Public engagement is a big part of the MPA experience at CIPA. Throughout your two years here, you will undoubtedly find endless opportunities for incorporating experiential learning into your program. As a second year student, CIPA’s Capstone program will offer you a prime opportunity to showcase your ability to apply classroom skills to real-world challenges. It is a service-learning partnership. Students work with government and nonprofit client-organizations on pro bono consulting projects to mitigate or solve agreed-upon public policy or management problems. The clients may be locally, nationally, or internationally-based. Students enrolled in both the domestic-focused and international-focused Capstone courses this semester are blogging about their experiences. In the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing a few of these with you. First up is Hanna Choi.
About the Capstone Project: The Friends Centre d’Education Inclusif (CEI):
Friends of Centre d’Education Inclusif (CEI) is a start-up non-profit organization, closely related toCentre d’Education Inclusif (CEI), a Haitian based NGO. The CEI aims to connect communities and improve educational systems by creating the first fully inclusive primary school in Haiti. The Friends of CEI is at its very early stage and it has yet to define a strategy for fund development.
The Capstone team was brought on board to help the organization clearly define its target audiences, value propositions, organization narrative, and a timeline for fundraising goals moving forward.
“These first few weeks as part of the CEI Capstone team has been a humbling experience for me, as I witnessed the infinite passion, hard work, and camaraderie of my Capstone teammates and the members of Friends of CEI. When I first joined the CEI Capstone team, I admitted to having a “passion” for diversified education. By “passion,” I meant that I was highly enthusiastic about the idea of inclusive education in Haiti, and was looking forward to contributing to the cause. I came to realize that my so-called “passion” was but a pittance in comparison to the sincere dedication shown by my colleagues. Helen, JungMin, and I were the “newcomers” to the CEI project. Our knowledge and any sort of sentiment for the cause were limited to the scope of what we had read on paper and heard about through presentations in our Capstone course. My teammates Catherine and Devin, on the other hand, had been with Friends of CEI the semester before. They had joined the organization of their own free will, without any course credits or incentives to show for it. While we (the “newcomers”) could understand the benefits of joining a philanthropic organization, we couldn’t help but wonder: “Why CEI?” After all, there are dozens of organizations on campus alone, not to mention the thousands of “do-good, feel-good” causes outside of Cornell. So we asked our fellow teammates: “What sets CEI apart from other philanthropic organizations?” and “What made you, personally, join Friends of CEI?”
From the way their eyes lit up as they began to speak, we could tell that CEI was more than just a worthy cause or a chance to volunteer—it was something that brought out the best in them, as people, and as future ambassadors of our generation. The project was something they truly believed would make the world a better place. Catherine was enthusiastic as she discussed the future of inclusive education in Haiti. This one school could open doors worldwide, serving as a model for future generations. This collaboration could lead to children having a safe place to study, to grow, and to eventually find the means to care for themselves. And after all that Haiti had been through, how could our hearts not go out to those with such resilience and hope?
Devin grew more passionate as he described how innovative this project was. It had been spearheaded by one Cornell student. One girl, who had the heart to take a step outside of her comfort zone to go to Haiti on a school trip. Who had the kindness in her heart to speak with the local people, and take action on behalf of their needs. Devin also remarked upon how amazing it was that students from Cornell could become involved in a project in Haiti, and contribute to the building of a school that would eventually become self-sustaining. The other members of Friends of CEI were just as passionate about this cause, and it was evident in the enthusiasm they displayed when discussing the architectural design of the new school, in the way they invested their time and energy into the organization, and in the respect and camaraderie they had with each other.
Where we are logistics-wise:
Last week, our team members had several meetings. Our Capstone members met on Monday, September 28 to work on the literature review for the project. We thought it would also be a good idea to do a SWOT analysis, which you can see below.
On Tuesday, Devon and Jungmin interviewed some Friends of CEI members for possible content to use in our future communication plan. There was also a general Friends of CEI team meeting at 4 PM. On Wednesday, our team members presented the methodology behind our literature review. We will have a meeting with our Capstone mentors, Laurie and Carrie, tomorrow, and we can’t wait to get feedback on our progress.”