Interlude: Linking the internship to my post-graduate career direction

It's not entirely clear to me, by the way, what I ultimately want to do with this degree. There are things that are obvious: technology and development, stupid, you worked at Google for four years and consulted tech companies for two. There are things that are intuitive: industrial policy and private sector development, naturally, after all I've met with economic development agencies around the world on behalf of Google.

But there is so much more I came in knowing so little about: public service delivery, macroeconomic policy, international trade, sustainable development, microfinance, the list goes on... Which is to say, I've spend the majority of my first year open to whatever bubbles up, thinking I'd hone in come second year when we actually get to choose our classes.

What's bubbled up? Philanthropy. Private foundation work attracts me for a number of reasons. 1) it's high level and strategic -- remember me the girl who's done strategy for six years? 2) it's a mechanism to help developing countries outside of the politics and bureaucracy of bilateral and multilateral institutions and 3) there are a lot of really smart really wealthy people who want to do good in this world.

Bridging technology and development of course still remains high on my radar. Let's face it, the Google background gives me enormous credibility and opens doors in this arena.

So in this context I chose the particular internship I did in Liberia this summer.