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.

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.