This month, 9 students from 5 countries will graduate with their Master of Development Practice (MDP) from Regis University. For the past three years, these students have pursued their degree by participating in courses via the Posner Center’s IEEE Global Classroom – a real-time, virtual classroom environment that brings students together from around the world.
The Posner Center Community is proud to have them contribute to our shared vision of a more equitable and prosperous world. At a time when the global coronavirus pandemic is exposing the fragility of global health and well-being, especially in the Global South, the energy, innovation and dedication of these new graduates is more critical than ever to our development efforts.
We celebrate their achievements and wish them the best in their future development endeavors!
Development Practice Community Forum is one of the many unique features of the Regis MDP program. Instead of “defending” their thesis projects in a traditional, academic setting, these masters’ candidates presented their work in a real-time, virtual space where fellow students, development practitioners, and program faculty and staff engage and enrich the students’ ideas with special focus on the people whose lives would be most impacted by the project.
In a Community Forum the first–and most important–person to provide input, ask questions, or voice concerns is an MDP student who has studied the capstone project in advance and comes to the event “in character,” acting in the role of a stakeholder who would be directly impacted by the student’s work. For instance, this year, that included people like “Moses”–a landlord in Ghana, “Mireille”–a single-mother in the Karongi District of Rwanda, and “Anna”– a shop owner in Liberia.
For MDP students, these capstones are passion-projects, the culmination of three years of hard work to expand their practitioner skills and imagination, driven by life-long dedication to improving the lives of people in communities they know well. Determined to seeing these projects through to implementation, these MDP students now join our Posner Community of inspirational and innovative change agents around the world.
In short, check them out as potential partners and welcome them to #CollaborateForImpact!
Congratulations to the graduating students in the 2020 MDP Cohort!
| Student | Location | Project | |
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William Thompson | Monrovia, Liberia | Electricity Theft in Liberia |
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Henrik Kunkeyani | Lilongwe, Malawi | Rural Water Governance in Malawi |
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Beatrice Tuyishimire | Kigali, Rwanda | Empowering Teen Girls and Single Mothers |
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Francine Ngoga Nduwayo
linkedin.com/in/francine-ngoga-nduwayo
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Kampala, Uganda | Single Mothers Empowerment in Rwanda |
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Monique Nibagwire | Kigali, Rwanda | Improving Girls Education in East Africa |
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Balchisu Adam | Tamale, Ghana | Digital Housing in Ghana |
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Karoli Kolokonyi
linkedin.com/in/karoli-kolokonyi/
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Kigali, Rwanda | Job Readiness Training to Reduce Unemployment |
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Yves Kana Nzeyimana
musicianswithoutborders.org/2017/03/rwandan-community-music-trainer-yves-kana/
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Kigali, Rwanda | Empowering Women through Community Music |