Mediterranean and Middle East programmes.  Currently I am based out of my hometown, Athens, and travel more than 50% of my time to visit our programmes.  A core value of Interpeace is to have local teams in each country lead the peacebuilding programmes, and my role as Programme Officer  is to support the teams in the  region on all issues: fundraising, donor relations, programmatic strategy, administrative support, financial management, and policy and learning.

When I first joined Interpeace, I was the only Fletcher graduate, but I am happy to report that we have added two additional alumni and our forces now number three!

I’ve let a month slip by since I introduced the first member of the Class of 2008 to be profiled.  Continuing with the updates from this class who graduated just over five years ago, let me introduce Carmen Arce-Bowen.  I can remember working with Carmen during her application process, so it’s amazing to me that it has already been five years since she was at Fletcher!

I have always been very interested in learning about other cultures, their traditions, their food, their history and their language.  I come from a medium-sized town in Northern Mexico.  Most of our exposure to other cultures is only to the U.S., because of our proximity to it.

I was part of the Rotary Club Youth Exchange program after I graduated from high school.  I spent a year in Germany learning its culture and language.  This experience definitely solidified my desire to live in another country and be part of a multicultural and transnational community.  After my year in Germany, I returned to Guadalajara, Mexico to study law in a five-year undergraduate program.  While studying there, I met my now husband … who happened to be from Massachusetts!  We got engaged during my last year of law school and moved to Boston in the summer of 2005.

While in school in Mexico, I interned at the Economic/International agency of the state, at the National Immigration Institute, and at a local law firm.  At that time I wanted to study law in the U.S. to become an immigration law attorney and work with the Latino community.

I applied to LL.M. programs and to Fletcher, hoping eventually to complete both programs.  I learned about Fletcher from a good friend of my husband who had graduated just a few years before.  I was admitted to two LL.M. programs, but not to Fletcher.  I decided to attend one of the LL.M. programs and re-apply to Fletcher the following year.  I wanted to study policy and development, and take a more macro-level approach to immigration and other economic and social development issues.  Fletcher was my top and only choice for a policy graduate program.

I started the MALD program in the summer of 2006.  My Fields of Study were Development Economics and Latin America.  I interned at a local international development agency called Grassroots International for a summer and throughout one academic year.

My experience at Fletcher was an intense and very rewarding one.  Classes were definitely challenging, with all sorts of assignments, mid-terms and presentations.  But sometimes I just couldn’t believe that I had the opportunity to simply hang out and chat with my classmates (and professors) — all well-rounded, down-to-earth, smart people.  We came from different paths in life, but we all had the same desire to learn and change the world.

During my second year, I became president of the Latin America club.  We organized 10+ events with a budget of $500!  One of the events included all the Latin American consuls in the Boston area.  The consuls were grateful for this invitation and said that it was not very often they happened to be in the same room together.

Right after graduation, I worked for three years at a local non-profit organization doing economic and social development work.  We organized revenue campaigns, and trained grassroots groups on the importance of civic engagement, on government transparency, and on tax revenues in the state.  I did it all, from talking to the media, to training members of local unions, to writing blogs, to drafting grant proposals and grant reports.  I was also very involved locally in three nonprofit boards and as a member of the Commission on the Status of Women.  Networking has definitely been a key part of my professional development in Boston.

Two years ago, I came to work in the office of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick as Director of Personnel and Administration.   In the personnel office we oversee applications for justices of the peace, notaries public, and public administrators in the state, along with one-day marriage designations.  We also oversee the internship program for our office and run background checks on all high level managerial hires in the state.

My experience at Fletcher was one of the most rewarding of my life.  It shaped how I see the world, how I interact with my colleagues, and how I see life through the lens of global understanding.  I can only hope that I can pass all this experience to my three-year-old daughter – who hopefully will become a Fletcherite, too!

When we last featured five-year updates, it was members of Fletcher’s Class of 2007 who described their paths since graduation.  But another class graduated last May, and now we turn to the Class of 2008.  Kicking off the new year for this feature is Adria Chamberlain who has taken on a pivotal role in bringing together members of her own graduating class, as well as other alumni in the Boston area.

We all want to change the world for the better, right?  Leave that lasting mark; help people, organizations, and cultures redefine the concept of neighbor; dramatically improve the opportunities of those who may have extremely limited ones, right?  Right.  The question is, how are you going to do it, and what do you need to get you there?  The answer: Fletcher.  Fletcher produces a feast by taking what you’ve done, challenging your notions of what should be done, and blending it together with others who are similarly driven and knowledgeable, and who come to the table with myriad experiences.  It’s a feast from which you can draw unlimited nourishment both during and after your time in the Hall of Flags.

For the years between college and Fletcher, I worked in private practice immigration law — mostly on asylum cases from around the world.  I found my job extremely valuable and rewarding, but was getting frustrated doing work that didn’t affect the system creating the nightmare situations these asylees had had to live through.  I chose an international affairs graduate school because I wanted to play a role in improving systems, rather than administering band-aids to consequences.  Thankfully, that is exactly what I get to do now.  I chose Fletcher because it was the very best at the factors that were important to me about graduate school.  I knew it was an incomparable feast.

My concentrations at Fletcher were Human Security Studies and Leadership Studies (self-designed).  Through research and in-depth interviews of leaders at the highest levels, my thesis examined leadership differences and similarities across the public, private and nonprofit sectors.  Their insights and my learnings continue to aid my leadership trajectory today.  I also organized the annual ski trip, and now serve as the Class of 2008 Reunion Chair.

After grad school I became a Chief of Staff on a U.S. Senate campaign in Massachusetts, then went on to join New Profit Inc. where I work on a rotation of special initiatives on behalf of the founder and Executive team. New Profit is a nonprofit social innovation organization and venture philanthropy fund headquartered in Boston.  We invest significant growth capital in a portfolio of social entrepreneurs, work to scale their impact and drive systemic change in areas such as education, workforce development, public health, community development, and poverty alleviation.