Rethinking US Foreign Aid Practicum

Catalog description

This course provides a bridge between the academics of US foreign aid and the practical world of development work on the ground. Students will build on the substantive and methodological knowledge they acquired during the first semester of this graduate program. The Professor will arrange with selected development professionals in USAID headquarters in Washington, D.C. to become clients with real world problems they want solved. Students will become consultants who will work with the clients to solve their problem. The first phase of the practicum will focus on defining the problem to be resolved and signing a Scope of Work (SOW) between the clients and consultants during student visits to USAID/Washington. The SOW will break down the work into manageable tasks that fully involve all team members and meet the needs of the client. During the second phase of the course teams of student consultants will conduct research at City College and research and interviews with Professional USAID staff in Washington, D.C. During the third and final phase of the course Practica team meetings will be held with the Professor and other student teams to informally review results, and make an oral presentation at a Colin Powell Practica Symposium. Each team will then return to Washington give a final oral presentation to their client and will present the client with their final written report. During classes students will meet with the Professor to review progress to date, to identify key issues and problems, and to seek guidance. During classes, the Colin Powell School will provide guidance sessions on how to be a consultant. This may include how to do professional research, how to make presentations, how to handle complicated data in research and presentations, how to get along with negative clients, how to prepare useful PowerPoints, how to modify final reports based on client…