CAITLIN WELSH MPS-1997

Caitlin Welsh

University of Virginia

Charlottesville, VA

BA Foreign Affairs

Columbia University

New York, NY

MPA Advanced Policy and Economic Analysis

When Caitlin was at Mercyhurst, you could find her pretty much everywhere, doing all kinds of things, and that hasn't changed since she graduated. She left for the University of Virginia to study Foreign Affairs and in her "spare" time she rowed for the UVA Women's Rowing Team, was a Resident Advisor, Chairperson of the Community Service Committee of her Class Council, and a Lawn Resident in her fourth year. From there it was on to Washington DC, where she worked as a Legal Assistant doing research for Latham & Watkins LLP. Caitlin then spent two years in the Peace Corps as a Youth Development Volunteer in Morocco. She facilitated educational programs directed at women's rights, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, and Arabic literacy for women in her town, and she trained incoming Peace Corps volunteers in the Youth Development sector. After the Peace Corps, Caitlin returned to the US and attended Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. She received a fellowship and became a Teaching Assistant in the Master of Public Administration program. Between her first and second year at SIPA, she continued her work in Africa working for the FATE Foundation in Lagos, Nigeria.

Now Caitlin is working for a US Federal agency called the African Development Foundation. The agency provides grants for small and medium sized enterprises in twenty African countries. She works on grants administration in Washington DC and travels to the field to monitor projects and do inter-governmental work.

Caitlin is grateful that her MPS experience "taught me enough about the world outside of Erie to make me want to experience that world myself."