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With less than three days until the Class of 2017 gathers to start their celebration with toasts, speeches, and diploma collecting, let’s take a look at the curriculum that Adnan put together for himself in the past two years. We often say (with likely complete accuracy) that no two students ever take precisely the same set of classes in the MALD program and I hope these annotated curricula help make that clear. Note that Adnan pursued three Fields of Study. Only two are required, but many students will complete a third. And also note that Adnan audited two classes. A “certified audit” is noted on the student’s transcript.
Pre-Fletcher Experience
I worked as a staff reporter and later an associate editor at Newsweek in Lahore, Pakistan.
Fields of Study
International Information and Communication
International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
International Business Relations
Capstone Topic
Self Determination in the Context of the Kashmir Conflict.
Post-Fletcher Professional Goals
I would like to pursue a career at the United Nations.
Curriculum Overview
Semester One
International Communication
Social Networks and Organizations – Part I
Social Networks and Organizations – Part II
Global Political Economy
International Legal Order
Returning to school after a five-year gap was exciting, but it also required a great deal of readjustment. With my background in journalism, I knew International Information and Communication was going to be one of my Fields of Study, so I took the core/required class for it and also both halves of Social Networks. International Communication with Professor Gideon, whom I had also chosen as my faculty advisor, was among my favorite classes because of the wide range of topics it covered that I could relate to my work experience. Social Networks offered a fascinating new way of discovering hidden connections in data sets. It also helped me acquire hard skills like using social network analysis software such as UCINET and NodeXL. Looking back, I think opting to complete my breadth requirements in my first semester with foundational classes like International Legal Order and Global Political Economy was a wise decision because it strengthened my base for future coursework in international relations.
Semester Two
Strategy and Innovation in the Evolving Context of International Business
Data Analysis and Statistical Methods
Theories of Conflict and Conflict Resolution
The Arts of Communication
Contemporary South Asia (Certified Audit)
International Business was another interest, and I loved that I had the option of contrasting my IR coursework with such classes. In Strategy and Innovation we studied real-life cases of some of the world’s leading businesses and came up with creative solutions to actual challenges they faced. An important lesson I learned here was how complex problems can be tackled by asking the most basic questions about the task at hand. Statistics offered a great opportunity to sharpen my quantitative skills, and Arts of Communication was a unique experience. Not only did we learn that public speaking, like any skill, can be improved tremendously through rigorous practice, but we got the chance to hear speeches from our classmates and learn things about them we would not have otherwise. In my second semester, I also decided that I wanted to learn about conflict resolution — it’s applicable everywhere and the Field of Study is a Fletcher flagship. The core/required class I took provided a solid base for understanding the roots of a variety of conflicts. Contemporary South Asia didn’t fulfill any of my requirements, but I couldn’t miss the opportunity to study with Professor Ayesha Jalal, a renowned Pakistani historian whose work I had been following long before Fletcher, so I audited it. I’m glad I was able to do it because it was the first time I looked at South Asia, where I had lived most of my life, through an academic lens, and it provided a fresh perspective on my knowledge of the region.
Summer Internship
UNICEF in New York.
Semester Three
Foundations in Financial Accounting and Corporate Finance
Processes of International Negotiation
Nationalism, Self Determination and Minority Rights
Media, Politics and Power in the Digital Age (cross-registered at Harvard Kennedy School)
Cultural Capital and Development (Certified Audit)
Corporate Finance, the core requirement for the International Business Relations field, was the most challenging class I took in my third semester. The syllabus was extensive and the workload rather heavy, but looking back it’s also among the classes from which I gained the most practical knowledge. International Negotiation was also an extremely practical class. In addition to learning negotiation techniques and practicing them during simulations in class, the assignments that required us to rigorously analyze a conflict of our choice and propose strategies for negotiation taught me a step-by-step method of approaching intractable problems. I took Nationalism, Self Determination and Minority Rights purely out of an interest in understanding the cause of modern day conflicts and found my Capstone idea here. Cross-registration at Harvard is a great opportunity we are offered, one I had wanted to pursue since my second semester. Media, Politics and Power in the Digital Age, taught by Nicco Mele who runs the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at HKS, perfectly complemented my International Communication class from my first semester. Whereas the latter was more academic and theory-based, the former looked at current issues in the digital world and linked them to politics. After reading the syllabus for Cultural Capital and Development, I was too intrigued to ignore it, so I audited the class.
