Master of Arts in International Community Development

My name is Megan Pratt, I live in Tacoma, Washington, and I work for the Faith to Action Initiative as the director of engagement. My unique role is to educate the American church on principles of good development, the very things we learned about in the ICD program to help them do even better in their international missions programming. What is so cool about that is that's the exact recommendation that I wrote about in my thesis. When I found the program, I was already working at World Vision, a global humanitarian organization and in my work at World Vision, I had fallen deeply in love with sustainable community development, development principles that empower people to be the change makers in their own community. But I was eager to find more tools to help me head out onto those front lines, to have those conversations, to know that I was inviting people into the very best work. And so when I stumbled upon the ICD program, I can remember the moment where I was looking at it on my computer screen and saw courses like social justice, and the spirituality of justice, and cross-cultural communications, and leadership courses, and social entrepreneurship. And I knew right away that this was absolutely the master's program that was the right fit for me professionally, but also spiritually. Now, seven years later, a job opportunity came up that exists simply to educate the American church on good development principles so that they can do better. So very recently, I left my work at World Vision to join the Faith to Action initiative where we exist simply to serve the church in doing better in their missions programming.

So in my new role, I feel really excited and really refreshed that it's kind of taking me back to our studies, back to an academic world, back to the very papers and concepts that we did study. And I'm able to draw on all that we learned and directly apply them in my new work. As a Christ follower, I believe that Christ shifts our hearts to care about the things that Christ cares about. And in that process, I believe that my heart was broken for the poor and the vulnerable, and something was created in me with a desire to serve. For someone who's looking at the program, who has a heart to serve the poor and the vulnerable, I would say find a person who's gone through the cohort, ask them about their experience, about the course material, ask them about their thesis, how it applies to their current work, ask for a syllabus, maybe some of the books that are utilized in the course and see if those speak to you, see if those start to move you in a direction. And if you feel that what you learn about, what you hear, speaks to your heart—this is the program for you. And I would highly recommend stepping into that and seeing what God will do with it.

My name is Caleb Tindano and I am from Burkina Faso, West Africa. Prior to coming to Northwest University, I worked as a physician for two years in Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso. And I came to understand that taking care of the needs of the people was more than just treating their physical illnesses. So I wanted to look for a more holistic way to address the needs of the poor. So my first takeaway from this program was the understanding of cultural differences. And in my country, for example, we had more than 60 tribes and with different cultures. So understanding cultural diversity helped me work in a better way back home in Burkina. Another important point that I learned from this program was the need to advocate for the poor. As a physician, I came to read a number of books for my thesis and I came across this one that was really meaningful to me. It was a favorite of poor farmers and he said that the physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor and the social problems should largely be solved by them. This impacted my life and made me realize that I could be more involved in the advocacy for social justice. One more thing that I took away from this program was to learn how to make things sustainable in my approach of health delivery. We looked at the way of delivering health care in a more sustainable way, and that was important to me, especially for a country like Burkina Faso. After going through this program, I saw myself more equipped to address community needs like education, economic development, beyond the physical wellness. Also, studying for cohort model reinforced the need for a collaborative work in community development.

What drew me to the program was just a deep passion inside of me to use my life to do something more than just contributing to the growing of a business or the betterment of a large corporation. And so the idea of learning and becoming equipped to go and serve the underprivileged is really the thing that jumped out at me to draw me to the ICD program. You know, some of the best things about the program were just being in a small cohort of students that you met with weekly for the duration of the program and being able to exchange ideas, challenge one another, encourage one another. In the four years since graduation, while I continue to keep in touch and in contact with them, I haven't experienced anything like a weekly focused conversation on topics that we're all passionate and interested about. So for me, the program was about as good as it gets with regards to education. About a year after I graduated, my wife and I moved down to Honduras. We were initially partnering with another organization that was operating the Leadership Center. And the Leadership Center is a university level academic institution that educates, trains, and develops the next generation of ethical leaders within the country of Honduras. And they do that by accepting women from families without the financial ability to send them to an academic institution post high school graduation.

And so we accept them, teach them English, train them in leadership and small business development, and then send them back into their communities throughout the country of Honduras to become the next generation of ethical leaders. And so, we went down there as volunteers of another organization that founded and started the Leadership Center. Since that point, we have launched and founded our own organization, Leadership Mission International, a nonprofit 501c3 organization based out of Portland, Oregon, that now does the majority of administration and operation of the Leadership Center. I think there are a lot of great, wonderful, passionate people around the world who want to serve and give back, and that's amazing and wonderful. But without the tools that teach you how to think about development, I don't believe that passion and excitement is enough. Teaching me how to think about sustainability, empowerment, culture—of those kinds of things I think was the greatest thing that ICD taught me. And then secondly, probably healthy expectations going down there. Many people get burnt out because they go down there and don't see immediate change. They go and serve in communities and the challenges and stresses of doing that overwhelm them and they leave.

But a healthy set of expectations with a proper way to think about development, I think are the two greatest tools that I gained from the ICD program that have led to the success of our organization. I believe without a doubt that, you know, the year and a half or two that people dedicate to studying in this program, they will never, never regret. Being around a group of people who are passionate about the same things, being led by professors who have experience in the field of international development, is irreplaceable. I went from being an engineer, having a great job with regards to what most Americans look for as far as money and benefits and those kinds of things. And I wouldn't change my decision for the world. And so I would just really encourage people to strongly consider pursuing your passions and interests, because the ICD program will allow you to take your passions and interests, learn how to think about culture and think about development so that you can become successful practitioners, managers of nonprofit organizations, and involved in the world of international development in a way that brings true change and true impacts to communities and societies around the world.

My name is Fiona Winoto and I am a graduate of International Community Development program here at Northwest University. So I work for Wallfisch in Indonesia. I started as an education specialist there and now my position is as the manager of the national education team of World Vision, Indonesia. When I started the ICD program here at Northwest, I only knew a couple of things. First, I wanted to serve the Lord, and second, that he has given me a passion for children and education. So as cliche as it sounds, I wanted to make the world a better place for children through education. I just didn't know when, where, and how. I think the when and where are God's business, wherever he wanted to put me. But then the how is when Northwest University through the ICD program has helped to prepare me to bring my passion—I turned my passion into practice. Taking the ICD program has been an eye-opening, inspiring, kind of like life changing experience for me because it's asking hard questions. Like when you say you want to change the world, you know, you want to help the poor. You know the program asks hard questions like who are the poor? What is social justice through God's eyes, or based on the Bible? I think those are some of the things that I don't feel like you can just get it from any other program. What I learned through the ICD program, the skills and knowledge and experience that I learned here in the United States could easily be translated into the context I'm working in, in Indonesia. If you're someone who are passionate about bringing positive impact in this world, who care about the poor, the needy, and you want to do something for them, I think you should really consider this program.