Bob Christen is surveying the students in his development finance class about their most recent assignment: a five-page concisely written policy memo containing analysis and recommendations on a specific financial proposal. 

The students had earlier completed a series of one-page policy memos, and Christen is exploring with the students whether the longer memos are more effective or easier to prepare.

Christen considers the ability to write such a document an important practical skill for anyone interested in working in the NGO sector. Using memo writing as an assignment tool combines his subject expertise with his real-world experience, one of the benefits a professor of practice brings to the Maxwell School classroom.

“He wasn’t just teaching the theoretical aspect of the course but empowering you with skills you need if you were to start working in a development agency,” says Odunayo Arowolo ’13 MAIR/Econ, who took the course in fall 2012. “He wants you to be able to hit the ground running.”

A year later, Arowolo is a program manager at the Boulder Institute in Syracuse. Since May, she’s managed the microfinance training program in Turin, Italy, where she puts those skills to use marketing and organizing the three-week program, including managing course content, faculty, and course-selection and advisory services for the 182 participants.

Working for an international organization involved in addressing poverty through financial inclusion is a dream job for Arowolo, one she never expected to find in Syracuse. “This is a very well-known organization but it was an outlier here in Syracuse,” she says.

Which is what makes it all the more valuable for Maxwell students. “Our students want to work in international NGOs, which often means going to New York, D.C., or overseas,” says Ross Rubenstein, chair of public administration and international affairs. “That’s fine, but it’s really fantastic to have the opportunity to work at an important NGO while still on campus and taking classes.”

Sam Giber ’13 BS (Econ) and Sichu Mali ’13 MAIR both interned with the Boulder Institute last summer with support from Boulder’s grant from the MasterCard Foundation. Giber had just completed a bachelor’s degree in economics, having written his senior thesis on microfinance. He spent the summer rebuilding the organization’s website and helping craft a social media presence, an effort to develop platforms to build an online alumni network.

Giber also had the opportunity to attend Boulder’s microfinance training program in Turin and complete the certificate, providing operational support to the program outside the classroom.

“The classroom environment in the Boulder Institute’s programs is extremely dynamic,” says Giber, now an analyst at the Argo Group, an international specialty insurance underwriter in Manhattan. “I was able to sit with microfinance practitioners from all over the world and that is an experience that just can’t be duplicated.”

Mali had just completed the first year of a master’s in international relations when she landed an internship working on the MasterCard financial inclusion seminar held in Turin in July. “I did a lot of work related to the logistics of the event -- phone calls inviting people to attend, drafting e-mails to remind people of their travel arrangements, just making sure everything ran as smoothly as possible,” she says.

Detail-oriented by nature, Mali says the assignment honed her skills to a new level. “Working and collaborating with people in a multicultural setting can be challenging but it was such a positive growth opportunity for me,” she says of her internship. “My colleagues were honest about giving me the best feedback to improve. I’m sure that’s going to help me as I pursue my career.”

By Renée Gearhart Levy

This article appeared in the winter 2014 print edition of Maxwell Perspective; © 2014 Maxwell School of Syracuse University. To request a copy, email maxwellperspective@syr.edu.