EDUCATION
ABROAD &
GLOBAL MANAGEMENT
International Education Program Design and Assessment
The client: Skyline Community College in San Bruno, California
Purpose: Design a faculty-led study abroad manual for any topic and any region & design an assessment for the faculty-led study abroad program for underrepresented students to Peru based on achieving intercultural competency.
This included a pre & post-survey for participants to measure their change in awareness and attitudes towards study abroad and cultural exchange. This consultancy provided added value to the client through a general framework manual for any study abroad destination, a scholarship resource list (for students of color) and IIC curriculum with 14 hours of reflection activities. This process used the following tools: Theory of Change Model, and Logic Model and this was an iterative process.
IE Marketing and Recruiting
The client: Loyola Marymont University- Study Abroad Office
Loyola Marymount University is a private Jesuit institution located in Los Angeles, California.
Purpose: Design a marketing and recruitment plan for first-generation study abroad students. The First-To-Go Abroad! Program is designed to be short-term and low cost so as to attract non-traditional study abroad students. It is a 10-day, non- credit bearing, study abroad experience to the Dominican Republic. This consultancy provided a market segment analysis, SWOT, marketing and promotion activities, a timeline and budget. By following this plan it is expected to raise awareness of study abroad options, and increase the number of first generation study abroad students.
Presenting our findings on recruiting First-Generation study abroad.
Comparative IE & Working with Indigenous Communities
Nauht Pipil paper
Cipotes photo
The Client: The Alcaldia Indigena de Izalco (the Indigenous City Council of Izalco) and the indigenous community of Izalco. This community is often forgotten and therefore has its own council and is legally recognized by the El Salvadoran national government.
Purpose: To find the Nauht Pipil indigenous population of El Salvador and understand how they preserve their heritage and identity as well as the difference in their education system compared to the national ministry of education’s approach. El Salvador has a very small indigenous population of approximately 600,000 people, which is about 10% of its overall population. This paper is an empirical study of those in El Salvador that auto-identify as Náhuat Pipil. Individual interviews were conducted both via skype and in person with indigenous community members and this topic was examined from a critical theory perspective. Nahuat Pipil is one of two indigenous populations that have been almost completely exterminated.
Immigration Issues: US-Latin America (Video)
Purpose: Create a video showcasing the causes of migration, the contributions of immigrants and the power to voice via social media, technology and art. It is through this video, that we can bring awareness of immigration issues, to bring about dialogue and discourse that will lead to a change in the way people view immigration reform and immigrants in general.
Developing Intercultural Training in International NGOs
The Client: Case workers and first responders assisting unaccompanied minors from Central America who have recently crossed the border to the U.S.
Purpose: Because case workers and first responders are at the frontline of receiving youth that have been trafficked in detention centers, at the courthouse and during home visits; they need a training to understand the cultural differences, that can be challenges in assisting this population with securing safe housing, legal assistance during trial process, and assisting with adjusting and meeting basic needs.
Through this training, case workers and first responders will gain basic familiarity with the background and socio-cultural context of the clients (Central American Refugees), understand how intercultural differences may play out when working with clients, learn different patterns and models of culture shock and cultural adaptation, and gain understanding what it’s like to navigate in a world where you don’t know the language.
Qualitative Data Analysis
Purpose: To apply a mix-methods approach to qualitative data sets from a phenomenological lens. This study was able to examine the relationship between the legal system and emotional leverages as mechanisms for human rights abuses among victims of human trafficking. Narrative stories of testimonies from immigrants that have been victims of trafficking and other exploitative crimes while in the US were the primary source of data for the body of this study. Coding and overlapping coding analysis, deductive and inductive propositioning and Necessary Sufficient and Trickster analysis techniques were applied.
Proposal Writing for International Development
The Client: ManáOjushte San Isidro is a women and youth led- micro-business that operates in the community of San Isidro, Izalco in El Salvador. They are a relatively new association and have a strong base of volunteers and employees. They have great products and potential to grow and in particular in exportation. However, they do not have the start up funds to invest in machinery, and equipment as well as funds to register their trademark and to have a nutritional study. All of these things need to be in place in order bring ManáOjushte up from an artisan production to one that meets exportation requirements.
Purpose: Create a general proposal that can serve as a boilerplate or template for future fundraising and grant opportunities. The process of writing a proposal also involved developing a mission and vision statement and budget design.
Other proposals:
Development Economics
Studied indicators within a country to identify patterns, problems, potential growth and provide policy recommendations. In the case of Mexico, the GDP growth, investment in education, employment rate, migration rate and rate of good governance were all analyzed in order to focus on the cost of migration (from Mexico to the US) and how it impacts the children of deportees.
