Portland or Bust...

Greetings from Oregon! Beau (my boyfriend) and I arrived late last night after 4 long days of road tripping across the USA (a mere 3,118 miles under our belt - not counting quick detours to some must-see-sights in South Dakota). In total, we drove through 14 states averaging 12-13 hours in the car per day. Our goal was to make it out here quickly and plan a longer trip with more stops on the way back (it pained me to skip over the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY but we'll be doing that on our return trip). Since 12 hours in a car driving through flat, uneventful prairie and farm country can cause one to question their sanity (no offense intended, Midwesterners!), we scheduled a few breaks along the way. Some highlights:

In Somerville - packed and ready to go

Somewhere in Ohio (and clearly excited about it)

Mitchell, South Dakota - home of the (wait for it...)

WORLD'S ONLY CORN PALACE!

A quick stop at the Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota for water, 5 cent coffee, and...

JACKELOPE RIDES!

T-REX ENCOUNTERS!

FIRST-RATE GORILLA PIANO PLAYING!

From the Black Hills to...

Mount Rushmore (in Keystone, South Dakota)!

 [ANOTHER 20 HOURS in the car and then...]

Portland (and much needed food/drinks!)

It was a great trip and we had a ton of fun (though we're both pretty exhausted). Since arriving, I've been busy unpacking and getting settled before I start my internship. Tomorrow's my first day - I'll report back soon on my first week at Mercy Corps!

Welcome!

Welcome to Perspectives from Portland! I'm Allison - a first year Master in Public Policy student at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. I came to the Kennedy School after five years working to promote women's voices around the world at The Institute for Inclusive Security, and have spent my first year of grad school honing my ability to confront issues that affect women and girls through coursework that addresses gender in social policy, armed conflicts, and crisis response. 

Thanks to the incredibly generous support of the Women and Public Policy Program and the Cultural Bridge Fellowship, I'll be spending my summer in Portland, Oregon (home to Powell's Books, Voodoo Doughnut, and "put[ting] a bird on it") working as the Gender Integration Intern at Mercy Corps. 

Mercy Corps is a development and relief organization with global reach – its 4,500 staff members operate in over 40 countries to give individuals suffering from disasters, conflict, and poverty the tools to rebuild their lives. Recognizing that programs are more effective and sustainable when all community members – especially women and girls – are included in their design, implementation, and evaluation, Mercy Corps recently launched a project to incorporate gender across its diverse programming. 

The ACT for Impact initiative is a three-year effort to mainstream gender perspectives throughout Mercy Corps. Through this initiative, Mercy Corps is collecting sex-disaggregated data on its worldwide programs, conducting country-level gender trainings for its field staff, and developing gender integration guides to disseminate best practices. These efforts will not only better assist women and girls, but will also increase the impact of Mercy Corps’ programming. Men and women have different priorities, face different obstacles, and play different roles in society. The ACT for Impact initiative is helping Mercy Corps acquire a nuanced understanding of these differences, which will enable it to successfully address unmet needs among the vulnerable populations it serves.

Over the summer, I will work closely with Sahar Alnouri, Mercy Corps’ Global Gender Advisor, to support the ACT for Impact initiative. (Here's a clip of Sahar talking about the importance of gender mainstreaming - how cool is it that I get to work with her?) I'll have the opportunity to conduct research, help coordinate the organization's first-ever Gender Integration Training of Trainers, and assist in efforts to measure and evaluate Mercy Corps' progress toward integrating gender. 

I'm thrilled to have the chance to continue working on behalf of the world's women and girls this summer, and look forward to sharing my thoughts and experiences with you over the next twelve weeks! Thanks again to WAPPP for making all of this possible!