Judy Cheng-Hopkins (MIA ’78) has been appointed as United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support. Cheng-Hopkins previously served as Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees in charge of operations in more than 118 countries. The Peacebuilding Support Office helps nations recovering from conflict achieve sustainable peace.
Full details of the appointment can be found on the UN News Centre site.
Each fall representatives of SIPA attend various events so that prospective students can gather more information about our programs. Generally each event is attended by a staff member from the Office of Admissions and in some cases current students and/or alumni will attend. There are two types of events we typically participate in.
First, we attend recruitment fairs. Two associations that sponsor recruitment fairs are APSIA and idealist.org. APSIA stands for the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs. Registration for APSIA fairs is required but there is no fee to attend. You can register by visiting the APSIA site.
idealist.org states their mission as:
Idealist is a project of Action Without Borders, a nonprofit organization founded in 1995 with offices in the United States and Argentina. Idealist is an interactive site where people and organizations can exchange resources and ideas, locate opportunities and supporters, and take steps toward building a world where all people can lead free and dignified lives.
Each year idealist.org sponsors graduate school fairs and SIPA will be attending some of their fairs this fall. Registration for these fairs is also free.
Second, SIPA travels with other policy schools to visit college and university campuses. We are working on a registration page for our college/university visits and expect that it will be available in early September. No fees are charged for attending our college/university visits.
While our travel schedule still is a work in progress, I wanted to go ahead and post it to provide advanced notice on the areas we are likely to visit in the next few months. Events that are listed in black text have been finalized and if a time or location is listed in red text we are still working on the final details. You can access the proposed travel schedule by visiting our recruiting schedule page.
Please also note that SIPA does host information sessions each Monday at 6:00 P.M. and each Friday at Noon. Registration is required and in some cases (i.e. holidays) the sessions may be subject to cancellation so please register as far ahead as possible. To register simply send an email to [email protected].
The first three photos today come from Tim Shenk, an incoming MIA student.
Here are three photos from a trip that I took to Nepal in March 2009:
Rambha Maya Khamcha, her husband Yam Bahadur Khamcha and their daughter Janaki at their home near Tansen, Nepal. The couple participates in an HIV-awareness program sponsored by the organization I’ve been working for, Mennonite Central Committee.
My visit to Nepal coincided with Holi, the Hindu festival of colors. It is a great event, involving a lot of colored powder. A group of kids playfully attacked our vehicle with powder and water balloons on the road between Kathmandu and Pokhura.
Girls break rocks into gravel near Dhading, Nepal. Many families in the area rely on income from crushing and selling gravel, but the girls attend a local school that is trying to prepare them to earn a better living someday.
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The following photo comes from Zaynab El Bernoussi from Morocco, an incoming MPA student.
This picture of a view from Cabo Girão was taken by my father last summer while we were in vacation in Madeira. Cabo Girão is the second highest sea cliff in Europe after Hornelen in Norway. I loved Madeira for its wonderful weather and the beauty of the nature there.
The first two photos come from Denise Lee, an incoming MPA in Development Practice student.
These photos were both taken on December 31, 2008 atop Ololokwe mountain, a sacred mountain to the Samburu people in North Eastern Kenya. This is an area where natural resources are being depleted at ever-increasing rates threatening the natural environment and the survival of wildlife in the region. At the same time pastoralist communities are struggling as their economic development continues to be hindered by ethnic rivalries and insecurity. The obstacles are tremendous, but I felt hopeful when learning about innovative new programs including the Northern Rangelands Trust which seeks to address both challenges by facilitating community-led conservation initiatives that improve human livelihoods, biodiversity conservation and rangeland management.
In the first photo our local Samburu guide, John, looks south towards Mount Kenya. John is employed by a community owned and managed safari operation that offers trips up the mountain with local, experienced guides allowing visitors to experience the high altitude mist forest and panoramic vistas.
This photo shows three young Samburu Moran boys that we met with their cattle in the background. It was striking to see tradition colliding with modernity particularly in the form of the automatic weapons they carried. Samburu Moran boys moving from boyhood into manhood go up into Ololokwe for months at a time to live off the ground and prove their manhood. The area is rife with conflict due to the Somalies and the Boran impinging on Samburu grazing ground.
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The next two photos come from Karina Nagin, an incoming MPA student.
First Photo: Taken at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The tour guide had just finished explaining to our group how important it was to be respectful and not climb on any of the ruins, we then turned a corner to see this group giggling and laughing while scaling the walls for a group picture. They were having so much fun I had to snap a pic.
Second Photo: Taken in a small town outside Bangalore, India. In 2008 I was working in Bangalore and was invited to a weekend function in my colleague’s village. During the all day ceremony two sisters pulled me away to go play in the neighboring sunflower field. It was one of the highlights of my stay.
The first three images come from Jeff Berger, an incoming MIA student.
All three images were taken at the Marcavalle juvenile detention center in Cusco, Peru. Many of the boys there had committed serious crimes, yet the center operated like a strict summer camp rather than a prison. The youth are gradually prepared for reintegration into society through a special education system and hierarchical, merit-based programs.
Image #1 – Morning roll call.
Image #2 – Me and a few of the boys at a holiday celebration.
Image #3 – Two of the boys learning the art of the “field goal.” It took me days to find what may have been the only store in Cusco selling footballs.
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The next two photos were submitted by Bonita Treinen, an incoming MPA-DP student.
This first picture was taken in Lanzhou, China where I lived 2002-2003. I am drawn to signs of community in dense urban environments, and these guys embody that.
This second picture was taken in Thailand, where I lived 1998-2001. There’s nothing special about this picture, except that magic things happen every time I visit this little bay. Last time I was there a school of dolphins came up to play near me while I was out swimming alone.
"The most global public policy school, where an international community of students and faculty address world challenges."
—Merit E. Janow, Dean, SIPA, Professor of Practice, International and Economic Law and International Affairs
