Alumni Today IRD

"The American Graduate School in Paris set me up for success in an international career.

I grew up in Morehead, Kentucky, in the Appalachian foothills. You may know Morehead from its infamous resident, Kim Davis. Let’s just say that, with a population of around 8,000 residents, Morehead isn’t exactly “international”. After obtaining my Bachelors of Political Science from the University of Louisville, I sought a Master’s program that would truly prep me for a global role. I studied abroad in Spain and India during my undergraduate tenure and was interested in foreign affairs and international development. My time in India was particularly impactful, introducing me to the effects of extreme poverty on the lives of children and families.

The American Graduate School in Paris prepared me in very tangible ways for my future opportunities in the non-profit and for-profit sectors. From gaining proficiency in the French language to conducting thesis research, receiving professor mentorship, and having access to stellar networking opportunities, my time at AGS was highly valuable. Two experiences that helped shape my time at AGS included my internship at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the wonderful guidance I received from Dr. Ruchi Anand while writing and defending my thesis on the privatized military industry. 

After graduation I worked for an international non-governmental organization for 5.5 years called Hope for Haiti. Based in Naples, Florida and Les Cayes, Haiti, the organization works in rural Haitian communities on sustainable development in five core program areas: education, healthcare, clean water, infrastructure, and economy. I lived in Haiti for over four years and occupied various roles within the organization, most recently the Chief Program Officer role. During my time with the organization we subsidized the education of over 6,000 children, provided primary healthcare to 12,000 people annually, installed dozens of computer labs, constructed basic roads to two rural communities, and invested in multiple Haitian-owned social businesses. 

I’m now an Executive Client Manager at Gartner, the world’s leading IT research and advisory company. I work with our amazing team of Executive Partners and world-renowned Research Analysts, to deliver key technology-related insights to public and private sector Chief Information Officers and IT leaders in Eastern Canada. Gartner, a truly global company, has over 13,000 employees worldwide with clients in 90 countries.

While I’ve added artificial intelligence and blockchain to my list of interests, I maintain a strong commitment to global poverty alleviation, foreign affairs, and the impact that technology access can have on the lives of the underrepresented."

Since graduating from AGS in 2016, Ahmed Samy Lotf has started a rich and diverse journey in the humanitarian sector, gaining experience with all three types of organizations that are major players in the field: an NGO, a governmental agency, and an intergovernmental organization.

Ahmed first volunteered with the NGO ERCI (Emergency Response Centre International) in Greece to help refugees. There, he participated in developing an educational program in Thessaloniki, and assisted in an emergency rescue program on the Island of Lesbos.

He went on to do a six-month internship at the UN World Food Program's Regional Office in Cairo, in the Government Partnerships and External Relations Unit. His work focused mainly on reaching out to donor States to help refugees from countries undergoing war or other types of crisis situations in the Middle East. He was specifically in charge of conducting research and policy analysis in support of fundraising campaigns, as well as reporting on the projects funded and implementing the global forecast exercise.

When his WFP contract ended, Ahmed joined USAID in Egypt, where he switched his focus to local development, helping in decentralization and fighting government corruption.

Ahmed is currently back in Greece helping refugees though ERCI, and will soon return Egypt to join UN Global Compact as a project associate, working on integrity and anti-corruption in small and medium-sized enterprises in the region.

"I have tried my best to continue following my main career goal of 'helping the unfortunate, being the voice of the unheard, exerting efforts and energy for vulnerable populations and minorities'. This goal was the main reason why I quit my well-paid job in the corporate sector in Turkey after two years to start my Master's program at the American Graduate School in Paris."

Ahmed Samy Lotf with the World Food Program's staff at his farewell party in Cairo:

Dr. Elizabeth Milovidov, who earned her Ph.D. at AGS on the subject of online marketing of children for adoption, has become a world-renowned expert in children’s rights and digital parenting, consulting with the Council of Europe and various governments and organizations.

