1. Could you tell me about the roles of your position there?

My title is a UNV community development specialist. I work with Guyanas leading environmental NGO, Guyana Marin Turtle Conservation Society (GMTCS), under the guidance of UNDP Guyana.

My new assignment is to facilitate GMTCSs community development projects with diverse Amerindian communities. To be specific, I am going to assist community members to prepare project proposals with necessary review until it is to be submitted to appropriate agencies, donors and regional authorities.

Also I will support them to manage income generating projects with appropriate trainings in simple accounting, record keeping and inventory control. Training them to organize, facilitate and conduct meetings and environmental awareness classes is another field of importance.

2. Students are anxious about employment course. Could you tell me what you did to achieve the goal?

I always think we should do what we love. So, I exposed myself to as many kinds of opportunities as possible to see where my real talent resides. I went a backpack trip to South East Asia for 80 days.

Particularly I tried to read many books to meet my diverse interests and spent enough time in writing. Two of the main themes I was attached to was Culture and Imperialism, and environmental issues. I published my article on culture and imperialism on informal journals and bought all the books on the theme.

I was active in tree planting club and wrote articles in campus newspaper to promote environmental awareness among students. However I couldn? find my area of focus till my graduation. I had to give myself more time to find it rather than to rush into nowhere. I, therefore, decided to go to Dominican Republic.

Soon after I earned B.A. in English Literature, I began to serve as a community development volunteer in Dominican Republic with KOICA (Korea Intl. Cooperation Agency). Community Development was the only area where people with no tangible expertise could apply for since its context is quite broad. Luckily I was selected for Dominican Republic where its official language is Spanish.

I worked with Northeast Asian Forest Forum, an NGO working for the international cooperation in forestry, Seoul, Korea.

3. What kinds of preparations will students be needed for this career?

- Be aggressive enough for what you want. You should be extremely bold not hesitate to ask for help to anyone.
- Be active in a group with the same career interests and help each other.
- Persevere in one? effort to language.
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