Semester Four
Peace Operations
The Historian’s Art and Current Affairs
Introduction to Economic Theory
Independent Study with Professor Hurst Hannum for my Capstone Project
It’s hard to believe my final semester is now over. Time flies at Fletcher, and I’ve hardly had a chance to reflect on the past two years. This semester I completed my Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Field of Study with Peace Operations. What I liked most about it is that it brought together elements of international law, conflict resolution, politics, and history. A guest speaker in one of our classes said, “peace operations really are the arena of international politics.” I couldn’t agree more and feel it’s a great class to take in one’s final semester. Leaving my economics requirement hanging till my last semester was probably not the brightest idea, but with everything else I was trying to squeeze in, it never fit into my schedule earlier. The Historian’s Art and Current Affairs was my favorite class this semester. It pushed me to think critically and place decision makers in context to understand the policies they pursued. I left each session with a life lesson, in addition to some very peculiar facts. Did you know whales are crucial to security?
Why would anyone put off doing something really enjoyable? Though that remains one of the great imponderables, the fact is that Kristen and I love hanging out in the Hall of Flags and chatting with the folks who pass by. And you can be sure that someone will be there, nearly any time of day. Nonetheless, the entire academic year passed before, on one of the pre-exams “study days,” we finally planted ourselves by the front “welcome desk” and snagged students and professors as they went from A to B. We asked each of our conversation partners to tell us something great about their year.
On the particular day we were there, we happened to catch a disproportionate number of MIB students. Also, it was the day when the recipient of the 2016-2017 Paddock Teaching Award had just been announced, and Professor Patrick Schena was on everyone’s mind.
Auyon and Coco, both second-year MIBs
Coco: The most amazing fact about Fletcher life is our access to faculty, for example Bhaskar Chakravorti and Professor Schena. All the professors are so friendly and so nice and accessible, and I don’t think that’s a kind of experience that I could get elsewhere.
(Note that Coco will soon start a job that resulted from a project she completed in her consulting class. Also, she has three papers due and Corporate Social Responsibility is the first on the list.)
Auyon: I would echo what Coco said. For me, it’s also Professor Schena — I took a class with him, he’s the one who helped me get an internship, and he’s my capstone advisor. I enjoyed Professor Jacque’s classes a lot, as well as Professor Schaffner’s Econometrics class. I was dreading it at first, but I really appreciate her approach to the material.
Callie, first-year MALD
I live in Blakeley Hall and I’ve made a group of really really amazing friends, and a great community. I even met my boyfriend, who also lives in Blakeley.
(Callie was taking a break, while writing a paper for her International Communication class. Blakeley has been identified as a rich source of Fletcher couples.)
Anurag, mid-career MA student
(Anurag referred us to this page when we asked for a photograph.)
It’s different for us mid-career students because we come in with very substantial experience, in my case 14 to 15 years of experience. There was a panel that MA students organized last fall, where we spoke about our careers and our collective experience. The people who attended found it very useful. Students like us are available and we offer our best advice. With 15 years of experience in the field, you do learn about life.
I’ve been focused on general management and finance-related courses, both here and at HBS (Harvard Business School). That’s a wonderful thing about Fletcher, being able to take HBS courses. I already have an MBA degree, but still I learned a lot here. At Fletcher, I took Islamic Banking and Finance, and with a world-renowned professor — that’s not something you’ll find in many places.
I have two finals and two papers pending. One final is in economics. I’m not an economist, so I’ll do a lot of studying for that.
Faith, first-year MALD
I think the best experience has been to meet and be roommates with people from all over the world, and to be able to go home after school and keep the conversation going. Not even in terms of country perspective, but also what people study. We all met a little randomly. I have a roommate who studies gender and now I realize I don’t know gender, and I need to take a class to be able to understand it. It’s being able to learn as much when we’re out of class as when we’re in class.
