Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Or, as they say in France, Bonne année et bonne santé! I have decided to dedicate myself to learning French this spring. No, not as a new year's resolution, but actually as part of my career objectives. It is a language of the UN, it's widely spoken in Europe and Africa - in fact over 30 countries in Africa are French-speaking. Plus, I've always thought it was a beautiful language and I'm excited to learn it!

This spring I'll be working on several things - learning French, like I mentioned, and 3 big projects. The first is my final Master's Project, my applied thesis which I am doing for the World Food Programme. This is by far the priority, and when I'm in New York in a couple weeks I'll be doing some interviews and work on the project. I will also present the final project to WFP in Rome, Italy in April. My second project is my group project for the Global Consulting Practicum, and my client is an NGO called Bodh Shiksha Samiti which promotes urban education delivery for at-risk youth in the slums of Jaipur, India. As part of this class I go to India for 2 weeks in March! My final project will be an elaborate 15 page, single-spaced (!!) term paper for my elective course, Communities & Development course. I haven't decided on a topic just yet, but it will be on an existing community-level development project (according to the syllabus).

Travel, languages, and lots of writing pretty much sum-up the next few months! I'm still torn about where to go next, so expect to see some posts debating what to do. And as always, feedback from my friends and family is always welcome!

Cheers, Dana

Picture: Eiffel Tower at night :)