Kirsten Zeiter

Activities involved in at Fletcher

• The Gender Initiative
• Student Council
• Global Women
• Fletcher Performing Arts Club
• The Los Fletcheros

Education before Fletcher

• BS, Women and Gender Studies, Political Science, Grand Valley State University

Experience before Fletcher

• Youth Development Volunteer; Gender and Development Committee Member, Peace Corps, Taroudant, Morocco
• Grants and Outreach, WGVU Public Media, Grand Rapids, MI
• Special Projects Chair – V-Day Campaign and The Vagina Monologues, Women’s Center, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

Languages

• Moroccan Arabic
• English

On the diversity of the community: Fletcher students are wonderfully diverse, not only in terms of citizenships and languages spoken, but also in terms of their experiences, interests, and perspectives. I’ve found that a casual conversation with a Fletcher student can quickly become a fascinating dialogue about their experience working in Afghanistan, their research paper on migration in Latin America, or their perspectives on feminist advocacy organizations in India. Its because of conversations like these that a 5 minute walk to the library can easily take me 30 minutes or more, as I stop to talk to my colleagues and friends from around the globe.

What has surprised me about Fletcher: Most people enroll at Fletcher expecting that there will be ample opportunities to grow intellectually and professionally, but I have been astounded by how quickly that has become a reality for me in my short time here. For example, I recently had a day during which I had the opportunity to ask Nobel Laureate Mohamed ElBaradei for his perspective on the intersection of gender, civil society, and democratization in the Middle East, and later had the privilege of presenting at a workshop at Harvard about Egyptian feminist writings on gender and health. Experiences like these continue to reaffirm my decision to come to Fletcher, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of my two years here has to offer.