Today I’m preparing a presentation for the government of Estonia, for the consulting class. I’m meeting with Ali to talk about the presentation for the Estonian government on Friday.
Ali, second-year MIB (here to meet with Faith)
What’s top of my list today is last night’s Fletcher Follies, which is an annual event where students show homemade videos about their experience at Fletcher. We gather, we watch them together, and then they’re immediately erased from the record. They were hilarious!
I’m excited about FSIG (Fletcher Social Investment Group) and we’re discussing incorporating it into my class Market Approaches to Development. So I’m looking forward to that, both using some of their methods and maybe we can integrate some of the clients in the class, too.
I’ll be working increasingly with refugee and migrant populations in terms of my research. What we’re trying to do is what Eileen Babbitt calls “building a wider bench.” We’re trying to be sort of a magnet, trying to create a positioning for Fletcher.
Before heading back to our desks, Kristen and I paused to chat with a group that had gathered and had an unusual number of markers on their table. You’ll recognize student blogger McKenzie, I’m sure.
Michael (second-year MIB), McKenzie (second-year MIB), Alexandra (first-year MALD), and Ashray (first-year MIB), AKA the Fletcher MIINT Team!
We’re signing a photo from our MIINT win for Professor Schena. We were talking about bringing him a souvenir from Philly, and our souvenir turned out to be the plaque for the win.
And with that, our annual blog foray to the Hall of Flags was over. We made our annual pledge to spend more time there next year, though it remains to be seen whether we’ll succeed in organizing ourselves to do so.
The 2017 edition of the traditional year-end “Where the Hell is Fletcher” video is here! It really needs no further introduction — you’ll figure it out. Be sure to watch for Admissions’ own Liz at about 3:41, and enjoy!
A clever enhancement to the video comes from almost-PhD-graduate Rizwan, who (having successfully defended his dissertation) took a minute to plot the video locations on a map.
In a previous post, I made a quick reference to the Fletcher Perspectives Gallery, housed online and at the Ginn Library and other offices, but I made a mental note to shine a brighter light on it at some future time. This is the time!
First, the background. At the end of the fall semester, our own Graduate Assistant Ashley took off her Admissions hat and replaced it with a curator’s cap to recruit photos. Students submitted those photos in January, and some were selected for the Spring 2017 Exhibition. The Perspectives Gallery is a time-honored tradition at Fletcher, but perhaps not a consistent one. Given the quality and range of the photos, I hope it’s back to stay! Please enjoy The Spring 2017 Perspectives Gallery, along with these past collections:
Fall 2016 Perspectives Gallery
Spring 2016 Perspectives Gallery
To entice you, check out this photo in the Spring 2017 Perspectives Gallery by Zareera Bukhari.
And also this one, by Hannah Wheeler:
I’ve tucked away links to a cornucopia of different news items, and today seems like a good day to share them. I know you may have caught this information somewhere else, but here it is again — just in case.
Several members of the community have new books. Among them are Dean Stavridis, with his book on leadership.
Fletcher graduate Elliot Ackerman, F03, visited Fletcher to discuss his novel, Dark at the Crossing. Elliot is a Double Jumbo. Here’s the Tufts Now take on his writing.
Here’s a nice interview with Admissions’ own Graduate Assistant, Ashley. She’s graduating soon. We miss her already.
Though he’s not a member of the Fletcher faculty, I found this profile of Professor Daniel Dennett, from the school of Arts and Sciences, to be very interesting. There’s a thread that connects him to Fletcher, in that Professor Dennett’s full title is “Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy and University Professor.”
Also interesting: this article about Mike Balaban, F75. (A good example of how one never knows where a Fletcher degree will lead.)
New this year! A podcast produced by the Fares Center.
Remember Mariya’s post about the Ginn Wish Tree? The Tufts Daily picked up on it, too. And speaking of Mariya, she participated in the annual Faces of Our Community presentation from the Arts of Communication class.
Mediterranean cuisine. Need I say more? Delicious!
I’ll leave the list here. There’s more that I could share, but there’s always another day!