Dr. Milovidov is a member of two Council of Europe’s expert groups that are in charge of drafting guidelines or handbooks for EU member States: the Expert Working Group on Digital Citizenship Education, and the Drafting Group of Specialists on Children and the Digital Environment (CAHENF-IT). She co-edited a book on bullying that was recently published by the Council of Europe ( link). Her Internet Literacy Handbook will also be published shortly.

Among Dr. Milovidov's most recent speaking activities, on April 27th, she moderated a panel at the Google headquarters in Dublin, bringing together representatives from the European Commission and the Council of Europe. On May 31st , she will speak on digital Parenting at the Azerbaijan government. She also is on a team that is creating a National Online Child Protection plan for Morocco.

A lawyer from California, Elizabeth Milovidov joined AGS in 2005 to conduct her doctoral research on the topic of online marketing of children for adoption, under the academic supervision of Dr. Ruchi Anand. In addition to her consulting activities, Dr. Milovidov teaches Law and Technology, International Legal Systems, Communications Law at ISCOM, and Intellectual Property and Internet Law at INSEEC. Dr. Milovidov is the founder of the website resource Digital Parenting Coach.com as well as the host of The Digital Parenting Community, online support group on Facebook, and she invites all AGSers interested in children's rights, Internet, technology and social media issues to join her in the community.

Miriam Cochran joined an NGO in Iraq last summer, taking a career move that combines her aspirations for humanitarian work with her interest in Middle Eastern issues – which were the focus of her Master’s thesis at AGS. She writes about the journey that took her from the US where she did her undergraduate studies, to France where she earned her M.A. in International Relations and Diplomacy at AGS, to Iraq, on the ground.

“I am originally from the US. I studied International Relations at UC Davis and had wanted to be a foreign policy advisor. I spent a year abroad in Bordeaux as a junior in college, and that's where I confirmed my love of France. I went back to study at AGS and stayed on after I completed my Master’s degree. I have lived in France for nearly seven years and am now a French citizen.

In June 2016, I started a job in Iraq with an NGO, Mercy Hands for Humanitarian Aid, as their Representative Coordinator. As part of my work, I meet with people from different intergovernmental organizations and NGOs on a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly basis: WFP (World Food Programme), UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency), OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), Save the Children, NCCI (NGO Coordination Committee for Iraq), and others.

The first month here was difficult, but slowly I have been learning about the humanitarian situation and how things work (UN, government, international community, local NGOs). It's extremely complicated - more than I could have imagined. As everyone here is preparing for the humanitarian catastrophe that will result from the military operation to retake Mosul, I am finally joining in and trying to participate in the planning.

The information that I learned at AGS in Dr. Habibi's Middle East classes help me to put everything in context. And my methodology class comes in particularly handy when writing grant proposals.

Though I've joined the humanitarian world a bit late in life (people here are very young - especially in the NGO world), people are generally pretty accepting.

Our organization is expanding its fields of activity, and I am hopefully going to help in launching some education and health projects. So many ideas, so hard to get funding. I am glad I am starting with the perspective of a local NGO, because I am sure it is a very different experience working for an IGO or a UN agency.

In the long term, I would ideally like to be working in either protection or conflict resolution/management. At the moment I think I would like to stay around the Middle East, but perhaps eventually come back to Paris and work at an NGO on their Middle East desk.

AGS brought me a great education. I learned so much at AGS from my professors. I feel that I grasped a better understanding of international politics and how the world has evolved, particularly over the last 50 years.”

Update on September 29th, 2017:

"On July 31st, 2017 I started working at Civipol Conseil as a Project Manager. Civipol is a private company that acts as a service and consulting company for the French Ministry of the Interior. An example of the type of work I am doing is managing the administrative and financial aspects of some Ministry civil society protection projects that are funded by the European Commission. This puts me in contact with many people in the Ministry of the Interior (including gendarmes and police officers) in several departments (DGSCGC, DCI, DGGN, DGPN, and more acronyms you never knew of before). I am also working on a European police project involving five countries, which puts me in contact with foreign ministries and police.

