In May 2014, the alumni attending their five-year reunion were members of the Class of 2009.  Today, Erin Clancy will kick off the Five-Year Updates from her class.  When I reach out to alumni for these updates, I ask them simply to describe their paths, starting before Fletcher and continuing through their graduate studies to their current career, as Erin does below.  I’ll also point out that Erin was included among Diplomatic Courier’s Top 99 Under 33 for 2013, a special honor.

Pre-Fletcher Experience

Prior to coming to Fletcher, I completed my undergraduate studies in political science at Whittier College and received the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship, which provided a commission into the Foreign Service upon completion of my studies at Fletcher.  I was drawn to Fletcher’s interdisciplinary take on international affairs, its academic rigor, and its place in history as the first international relations graduate school in the United States and the alma mater of many distinguished public servants from countries near and far.

At Fletcher

It did not take long until I hit my stride at Fletcher after finding my groove in a few Culture Night dance performances.  In the classroom, I reveled in Fletcher’s dynamic course offerings on the political landscapes of the Middle East with Vali Nasr, and the practice of international security — seated in the front row no later than 07:40 in the morning — with Richard Shultz.  I also benefited from the longstanding partnership between Fletcher and the Harvard Kennedy School where I studied national security management and negotiations.  Between my first and second year, I completed a summer internship in 2008 at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria as a political officer covering human rights issues and the domestic political opposition.  While working in Syria I began my thesis research on the unbreakable nature of the political-military alliance between Syria and Iran, and the impact of the Syrian-Iranian alliance on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.  At the end of two wonderful years in Medford, I graduated with concentrations in International Security Studies and Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilization.

Post-Fletcher

After graduation, I accepted my commission into the Foreign Service in August 2009.  I arrived at my first diplomatic assignment as vice consul to U.S. Embassy Damascus, Syria in July 2010, where I witnessed the slow evolution of violent Arab Spring protests until security conditions forced us to close the embassy and evacuate the remainder of our diplomatic personnel in February 2012.  My assignment to Syria was quite an introduction to the Foreign Service and it profoundly shaped my personal and professional life.  From Damascus, I served briefly in U.S. Embassy Amman, Jordan to continue working on Syria, and transitioned to U.S. Embassy Muscat, Oman where I was the political-military officer responsible for counterterrorism, political-military, and Iran sanctions issues during the lead up to the breakthrough interim agreement reached by the P5+1 negotiations to halt Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

These days I am happy to be back home in Washington, DC, working to coordinate U.S. policy on North Africa, Syria, and gender issues in the United Nations Security Council.  The highlight of my current role as a multilateral affairs officer is working closely with fellow Fletcherites throughout the State Department, USAID, and other government agencies.  Interagency policy committee meetings at the White House or working group meetings on Syria or Boko Haram have become informal Fletcher reunions.  Having so many Fletcherites around the table on the important policy issues of the day is a wonderful personal reminder of why this institution is so revered in the international affairs realm — Fletcher truly does create leaders with a global perspective.  Not a single day has passed since graduation and my five years in the Foreign Service when I have not felt the direct positive impact of my Fletcher education, nor been so grateful to find community among the talented and inspirational alumni we have all over the world.

Members of the United States’ delegation to the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, London, U.K. Erin Clancy, F09 (left) pictured with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, Victoria Holt. June 2014.

Our next five-year update, and probably the last word from the Class of 2008, comes from Margherita Zuin, who was co-chair of the student Migration Group and conducted interviews for the Admissions Office during her time at Fletcher.  (I can still picture her coming in and out of the office.)  Here’s her update which, like the résumé of anyone working for the United Nations, is loaded with acronyms.

During my years in high school, migration from Africa started to become a common phenomenon in Italy.  It generated a myriad of political and legal debates and cultural challenges, not only in my country, but also in my head.  This is what initially triggered my interest in international law and pushed me, as a student, to volunteer for an NGO assisting migrants from North Africa.

After law school, my passion to see and understand more about the world led me to Ecuador to provide assistance to Colombian refugees and to fight violence against women in Quito for Amnesty International.  I then interned with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with a focus on Italy’s role within the United Nations and development cooperation in Asia and Latin America.  As a paid trainee at the European Commission in Brussels, I focused on food security in African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries before traveling to Jordan for my first assignment with the United Nations.  I joined UNIFEM (the United Nations Development Fund for Women) in Amman, where I implemented programs to support the elections and constitution-making process in Iraq.

These experiences made me realize that I wanted to keep working in international affairs, but also that I wanted to further my understanding of the complex approaches and strategies needed to address them.  I had heard of Fletcher from alumni and, after having an informal interview with Laurie Hurley, the School’s director of admissions, I realized that Fletcher was the perfect place for me.  The combination of academic- and professional-oriented courses was exactly what I was looking for.

