This week, I am joined by my very dear friend Susan. She is from Maputo, Mozambique and graduated from Smith College with a double major in Economics and Government in 2019. Susan is currently pursuing a PhD in international studies, with a research focus on sustainable economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her current research projects investigate the effects of foreign capital investments from three emerging economies (Brazil, China, and South Africa) on development outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa.  In this episode, we talked about the importance of mentorship and the signific ..read more

This week I am joined by Sinafik who is originally from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and is a Mount Holyoke Class of 2015 graduate. She currently serves as the Executive Director for Your Ethiopian Professionals (YEP), a 501(C)(3)non-profit organization founded in 2010, that aims to be a global connection point for the professional community. Outside of her tenure at YEP, she works as Account Executive, Assistant Vice President for Employee Benefits in Lockton Northeast's Washington, D.C. office and serves as the primary business contact for clients. She also founded and co-manages Birara Genet ..read more

This week I am joined by my dear friend Weza. Weza is currently building a goldsmith company in Switzerland with a strong focus on sustainability and blockchain technology. He gave a TEDx speech, with insights in his personal entrepreneurial journey on how blockchain technology can enable justice within the jewelry industry. Weza is completing a Double Master’s Degree with a M.Sc. in International Management and M.A. in International Law and the Managing Climate Solution program (MaCS) at the University of St. Gallen (HSG), where he also founded the Africa Association – leading with the purpos ..read more

This week, I am joined by my very dear friend Stuti. Stuti is from Gurgaon in India and was an international student at Smith College, in western Massachusetts. She majored in Quantitative Economics with a minor in Statistics and Data Science and graduated in 2022. She currently works in the international development space, at the The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab or J-PAL and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  In this episode, we talked about the different discomforts we face as international students ranging from the weather, food, culture and even our identities. We ta ..read more

This week, I am joined by my dear friend Soriene. She is originally from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She completed her undergraduate education at Bryn Mawr College in Mathematics and Economics. After graduating in 2020, she worked at Yale University as a Research Assistant. She’s currently an Economics PhD student at Northwestern University. In this episode, we discussed our experiences when it comes to finding internships during college as international students and also securing full time jobs afterwards. We talked about the struggles we faced when applying to these positions as international stu ..read more

This week, I am joined by my dear friend Zoya. She is from Karachi, Pakistan (although she was born in Lahore, and spent a good part of her childhood in the Punjab province of Pakistan). She completed her undergraduate degree in the U.S. at Smith College, where she double-majored in Quantitative Economics and English Language and Literature. Currently, she is based right outside Washington D.C., where she works at an economic consulting firm. In this episode, we talked about how we navigated our different identities in college whether it was our place of origin, our religion or even our gender ..read more

This week I am joined by my very dear friend Maëlle. She is from a small city in the East of France, near the border with Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. She’s very passionate about dancing and gender equality. MaëlleI studied Political Science and International Public Management at Sciences Po in France and did a one-year exchange program at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Currently, she works in a think-tank focusing on Africa-EU relations, where she conducts research and analysis, mainly on conflicts, peace-building and gender equality. In this episode, we talked a ..read more

This week I am joined by my dear friend Makeda. She was born in Houston, Texas and moved to Addis Ababa when she was 10 years old. Once she finished high school, she attended Rice University in Houston, Texas where she studied Economics. She is currently working as an Associate in Agro Processing with the Tony Blair Institute. In this episode, we talked about our experiences with dating in college and the reasons why it can be a bit challenging to date while being a student in college. We discussed the value of self-awareness and understanding your priorities before dating someone and the ..read more

This week, I am joined by my very dear friend Suhair. She is from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and studied International Studies with a concentration in International Relations at American University of Sharjah in the UAE. Moreover, she completed an exchange program at George Washington University for a year and did another six months in Washington DC after obtaining an internship. Currently, she is back in Addis working as a Project and Evidence Coordinator at GirlEffect.  In this episode, we talked about change and the delved into the difference between internal and external change. We ea ..read more

This week I was joined by my very dear friend Wasila. Wasila is from Ghana and came to the United States as an international student. She graduated from Smith College with a degree in Engineering and a minor in the Arabic Language.  She is currently working as an assistant consultant for the electrical department at kW Mission Critical Engineering.  In this episode, we discussed how we each experienced loneliness both in and outside of college and the coping mechanisms we used to help us deal with it including sports, frequently connecting with loved ones and going outside ..read more