My bachelors degree is in International Relations with a focus on secutiry, so my current position is partly due to my educational background (and interests). AGS was a continuation in this area, and thus also supported me in taking this job. I learned a lot at AGS about different types of international organizations, and state interaction with them. I also learned about the European Union and interaction between states within the Union at AGS, but more importantly at the Université de Paris Sud, where I obtained by dual Masters."

Robert Simmons, a Master's candidate in International Relations and Diplomacy at AGS, completed a two-month internship in Tanzania, working with a local NGO supporting homeless children and orphans. Simmons came to AGS with a Bachelor's in English and History from Rutgers University, and a Master's in Social Justice Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a strong desire to devote his future career to the African diaspora at the intersection of education, social justice and intenrational politics. He shares his internship experience and explains how his internship and the AGS program have each helped him make the most of the other.

"This summer I had the opportunity to intern with Kwetu Faraja, an NGO located in Kahunda, Tanzania, Africa. Kwetu Faraja houses about twenty-five homeless or family-less boys currently between the ages 6-23. Kwetu Faraja is a village organization that incorporates a street recruitment to bring boys into their community. Essentially, the process involves going to the streets of the city of Mwanza to search for “street children,” where in our interactions with them we would feed them and talk about their immediate needs and future goals. Many of them see the streets as their only option but many of them also desire to become entrepreneurs, engineers and doctors. Kwetu Faraja invites them to live on their campus, where they become a part of a community and are sponsored (by donations) to attend school.

My title was “Recreational Director.” My responsibilities included interacting with the guys by playing games, tutoring (math and English), learning Swahili, and participating in some of the major day-to-day work of the organization. My hosts wanted me to learn their stories and to share mine. The hope was that the extra supplement will help some of them catch up to the students in their classes, but also that the boys would see, for the first time, a person who looked like them doing well academically. I also spent time researching national and international opportunities for the boys for after they've finished their studies. There are very little options here for them. The job sector in Tanzania caters to an older population and still there aren't many job options. The futures of these youth, and many others, either dim into the darkness of selling oranges or cigarettes on the streets, being flat out homeless, seeking illegal means of work, or (for the lucky small few) leave for the UK or India to never return (what I hear is called "Africa's brain drain").

My first year at AGS has indeed complicated and complemented this experience. At first, I was invited to participate as the summer’s Recreational Director because of my participation in the AGS M.A. program. The organization felt that I had a knowledge base that I could use in understanding the many dynamics that I would encounter. Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa was a phenomenal class (Yates) in which we were required to learn the names of African countries and much of the colonial and political histories of many African countries. The knowledge of how certain countries were colonized and the super important neocolonial analysis discussed frequently in this course helped me make sense of the conditions of Tanzania’s politics and communities. Supplementing that knowledge with theoretical lenses, the Theories course (Anand) helped me think in a variety of ways on the knowledge about states and politics, people and identities, and development and economics that I was receiving. There were questions that arose about the needs of the people in many discussions I had with my hosts and some of their friends- some solutions were coming from a realist analysis of Tanzania’s situation while others were liberal. The Principle of Economics and International Law courses helped ground my ideas around solutions for the community I worked for but also when I was asked about what Tanzania could do. Knowing a little more about how international laws and how laws of economics worked made the difference in my being able to analyze the socio-economic decisions that could be made to improve Tanzania’s economic and political systems.

The experiences of this internship have also impacted the course of my degree. I have a clearer understanding of what I would like to do with my thesis but I have also come across more questions about what to do post-AGS. I left Tanzania more confused about the link between academic discourses on the African continent and the practice of doing work in African countries. Lastly, I learned that we get a chance to talk about organizations that impact change but speak minimally about the organizing of people at the social level, which I had a chance to experience while I was in Tanzania.

Conjointly, this degree program as well as my time in Tanzania has provided me with a world class experience. I have a better grasp on concepts we learned in class, thanks to the work I did a Kwetu Faraja. Also, I had a great time and a time full of conscious experiences in Tanzania, thanks to the support that the AGS classes have provided."