My classes and professors at Fletcher taught me skills that I have put into practice since graduation.  My Fields of Study were Human Security, Humanitarian Studies, and Law and Development.  I still refer back to the impressive professional experiences shared in class by Professors Sarkin and Aucoin.  From Professor Church, I learned the importance of always asking the “So what?” question, and I continue to use the gender lens analysis taught in Professor Mazurana’s course.  My summer internship conducting research on formal and informal justice systems in Central Somalia, as well as the fascinating discussions in Professor Johnstone’s “Peace Operations” class on the political, legal, technical, and logistical challenges to deploy and work in conflict and post-conflict situations, were fundamental to my career choice.

Since graduating in 2008, I have been working for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations.  For 2.5 years, I served in UNAMID (African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur) as Associate Gender Officer working on the political process, gender justice, and capacity-building of national institutions.  In 2011, I joined the Standing Police Capacity of the Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions (OROLSI), a rapidly deployable team of experts based in Brindisi (Italy), tasked to start up new operations or assist existing ones.  In my capacity as Legal Officer, I deployed to UNMISS (United Nations Mission in South Sudan) to help with the establishment of the Mission’s Rule of Law and Security Institutions Support Office.  My work focused on addressing prolonged, arbitrary detention, and ensuring coordination of the various United Nations and national actors of the justice chain.

Since May 2012, I have been based at United Nations Headquarters in New York, first as a Judicial Affairs Officer in the Criminal Law and Judicial Advisory Service (CLJAS) of OROLSI, and then as a Political Affairs Officer in the Front Office of the Assistant Secretary-General for Rule of Law and Security Institutions.  The work at Headquarters has allowed me to gain a deep understanding of the political dynamics and decision-making processes in the rule of law area in particular, but also of the United Nations system as a whole.  In the near future, I hope to serve again in the field.

I use the academic knowledge and professional skills acquired at Fletcher every single day.  I can also see the strength of the Fletcher community, not only because so many Fletcher alumni work in the United Nations, but also because creating  partnerships, being committed to make a contribution, and building a sense of community have been essential aspects of my life in peacekeeping, especially in my field assignments.

 Time to check in with another 2008 graduate.  Please meet Darren Long who, like our newest students, was a “Januarian.”

The Fletcher School appeals to a certain kind of person and from the moment I discovered the school, I knew I was one of those people.  Fletcher’s broad, globally-oriented and cross-functional course listing matched my interests perfectly, stretching from agricultural economics to international negotiation to diplomatic history.  The independence allowed by the MALD program would allow me to combine foundational courses with insightful and cutting-edge topical subjects to pursue a truly unique course of study.  And the backgrounds of Fletcher’s students and alumni was proof that it was a gathering place for like-minded individuals.

I joined Fletcher at the beginning of 2007 as “Januarian,” along with about 20 other students starting at mid-year.  We were immediately swept up in class schedules, along with a range of other social events.  My Fields of Study were Pacific Asia and Development Economics, with a particular focus on China, where I had lived and worked prior to Fletcher.  I also found Fletcher’s courses in policy analysis, international business law, agricultural policy, and analytical frameworks to be especially useful.

Following my first semester, I moved back to China for the summer to study Mandarin and prepare for Fletcher’s language requirement.  While there, I connected with Ecom Trading, one of the world’s oldest physical commodities firms, and was offered a position as a commodity market analyst in Shanghai following graduation.  My knowledge of Chinese political economy — which greatly impacts global commodity markets — along with agriculture, economics, and finance, made for a unique set of competencies, developed in large part while at Fletcher, that directly helped me to land the position.

I was able to build preparation for my upcoming professional role into the rest of my coursework at Fletcher, making analysis of the Chinese cotton sector the focus of my thesis, and completing a one-semester exchange program at the China Europe International Business School in the Fall of 2008.  The combination of work and study helped me both prepare better for my career and make use of all of Fletcher’s many resources.

Since graduating from Fletcher, I have worked for Ecom as a commodities trader in China, Australia, and the United States.  On a given day I may work on a deal with a large Asian trade house or U.S. producer; buy and sell commodity derivatives; write a market report or policy memo; analyze futures prices or supply and demand information; examine a sustainability project; or prepare a case for international arbitration.  And it was my experience at Fletcher that helped prepare me for all of these endeavors and more.

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.

