First-Year Alumni: Dallin finds his new career path
Unless an additional report surprises me by popping into my inbox, today we’ll close out the updates from the Class of 2015. The final word comes from Dallin Van Leuven, whose post-Fletcher job didn’t appear immediately after graduation, but was the right opportunity when it did arrive.
Greetings from Beirut!
The year following my graduation may have taken me halfway across the world, but it has carried my career a lot further. Granted, the job search was longer and more difficult than I anticipated, but Fletcher was a big help throughout: from helping me leverage the networking I had done while in Boston to find open positions and get interviews; to receiving (at times last-minute) support from the Office of Career Services on my CV, cover letters, interviews, and salary negotiations; to giving me consultancy opportunities while I looked for the right job (or any relevant position, for that matter).
One perfect example of this support would be the continued mentorship of Professor Dyan Mazurana. We, along with fellow Fletcher alumna Rachel Gordon, finalized our collaboration on a book chapter, “Analysing the Recruitment and Use of Foreign Men and Women in ISIL through a Gender Perspective,” which was published in February in the book Foreign Fighters under International Law and Beyond. Moreover, Professor Mazurana nominated me for a Visiting Fellowship with the Feinstein International Center. There, we were able to continue working together on an important issue: conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence in African conflicts. I will forever be grateful for the support Fletcher’s staff and faculty have given me both during and after my time there.
Most of my last year was spent in my home state of Idaho. It was a great opportunity to be with family and old friends in a beautiful place while I searched for that elusive first post-Fletcher job. Before starting my MALD, I worked in education in Egypt. Not long after I arrived, the Arab Spring came to Egypt, and it cemented in me a desire to work in countries experiencing conflict and transition, focused on alleviating the negative effects of conflict. Fletcher, for me, was the perfect place to make that adjustment in my career’s trajectory.
With luck and perseverance, I finally found it. After New Year’s, I moved to Lebanon to begin work with Search for Common Ground, the world’s oldest and largest peacebuilding organization. Here, I work on projects designed to build a stronger civil society and better social relations across dividing lines. I research conflict drivers and lessons learned from similar projects, sometimes advising on programs in other countries or on the design of future initiatives. I love it!
As a testament to the reach of Fletcher’s network, I was able to talk with a Fletcher colleague who interned here last summer to figure out if the office really was a place I would want to work. I’ve been able to “pay it forward” by helping facilitate a new Fletcher student’s interview; she started her internship here last month. I run into Fletcher alumni all of the time — through work, at social gatherings, and as they pass through Beirut. In fact, while standing in the visa line during my first arrival to the city, I ran into someone I graduated with who is also living and working here. The most remarkable of these meetings was definitely with a very successful alumna who is working for peace here in the region. She beamed at hearing I was a fellow graduate and happily exclaimed, “Fletcher ruined my life!” Thanks to her experience as a student, she left a successful career in the private sphere to pursue a successful, but more challenging, career in peacebuilding.
While “ruined” probably isn’t the term I would normally use, I can certainly agree with the sentiment. Thank you, Fletcher, for “ruining” my life and putting me on the path I am on now!