Robert Simmons has also shared some of his pictures with us:

27 July 2016

"My name is Fazola Nasretdinova, I am from Uzbekistan in Central Asia. From my earliest age I was inspired by international relations and diplomacy. My objective is to tie my career to politics and social development, and take part in humanitarian action to address world issues related to poverty, corruption, and critical political and economic situations.

I graduated from high school at 16 and went on to do a dual Bachelor’s of Business and Finance in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and in London, United Kingdom. The American Graduate School in Paris was a great opportunity for me to add a foundation in international relations and diplomacy to my business background, in order to allow me to pursue the type of career I’m passionate for.

I view my school as an outstanding international school, with high quality educational methods and an individual approach to each student. I was privileged to instructed by accomplished career diplomats, such as Ambassador Wilfried Bolewski and Ambassador Lawrence Cannon, which allowed gain both academic and professional competence.

During the course of my studies I interned in several United Nations agencies: UNESCO, UNICEF, and UNAIDS. My most recent internship, which I did for credit as part of my AGS curriculum, was with the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Investments and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan. I worked in the field of import and export marketing for the State. My tasks included international communications, liaising, and working on projects related to the development of entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector in Uzbekistan. This experience enhanced my practical understanding of international relations, economics, international public law, public policy analysis, and strategic negotiations.

I was able to fulfill my tasks thanks to the knowledge as well as the ethical approach that AGS has taught me, applying the science of international relations and diplomacy and taking into account the needs and expectations of others."

"The journey that took me to AGS from 2014 to 2016 is quite unique. It may have been driven by chance but seems to have been perfectly planned by fate. It all began in 2010, when I did a one-year exchange program at Drexel University in Philadelphia, as part of my five-year Bachelor’s program at the American University in Cairo. That study abroad year in the United States ignited in me a passion for endless travel, which shaped the life decisions that I was going to make after graduating with my Bachelor’s degree in 2012. I decided to get some work experience abroad before settling down, and that is how I started working in Turkey for two years. Through an organization named AIESEC, I found a position in Bursa, as an International Sales and Marketing Executive. My job mainly consisted of travelling internationally and attending fairs and exhibitions to market products around the world. However, halfway through the second year, I felt that all of my energy and efforts were being used towards corporate profits. I wanted to combine my passion for travel with another passion and drive: dedicating my efforts to the helpless in the society I live in. Although I had a stable job with a gratifying income and travel opportunities, I started to look for a complete career shift. I wanted my efforts and energy to have a more meaningful and useful impact on society. As soon as I realized that, I immediately quit my job, travelled three months on a road trip through Latin America, attended the World Cup in Brazil (working with the FIFA), visited friends in Argentina, Peru and Mexico, and while doing all of that, reflected on my future. I realized that I could make a change by working for international organizations or as a diplomat to help my country. Thus, I started applying to a few universities that offer Master’s programs in International Relations in English in Western Europe (specifically Paris and Germany). I was lucky enough to be selected by AGS to become part of this small but great school with excellent students and professors. I just finished my two-year Master’s program and have done an amazing internship at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. This will be my gateway to the dream that I formed in 2014 when I quit my job in Turkey and and started travelling around the world. I worked in the Culture sector, where my mission focused on the UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arabic Culture. My tasks were mainly dedicated to the organization of two events for the prize: the Jury meeting and the ceremony. I had to work with employees from all over the world, discuss different opinions, research cultural articles and write articles related to culture, translate the UNESCO Sharjah Prize website into several languages (English, French, and Arabic), and formulate a communications strategy for the prize. This internship has been a great means towards my hopeful ends, which consist of entering the realm of international organizations. I was offered a job at UNESCO, but declined it because I am very focused on the goal that I set for myself, and the dream that I have been pursuing since I quit my job and wandered the streets of Egypt, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Mexico. Helping the needy, the helpless, and the unheard is my way to attain inner satisfaction, and a small effort to make this world a better place. I am pretty confident that I was given all the tools during my studies at AGS and during my internship at UNESCO to reach this goal and dream. Now celebrating my Master’s degree is a decisive step. My plan is to go back to my beloved Egypt and work for one of the international organizations there to help eradicate hunger, and/or to help the war refugees. At the end of the day, this should be our life goal or dream: finding our happiness in helping others or in the happiness of others."

