From the Field

ITEP students are constantly seeking out new opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills to the field of international education. Featured here are stories of some ITEP students' recent experiences in the field.

Interning with World Vision Albania by Theresa Ferry

August 2007

I spent 2 months this summer working as a volunteer intern for World Vision Albania. My background has been in teaching, so working for a development organization was a new and exciting experience. World Vision is a Christian international development agency with offices in 100 countries worldwide. Though not an official publicized internship, I managed to make a contact at WV Albania in April, and it turned out that they were in need of extra help during the summer in the education sector. I had been interested in learning more about education in Eastern Europe or the Middle East, so interning in Albania was a great fit for me.

When I arrived in Tirana, Albania’s capital, at the beginning of June, I felt very excited to be in a country that I knew little about. I’ll admit that I felt overwhelmed on my first night in Tirana because I didn’t speak the Albanian language nor did I know anyone in my neighborhood. As I walked up and down the café-lined streets that night wondering what I was doing in Albania, I assured myself that the experience would be what I made of it.
On my first morning of work, I was greeted very warmly by the staff at WV. The staff has a weekly devotional meeting every Monday morning, so it was great to meet everyone there all at once. There are about 30 staff members in the national office, mostly Albanian.

Rezart, the education sector manager, was very helpful in the first week in orienting me to how WV operates and how the education system is set up in the country. I spent my first week reading through reports and meeting with sector managers so I’d be up to speed with everything.

My job description? Before I arrived in Albania my job description was that I’d “provide technical assistance to the education sector manager and team”. I wasn’t quite sure what that entailed, and figured I’d just have to be flexible and patient. Rezart told me in the first week that I would be his “partner” in creating the education sector strategy. This sounded a little intimidating to me because I did not want to be considered an expert.
I tried my best to simply add new perspective as we worked on the sector strategy and improve communication among the education team.
Developing an education sector strategy with WV was an interesting yet challenging process. Rezart and I started by doing field visits to WV’s 3 field offices and schools across the country. We did surveys and had focus groups with students, teachers, and administrators. We also met with local government leaders to learn more about issues in each region. While this experience was interesting, it was quite exhausting! Some mornings we’d leave Tirana at 6am and return 12 hours later. I also was very anxious being on some of the roads. Some drivers in Albania are really crazy! I was happy to see so many different regions of Albania, but at the same time I was quite relieved when our field visits were done.

Besides visiting schools and field offices, I also spent time in the national office writing proposals for funding future projects. I had no idea that proposal writing was such a long and tedious task, but I’m glad that I had the opportunity to write a few of them. I also helped plan an education sector strategy meeting. The strategy meeting was a great way for me to use some of the facilitation skills that I learned in Training Program Design in ITEP. I felt very comfortable speaking in front of the 20 education officers at the meeting, and well-prepared to lead activities.

I definitely enjoyed the challenge of living in Albania this summer. I think my way of coping with tough situations is to branch out and meet new people. One of the highlights of my time in Albania was getting involved with the International Church in Tirana. I went to weekly Bible studies and church services, and met some amazing people at the church. I also joined the local gym and met some friendly Albanians there. I also met several Peace Corps volunteers during my visits across the country, and really enjoyed their company. My greatest challenge was adjusting to the air pollution in the capital. I love the outdoors and like to run regularly, but I had to limit my time outside. I unfortunately came back to the US to find out that I had bronchitis and have to use an inhaler for a few weeks until my breathing is back to normal!

Despite some challenges, interning in Albania was a spectacular way to spend my summer in between my first and second year of ITEP. Not only did I get to experience how development agencies operate in the field, but I also got to apply the skills I learned in my first year of the program. My ITEP coursework really gave me confidence to contribute my thoughts and skills during the sector strategy process. I am so glad that I took Education Sector Analysis last spring for ITEP, because the skills that I developed in that course came in very handy, especially since WV Albania has limited experience in the education sector. I was also very grateful that some of my ITEP professors and classmates followed the work that I was doing and gave valuable feedback when I had questions throughout the summer.

I’ll be very curious to see what Albania looks like 10 years from now, especially WV’s education projects that will be implemented this fall. I now feel like I have a much better grasp on what the Albanian education system looks like, and what agencies like World Vision are doing to help improve the system.