Five-Year Updates: Meet Kallissa Apostolidis F’08

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.

Kallissa2Having 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!

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