I'm a US citizen!
As a Kiva Fellow, I hope to learn how microfinance institutions work and affect the nature of their resulting communities. The process of documenting many different cases and loan situations will provide me with a more nuanced picture of microfinance and will allow me to be more successful in development projects after my time as a Kiva Fellow. I believe my past experiences have not only drawn me to the plight of the poor, but have also framed which solutions I believe to be most effective.
In 2007 I joined Teach For America to teach high school science in Brooklyn, NY. In my work, I’ve seen the effects of poverty on a community. Poor medical care results in eight-hour emergency room waits. Many students will sit in the front of my classroom and squint because they cannot afford glasses. Parents work multiple jobs and aren’t able to provide the level of guidance they want for their children. Very few adults have any kind of post-secondary education; many do not have high-school diplomas. Students do not have the role models to see the direct benefit of a college education.
Consistently, these factors have emphasized one point: improvement only occurs when one is provided both the tools to succeed and the knowledge of how to utilize those tools. In my classroom and as department chair, I emphasize personal responsibility and accountability. Outside of the classroom, I co-founded an organization to help other teachers become more effective in their own endeavors, the Corps Council. Teaching in New York is difficult, and many new teachers are unable to cope with the mental and emotional strains of being placed in such an unfamiliar environment. We provide teachers with this support. In the last year, we have placed $5,000 back into teacher classrooms and provided counsel to 120 first-year teachers.
During the summer of 2008, I took classes at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. I hoped to become more effective in my own efforts and gain greater understanding about where my experience and skills would be best put to use. I was immediately drawn to conversations with employees of an MFI, Acumen Fund, and Endeavor. Although these three organizations attacked poverty in different ways, their methods reflected my own beliefs towards inculcating empowerment and ownership. At the same time, I thought of the potentially transforming power these tools could have on communities. Families could have the finances to provide proper education and healthcare, and over time break their economic shackles. I felt a calling towards international development.
At this point in my career, I’d like to devote my time to studying the effects of poverty and involving myself in one microfinance institution’s attempts to provide solutions. I believe my past experiences will allow me to be successful as a fellow and provide a platform for future work in the development field. For these reasons, I’d like to be a part of Kiva’s KF9 Fellows class.
Tags: New York, United States
