Building a Career Rooted in Equity, Community, and Action

Across three non-profit organisations, The Task Force for Global Health Inc., the International Rescue Committee, and the Environmental Voter Project, I have supported global health policy, humanitarian aid operations, and grassroots civic engagement. Each experience developed a different skill pertinent to global development operations: the ability to manage data with precision, communicate across cultural contexts, coordinate programs under pressure, and connect individual stories to systemic change. Together, they form the foundation of my practice as an emerging development professional.

I believe the most important education occurs when encountering the unfamiliar. Participating in the International Student Exchange Program at Massey University in New Zealand gave me academic grounding in cultural anthropology, development studies, and independent ethnographic research, all while teaching me how to build community and think critically in an entirely new context. An earlier immersive program in Belize, where I collaborated asynchronously with students of Galen University on deforestation research in post-colonial settings, reinforced my commitment to global learning that is accountable to local realities. These experiences sit alongside a lifetime of connection to Dominica, the Caribbean island I call home, where community, culture, and collective resilience have shaped who I am.

My academic work has always been driven by a single question: how do power and history shape the conditions people are born into, and what does it take to change them? My senior capstone research examined foreign intervention in Haitian governance through post-colonial and post-development frameworks, tracing how external influence reshapes social structures and developmental autonomy. My coursework across sociology, anthropology, and Africana and Asian history has given me the theoretical vocabulary to analyse inequity and the conviction that analysis is only valuable when it leads somewhere.

Since 2022, I have been an active member of the Atkinson Village Council in Dominica, attending monthly meetings discussing education, infrastructure, and resource accessibility, and supporting the promotion of the community’s annual heritage festival. In Atlanta, I volunteer regularly with the Atlanta Community Food Bank, supporting food distribution and inventory management for families in need. I have also contributed to voter mobilisation efforts through Black Voters Matter phone banking, and supported food drives and community outreach through Lifting Our Voices at Agnes Scott. Each of these commitments reflects the same belief: that showing up consistently for your community is one of the most meaningful things you can do.

As a Resident Assistant for three years, I built community among 100+ first-year residents, facilitated partnerships with off-campus organizations, and, in my final year as the RA of the Service Living-Learning Community, designed and delivered programs that connected students to meaningful service and reflection. As Secretary of the Caribbean Student Association, I overhauled the organisation’s entire project management infrastructure, grew our programming budget through grants and donations, and helped produce a week-long Carnival celebration that drew over 300 participants. As a Career Peer, I supported fellow students in navigating job searches and telling their own stories with confidence. In each role, I was motivated by the same thing: a belief that strong communities are built intentionally, and that leadership means investing in others as much as yourself.