Through this study, the direct relationship of the US to Mexico is tied directly to the economy, families on both sides of the border and migration. It is because of this relationship that 13% of immigrants that illegally cross the border consider the US their home. Last summer over 1,000 of unaccompanied Central American minors arrived at the US-Mexico border. Meanwhile, 290,000 American children are currently registered in public schools in Mexico. These are American born citizens that are also children of deportees. The return to Mexico with their parents and have to start their lives over. These countries, these economies, these families are tied together and yet there is no clear policy to assist these children in their acculturation process. Often it takes them one to two years to get themselves into the school, and with established health records. Therefore the US & Mexican border agencies, in collaboration with the US department of Education and the Mexican Secretary of Education should collaborate and create a universal health & school record document that can be used to in-take and track children of deportees. This way these children will have a point of entry and immersion into Mexico.
Systems Thinking
The Client: ManáOjushte San Isidro is a women and youth led- micro-business that operates in the community of San Isidro, Izalco in El Salvador. They are a relatively new association and have a strong base of volunteers and employees. They have great products and potential to grow and in particular in exportation. They wish to advance their business from bring ManáOjushte up from an artisan production to one that meets exportation requirements. In order to do so, they need a clear picture of their strengths and weaknesses in order to understand the opportunities that they might be able to access.
Purpose: In the village of San Isidro, just 55 kilometers from El Salvador’s capital city, San Salvador, there is an increasing lack of employment among women and youth. In a recent Peace Corps census, 81% of unemployed people at home are women. Another 49% are youth between the ages of 17-35 years old. Many of these young people are left lost and without purpose making them highly vulnerable to gang recruitment. As a result, they often seek refuge in the United States and migrate there illegally for employment opportunities.
Analyze the function, process relationships that interplay within the micro-business. Through this process, we applied the CATWOE tool to analyze the micro-business capacity of Ana Edith’s association, and economic potential for the women and youth in San Isidro, we found many strengths and weaknesses. First and foremost, the idea of Maya Nut products, marketed as “Manájushte”, emerged from an organic effort after Ana Edith and a small group of women within the community participated in a Peace Corps’ workshop. This workshop encouraged nutritional product and income generating ideas. Ana Edith Morales, a community member and participant in the Mayan Nut workshop spearheaded these ideas. Four years later, and despite Peace Corps ongoing direct support, twenty youth and five women still come together to harvest, prepare, and sell (Ojushte) Mayan Nut products.As micro-business consultants, we are interested in efforts that will move their business model forward such as: (1) what might contribute to or happen if there is business personnel burnout; (2) what are potential obstacles and; (3) what solutions and resources are further required for business continuity.
A system worldview was developed, which incorporates learned models and frameworks of systems thinking. Perhaps the biggest influence in my worldview has been through the PICO principles of organizing. Much like Rodgers’ approach on dynamic systems, informal self-organizing conversations; or as PICO would call -”one to ones” are key to capacity building.These principles have taught me the discipline: of strategic questioning, learning from others, collective research & reflection. It is through those steps that stakeholders come together, approach circumstances from different angles and reframe our view, proposing solutions. Sustainability is achieved by creating a system that is based on mutual self-interest, and genuinely reflects the voices of those directly involved.When I moved to El Salvador, I experienced living and working with the community of San Isidro during my time in the Peace Corps. It was there where I really began to live on the “edge of chaos.” I didn’t go into town with a bunch of ideas of how to improve things, I went in humble and dumb, and observed and learned from others. Eventually I saw the patterns, and things began to self-organize, suddenly the youth I worked with at the high school became excited about the Manájushte project, injecting into it life and purpose. It continues to amaze me that they are still involved and their numbers are growing. A copy of this document is available upon request, please email me at: pcv.luz@gmail.com
Finance Functions for Nonprofits
The Client: ManáOjushte San Isidro is a women and youth led- micro-business that operates in the community of San Isidro, Izalco in El Salvador. They are a relatively new association and have a strong base of volunteers and employees. They have great products and potential to grow and in particular in exportation. They wish to advance their business from bring ManáOjushte up from an artisan production to one that meets exportation requirements. In order to attract funders, they need to streamline their accounting practices and create a transparent financial tracking system.
Purpose: The focus of this consultation is to assess existing financial tools and design more efficient ones, and provide financial training to association members. A key part of this process will be to take into consideration the local constraints, and culture that guide daily activities, such as regular access to computer and internet. Through various stakeholder meetings, association members were trained in financial planning, financial management, financial reporting, financial control as well as creating a main chart of accounts document. Also, we tied in key financial concepts that may have challenge cultural values around money. Therefore our guiding questions throughout the consultation regarding accountability and culture: How do we transfer knowledge that is culturally inclusive? How do we build financial literacy and create tools that make sense to the local culture?