Like Jason Taylor, Katy Bondy is an Admissions Office favorite.  I can still picture her working at one of the computers.  Katy’s story will most likely be the last for the 2007 class (unless one of her classmates surprises me with a post) and I’ll be moving along to the Class of 2008 soon after their five-year reunion next weekend.  But first, let’s hear Katy’s story:

Before arriving at Fletcher, I worked in Washington, DC for a few years at a think tank where I focused on the Balkans and Eastern Europe.  It was an interesting job where I learned a lot about the former Yugoslavia, but it was primarily administrative and I was looking for something more.  Fortunately, a good friend at work, who happened to be a 2000 Fletcher grad,was patient about answering all of my questions about international relations graduate schools.  It didn’t take me long to decide that Fletcher was the best fit for me, particularly after I visited the school and was interviewed by a Fletcher-student, Nirmalan, who received his MALD in 2006 and is now completing his Fletcher PhD.

While at Fletcher, I dove into my studies and the Fletcher community.  I naturally gravitated towards courses on International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, and I still use the skills from those classes today:  Focus on interests, not positions!  I also created my own Field of Study by performing analyses on post-conflict countries, such as Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Somalia.  My favorite classes were with Professors Drezner, Martel, Babbitt, Shultz, and Chayes.

I received a great education at Fletcher and I believe it’s where I learned how to think more independently and more broadly.  But what stays with me as much as what I learned in my classes are the bonds and friendships that I formed with members of the Fletcher community.  I fondly remember the late night partying, greasy spoon breakfasts near the Tufts campus, and spending my days studying or writing papers in Ginn Library.

After Fletcher, like Jason, I was also selected to be a Presidential Management Fellow and I joined the Department of State where I worked on reconstruction and stabilization issues.  After spending a few months in Dhaka, Bangladesh for work, I decided to join the U.S. Foreign Service.  My first assignment was in Colombo, Sri Lanka, which I loved, and my present assignment is in Manila, Philippines.

But no matter where I am in the world, the Fletcher network serves me well.  I maintain strong ties with many of the friends I made at Fletcher, but I’m also constantly forging new friendships with other alums I’ve met since graduating.  For me, the connections and bonds you make while at Fletcher are the most important (and the most fun!) aspect of your Fletcher education.

Our next Five-Year Update comes from Amlan Saha, who demonstrates true Fletcheresque qualities in a first sentence that includes words from Serbo-Croatian and Arabic and references to three geographic areas.  His photo adds a third geographic area — it was taken in Guatemala.  Here’s Amlan’s story:

Pre-Fletcher Experience

It all started in 2001, when, over some Slovak slivovica on a felucca in the Nile, a fellow traveler who had just finished work in Ghana as a Peace Corps volunteer enthused about her plans to study public policy in graduate school.  I was already thinking about going back to school, but until then had spared no thought for anything other than an MBA.

Since graduating from the National University of Singapore with a degree in engineering in 1998, I had worked at a national research laboratory, set up an internet/telecoms company, which went bust in 2001 along with the collapse of the dotcom bubble, and then worked for the German engineering giant Siemens.  In short, technology and business summed up my pre-Fletcher professional experience.

But I was also a nerd (still am!) who loved politics far more than sports.  At around the same time that I was giving shape to my graduate school dream, oil prices hit $35 a barrel, climbing about 300 percent in just 18 months.  Listening to the talking heads in the following weeks provided a timely reminder that in the business of energy, geopolitics and regulation were never far away.  I was onto something.

Because my undergraduate degree was in engineering, I still wanted to do an MBA, but the conversation on the boat in Egypt led me to explore programs that brought together public policy, business decision making, and national security.  The possibility of shaping political processes that create rules, regulations, and programs to impact society was exciting.

In 2004, I started attending the Fletcher (MALD) and HEC Paris (MBA) dual degree program.

At Fletcher

The MBA part of my program, which I completed before arriving in Medford, focused on economics and finance.  At Fletcher, therefore, I dived headlong into public policy and international security.

Fletcher’s MALD curriculum was flexible enough to let me to create my own “Public Policy Analysis” Field of Study from the long list of courses on offer.  In fact, the list was so long, all incredibly good and tempting, that letting me choose my own classes was a bit like giving a kid the key to the candy store.  I also cross-registered at the Harvard Law School.

I found Prof. Gideon’s classes particularly valuable.  Skills I picked up in her classes have been extremely helpful in modeling real-life policy conundrums at work since graduation.

Post-Fletcher

After graduating from Fletcher, I joined the strategic energy/environmental consulting firm M.J. Bradley and Associates.  At MJB&A, I assist energy companies to navigate regulatory and market issues, assess economic implications of environmental regulations, and drive wholesale electricity market development.

Uniquely satisfying rewards at work include, among others, having the Chairman of the Environmental and Public Works Committee in the U.S. Senate refer to my analysis when discussing energy legislation and a Congressman use my work as a prop to explain to constituents his support for an energy bill.

I am currently a Vice President at the firm.

I also write (less frequently than I would like to) a blog.