Alethia Jimenez: Inside the UNDP BCPR's Small Arms, Armed Violence and Mine Action Team

IPSS Assignment: United Nations Development Programme
Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery
New York, New York
Spring/Summer 2009

Alethia was born in Mexico and studied abroad in France, Spain, Australia, and Italy. Her undergraduate degree was in economics and statistics at the Rochester Institute of Technology. After college, she worked in an actuarial consulting firm in New York and then moved to Tunisia to work on a short term assignment with a trading company.

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Philip Rush: Field Research in Southern Sudan

Recently Philip traveled to Southern Sudan to perform field research focusing on a number of factors related to security and small arms possession.

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Chile Practicum: Confronting Transitional (In)Justice

Twenty students from the Monterey Institute accompanied Professor Jan Black and Judge Juan Guzman Tapia, most notable for prosecuting former Dictator Augusto Pinochet, on a research tour of Mapuche communities in southern Chile last January. The Mapuche are an indigenous group, comprising about 4% of Chile's total population. Their communities now face environmental, socio-economic, and human rights issues.

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Cambodia Practicum: Challenges to Peacebuilding

Thirteen students traveled to Cambodia last January with Dr. Pushpa Iyer for two weeks of fieldwork entitled “Challenges to Peacebuilding.” They immersed themselves in post-conflict Cambodian society, merging their studied assumptions with grassroots realities. They also met with representatives from non-profit organizations such as The Asia Foundation, World Vision, and Youth for Peace. Professor Iyer encouraged her students to blog about their impressions, intuitions. and research subjects.

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Cory and Craig Belden: Adventures in Southern Sudan

Cory and Craig Belden (MAIPS '10) interned at Action Africa Help International, an organization promoting development and peace-building projects in Southern Sudan. They also worked with the American Refugee Committee (ARC) to conduct research on gender-based violence in the Boma region. They spent the summer interviewing community members, convening focus groups, and distributing surveys.

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West Bank Practicum: Building Community Across Borders

Nicole Ketcham (MAIPS '10), Nikki Hodgson (MAIEP '09), and Kate Holland (MAIPS '10) traveled to the West Bank in January 2009 with the goal of exploring future internship opportunities for our students. They established relationships with officials from Bethlehem University and local organizations.

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Rebekah Hunt: A Summer in South Africa

Rebekah Hunt (MPA '10) interned last summer for the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation and researched the best practices for memorialization, the creation of monuments or memorial sites, in South Africa. She explored how honoring the past educates future generations and, therefore, may transform communities divided by conflict.

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Mawuor Dior: A "Lost Boy" Comes to Monterey

Mawuor Dior (MAIPS '10) is one of the “Lost Boys of Sudan.” After living in a refugee camp in Kenya for many years, Mawuor left Africa in 2001 as part of a US refugee resettlement program. He completed a degree in History and Global Studies at Colorado Christian University before coming to Monterey.

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International Policy Careers

Alumni Success Stories

Glynn Wood

Professor Wood was our Academic Dean and Provost from 1980-1997. He was a member of the faculty at American University, and served as a cultural officer for the US Information Agency in Lebanon, Afghanistan and India. He was a trainer for US State Department's Foreign Service Institute and a consultant on South Asian affairs for General Dynamics, Dupont, General Electric and the US Department of Defense.