This week, Tufts University released a video to welcome newly admitted students, and particularly international students, to all of its undergraduate and graduate schools. Featuring several current Fletcher students, with Dean Bhaskar Chakravorti the first of the speakers, the video expresses a view that is fundamental to the university, and even more deeply embedded at Fletcher: We all benefit from a diverse international community. Even the mayors of Boston, Medford, and Somerville joined in to reaffirm the welcome on behalf of our host cities.
I hope you’ll appreciate the message conveyed through the video. Fletcher — and all of Tufts University — looks forward to welcoming new international students who will join us in September, and we appreciate those who are already studying here.
Returning to the Fletcher Admissions inbox and the many questions within, Admissions Graduate Assistant Cindy tackles a student life question.
New Fletcher students often wonder how they’ll get around town without access to a car. Have no fear! There are plenty of options available for you to get to and from campus, and also ways for you to get to popular areas in neighboring cities.
Many students live within walking distance of the campus. Depending on where you live, you might be separated from campus by a small hill, but students who live within walking distance are usually happy with their choice.
For those who live further afield, taking public transportation is the most common way to get around. There are dozens of bus lines throughout the Greater Boston area, and it is relatively easy to check out the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) website and figure out the best routes to take from any location. The bus routes that come onto the Tufts campus are the 80, 
94, and 96.
Although it doesn’t come directly onto campus, the best option to go from Tufts to downtown Boston is the MBTA subway train — which everyone calls the “T” — from nearby Davis Square. It takes about 20 minutes to reach the center of Boston, and along the way there are four stops in Cambridge, for those wanting to visit Harvard or MIT. The option to take a bus or subway definitely expands the circle of convenient places to live.
Be on the lookout at the beginning of each semester for a notification from Tufts about purchasing a “Charlie Card.” Students are eligible to purchase a discounted bus-only or bus/train pass at the beginning of each semester, which gives you unlimited rides. Taking the bus or train expands the circle of convenient places to live.
If you would like to cut down on your walking and public transportation time, a great option is to bike to and from Fletcher and around the area. It is definitely a cheaper way to go, and there are plenty of places to store your bike on campus. If you are worried about the safety of your bike, I recommend purchasing a U-Lock and registering the bike with the Tufts Police Department.
If you do have access to a car, students can purchase a decal permit for parking on campus. Parking is limited, however, and students may only park in designated areas around the Tufts campus, so many students think it’s best not to have a car. If you’re in a pinch and need to get somewhere quick, Uber and Lyft are great resources, and they may provide discounted rates for students in areas near the Tufts campus. This is a good option if you are cross-registering for a class at Harvard and happen to miss the bus one day. The campus also has several Zipcars that you can borrow, if you have a Zipcar membership. There’s even a Zipcar in the parking lot directly behind Blakeley Hall dormitory.
Last, but not least, Tufts offers a shuttle service, nicknamed the “Joey.” You can grab the Joey right near Fletcher and take it to Davis Square. It also makes several stops on the Tufts campus.
Despite the usual urban-area traffic, it’s pretty easy to get around the Medford/Somerville/Boston area. Once you have lived here for a little while, you will figure out the best way to get to and from campus, and you’ll travel like a pro!
It’s Marathon Monday! Or, more officially, Patriots’ Day, when the Boston Marathon is run. For many years now, the University has been represented by the Tufts Marathon Team, generally including one or more Fletcher students. This year, John Bidwell, a second-year MALD student will be running. I hope a photo will pass my way.
While I’m waiting for 2017 Marathon pix, I’ll share this lovely photo of Moni and Niko, 2016 graduates and two-year friends of Admissions, when they met up at the finish line. Moni sent the photo along, noting, “We were the only two from Fletcher who ran it, and frankly, it would not have been possible without the support of everyone at the School (friends, faculty, staff, deans, everyone). Truly a Fletcher family to us.”
Photo credit: Ian MacLellan for Tufts University
Many members of the Fletcher community will be watching the Marathon or even volunteering at race stations. It’s a real event in the city.
On a business note, please note that the University is closed today. We’ll be back tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.