Organizational Sustainability for Social Change Organizations
The Client: The Salinas Valley Dream Academy is a non-profit organization formed in 2011 by Ruben Pizarro, an attorney and teacher at Alisal High School in Salinas, California. Mr. Pizarro is the executive director of the organization, working together with pro-bono staff. The Dream Academy consists of a cohort of approximately 100 students from four different high schools in Salinas Valley. The pro-bono staff, work at these four high schools, which gives them the opportunity to see the youth everyday and build a relationship with them. The primary aim of the academy is to expose youth to experiences outside of Salinas that will positively transform the way students think about themselves, and to prepare them to become future servant leaders who will give back to their community. In order to achieve its aim, the Dream Academy organizes educational tours for the students to the east coast, such as New York and Washington D.C., as well as career building trips to Silicon Valley technology companies. These field trips expose students to new cultures, environments, and learning opportunities, and also motivate them to begin preparing for the next chapter of their lives.
Purpose: As a new 501(c)(3), the Dream Academy requires strong Board leadership and administrative supportive for day-to-day tasks. Currently, Executive Director Ruben Pizarro is responsible for all administrative and financial support systems of the organization. The goal is to assist a local organization in addressing a sustainability challenge that is of interest to them, which can include any theme that an organization feels is affecting its sustainability, and would like to carry out deeper analysis and action to improve the problematic issues or opportunities within. Therefore, the main points to take into account regarding the Salinas Valley Dream Academy organizational sustainability challenges at this point are:
How might the Dream Academy develop organizational structure and roles that effectively distribute leadership to serve their longer term needs? How might this be adequately resourced?
Ruben expressed his desire to be more connected to the youth with whom he works is reduced by time spent on administrative tasks. The Dream Academy leaders and Ruben also expressed concern that it is not sustainable for one person to manage an organization that requires a high volume of activities. Therefore, our findings lead us to focus on strengthening the leadership team, including establishing a new Board of Directors and finding stable funding sources to hire support staff.
Dream Academy participant presentations
Youth explaining their rich picture process
Facilitating board development activities with leaders.
RICH PICTURES
Facilitation process
DPMI (Design, Partnering, Management, and Innovation)
DPMI is a MIIS signature program for aspiring international development and social change practitioners who are seeking a professional certificate in program design, partnering, management, and innovation (DPMI). During DPMI, students have an opportunity to apply classroom theory to the real world; through three-weeks of hands-on activities that are applied to contemporary development challenges, DPMI participants gain practical skills to manage development projects in a variety of contexts.
We tried out new tools to analyze problems and to design projects that lead to behavior change; identifying holistic methods to address complex problems and gained new skills such as: Problem Tree and Results Framework, Log Frames, Core Competency Mapping, Facilitation Session Planning, Project and Program Design, Evaluation, Strategic Partnering, and Facilitation skills needed to work in the global field, tackling the world's most pressing problems.
Luz’s Personal Development Philosophy
Vision
The vision I have for the world is a more human distribution of resources, wealth and power. I envision a global society where countries are encouraged to reach true sustainability and sovereignty as opposed to the current model of dependency that exists under the name of international development and capitalist business models. This means we would have functioning governments and business models that value human lives and quality of life over the mighty dollar. International policy and trade would reflect these values and we would have more balanced and equally profitable trade agreements, unlike NAFTA, CAFTA and MercoSur. In fact, I often wonder, do our Western ways really work? Is more education really the answer? Dr. Levinger, throughout the week of DPMI consistently reminded us, “a change in knowledge doesn’t mean a change in behavior.” Of course there are correlations of knowledge and quality of life, especial when we can improve the health of developing nations. However, I am not convinced that our Western footprint, needs to leave its mark around the world. Also, I wonder, what is lost when Western philosophies are adopted into the culture and local or native ways of knowing are abandoned.
Values
In reflecting on my development philosophy, there are many pieces of life experiences that have shaped it. One that has been at the core of my world view is, community service and mutual respect for one another to the mantra, “leave the world better than you were given it.”
Method
A better world can be created, if we focus on increasing social capital. By taking the time to meet with community leaders in their homes and places of worship, I gained access to rich conversations and a deeper understanding of local context. Another skill that is key to development is strategic assessment. In working with positive deviants, I was able to go into the community, with an open mind, respect the knowledge that already exists and learn from them. I didn’t rush to have the answer, instead I encourage others around me to give their input. This was initially very difficult, as the traditional way of aid dependency has already been normalized.
Benchmarks
Community group characteristics would be the ability to ideate together, take ownership of group and its projects, members would have clear roles and a voice in decisions and activities. Members would be from multi-age and gender groups. These local groups would the point of entry in a bottom up approach, gathering input from the community and connecting with local NGOs and government.
Conclusion
Wealthy or rich, we are all human and we all dream and desire good things in life. Development should respect and reflect the basic elements of peace, faith and the hope of a better quality of life. Development should take on a more nuanced approach, that takes the time to develop the leadership, and unlock the power of the individual; trusting that people are capable of sovereignty.
DPMI Eco System
Mexican Youth Problem Tree
