I am originally from South Korea and I majored in advertising and PR in my undergraduate degree. I started my career in the private sector, working as an Assistant Brand Manager at Coca-Cola and as a Fashion Merchandiser at Gap, Inc. Working for large multinationals was initially very exciting, but as I gained more experience I learned more about global business structures which require many sacrifices from underdeveloped countries. Naturally, I started to develop an interest in the structural challenges facing developing countries. This interest drove me towards the MPA in International Development. I am very excited about my career change and working to design public policy for developing countries.
One of the things I have enjoyed most during my 1st year on the MPA is working on group projects with diverse MPA colleagues from across the world (I have actually counted the number of different nationalities of people I have worked with, it came to 13!). In the early stage of the process it was not an easy task for us to align our thoughts and come up with one voice. However, as time went by, we learnt how to enrich our knowledge by exchanging our views in order to draw the best solution for tackling policy issues. This training has made me more confident working with people from different cultures and consulting complex social issues with an analytical mindset. This helps students to learn not only from their tutors, but also from their classmates - perhaps the MPA's best feature.