Ryan Mills worked as an Iraqi linguist for the US Naval Intelligence for six years, between 2008 and 2014, before joining the Bachelor's in Political Science, which took him to spend a semester abroad at the American Graduate School in Paris.

"Upon arrival at the American Graduate School in Paris, I was introduced to some of the staff and a few students who happened to be on campus. They were very warm and excited to meet all of the new students. I immediately felt at home in this small but active community at AGS because, though they were all from different parts of the world, everyone took the time to understand each other’s perspective and make sure that they were approachable and affable.

A testimonial by Stefan De Las, Trinidad and Tobago

M.A. in International Relations and Diplomacy, class of 2014

Deciding to relocate your life, even temporarily, is never an easy decision. I had been accepted to a Masters program in the United States, a familiar stomping ground, which seemed simple. Yet, the idea to go somewhere new and unexplored, where I would be able to put my comfort and security to the test excited me. It was this idea of venturing into the unknown that seemed borderline instinctual, and encouraged my decision to go to France.

Leaving home for Paris, and more specifically AGS (American Graduate School in Paris), was a life-changing decision, comparable to when I left home at 16 to pursue a football career. Little did I know the journey that would unfold.

AGS and Paris gave me the opportunity to test my limits, socially, linguistically and even emotionally.

AGS brought me closer to the world, and to those multinational perspectives that always tended to evade a simple islander. My own ideals were tested and defended on a daily basis, as I was challenged by almost everyone, from German, Russian and Ghanaian classmates to Ambassadors and professors, who have time and again embraced the practical and academic realms of life. I was challenged to expand my mind in a way that led to new discoveries and new applications of academics, discoveries which had to apply to real-life situations. I made close friends who now live on all parts of the globe.

Although AGS was an entirely english-based institution, there were numerous multilingual students speaking all levels of spanish, French, German, Russian, Czech, and even Indonesian.  I was also afforded the opportunity to learn french, and not the French taught in classrooms. Not the French that gives you a false sense of accomplishment. No, the french used daily in the streets, the French which beats your brain to the point where you want to run and hide. Confidence became a mental mission, one that if you let it slip for just a few days, it would drown you.

Some days, you don’t even feel to go to class because you have so many things to do; finish a thesis, prepare for a conference. Sometimes it would be because you miss that bit of home calling you for that home-cooked meal. Many students would tell you about their stresses during final semester readying their thesis for the panel of hard-hitting professionals. Most would tell you of their lack of sleep and the countless paper revisions they were instructed to do. I would tell you that this actually benefited me. The cup half full would say that all these challenges prepare you for employment and daily deadlines. It develops your organization and quickens your thinking. Going to class and learning new material is one thing, but being able to accurately manage your life between classes, thesis deadlines, student organization planning, learning French and even having that side job to bring in some income is priceless. Mastercard could not say it better if they tried.

Paris’ hard-knock life style, AGS’ academic structure and my own drive to succeed has definitely provided me with the foundation to give working life the pursuit it deserves, no matter where life takes me. 

If you expect it to be easy, you may as well stay at home. If you are looking for an adventure, and an opportunity to grow, this is definitely for you. 

Visit Stefan de Las' blog on Trinidad's politics at: http://www.transparentoutlook.com/

Audrey Wang works as a Human Rights Specialist at the New York City Commission on Human Rights, a city agency that enforces the NYC Human Rights Law within its jurisdiction of the five boroughs. The law prohibits discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations based on sixteen protected statuses, and it is one of the most comprehensive civil rights laws in the country. See more information on the New York City Commission on Human Rights website.

"As a part of a services-oriented agency, I interact daily with individuals and civil society at the grassroots level; my work is immediately applicable to the lives of New York residents and visitors." says Audrey Wang.