Dear EPD students,

Congratulations on completing the school year in such challenging and unprecedented times!  We were so glad to return to in-person classes and events starting last year, and to be able to support January and/or March travel for almost all of our workshop teams this year.  But we know the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic still linger for many students, and that the adjustment to full-time in-person classes, group work, and other activities has been both rewarding and exhausting. You showed remarkable flexibility and resilience, and we commend you for all you’ve accomplished, and for supporting each other along the way.

In particular, we’d like to congratulate a number of students who have received awards announced at the SIPA graduation on Sunday, including two of our EPD workshop teams.  The team working with UNDPO on “Pathways to Reintegration of Former Combatants” (Julia Julstrom-Agoyo, Nisha Karki, Hamida Qanbari, Maayan Sacher, Daryl Tan and Thet-Htar Thet, advised by Prof. Rumela Sen) shared the Dr. Susan Aurelia Gitelson Award for Human Values in International Affairs with the capstone team working with UNOCHA.  (We also congratulate EPD student Basseem Maleki, who was a member of the UNOCHA team.)  And our team working with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) on “Assessing the Impact of Climate Shocks on Low-Income Women Workers in India” (Zoya Dhakam, Milloni Doshi, Marisa McKasson, Anjali Nair, Spencer Nash and Shalini Rao, advised by Prof. D. Holly Hammonds) won the Leous/Parry Award for Progressive Sustainability.  A number of other EPD workshop teams applied for the various capstone awards, and we want to acknowledge their impressive work as well.  In addition, we’d like to commend Audrey Hatfield for winning the Raphael Smith Memorial Prize for travel writing, for her essay “Difficult, More Difficult.”   

We are also very excited to confirm that our EPD Co-Director, Prof. José Antonio Ocampo, will be returning to SIPA and EPD to teach again starting in fall 2023, after serving as Minister of Finance in the government of Colombia.  We are thrilled to welcome him back!

To our graduating students, we were excited to celebrate with you at graduation on Sunday – we really enjoyed working with you over the past two years, and look forward to following your many professional accomplishments in the years ahead. We wish you all the best in your next chapters, and hope you’ll stay in touch as our newest EPD alumni!

To our continuing students, we hope you all have healthy and enjoyable summers, and look forward to seeing you back at SIPA in the fall.  We also really welcome your input on possible clients and projects for next year’s EPD capstone workshop (more on this below). 

We’d like to extend special thanks to this year’s EPD program assistants, Zoya Dhakam and Suhail Thandi, for all of their help in organizing events, communicating with and supporting EPD students, and contributing in so many other ways to our team and to the EPD and SIPA communities. We’d also like to welcome our new EPD program assistants, Paras Abassi and Orcun Dogmazer, and look forward to working with them starting this fall.

The EPD team will continue to support you through the coming summer. We'll be available for remote office hours (see below), and will send updates, including on new fall courses, later in the summer.

Again, congratulations on all you’ve accomplished this year. We hope you get some well-deserved rest and relaxation, and look forward to staying in touch.

Warm wishes,
Jenny and Ilona

This week’s newsletter includes: 

• Workshop Input from First-Year Students
• EPD Survey (deadline extended to 5/19)
• Recordings: EPD Workshop Final Presentations
• Jobs, Internships and Other Opportunities
• Summer Office Hours