Home > Resources and Services > Admissions > Interviews
Wendy L. Carlson, MPA/MSW Dual Degree 2011
SIPA / School of Social Work, Human Rights Concentration
- Name: Wendy L. Carlson
- College and Graduation Year: San Francisco Art Institute - 2003
- Major: BFA, Photography (Documentary)
- Citizenship: USA
- SIPA Degree and Graduation Year: MPA/MSW, 2011
- Concentration at SIPA: Human Rights
I grew up in a small, economically depressed town in Upstate New York within a politically conservative family that undervalued formal/higher education. I took up photography rather instinctively because, to my young mind, that was the way I would meet the world. At the age of 14, I raised the necessary funds to travel with a community service organization to a rural mountain village in South Korea, where I lived for a summer. It was my first international experience, which overwhelmingly influenced my life trajectory.
Lacking the resources to attend college immediately after high school, but still focused on my original aspirations to become a photographer, I entered the U.S. Navy at the end of the Cold War. I tested into a position with Naval Intelligence as a cryptologist and was stationed in Italy. After exiting the Navy, I moved to San Francisco and was accepted to the photography department, at The San Francisco Art Institute. I gravitated toward documentary photography, engaging individuals as subjects who had experienced trauma, spending time in the Long Beach Cambodian community interviewing and photographing individuals about their experiences during the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970’s.
During my 3rd year at the Institute my daughter and I spent a semester in Cambodia performing independent research, interviewing and documenting landmine survivors. It was during this time that I began accumulating the skills that are essential to the work I do today. Eventually, I no longer needed photography as an intermediary for my interactions with the people I met, as my ability to nurture an open, comfortable and expository dialogue developed. My desires were beginning to be fulfilled but they needed to be informed and disciplined by further education. This realization led me to the study of International Affairs and ultimately to SIPA as my school of choice. After my first semester at SIPA I decided to apply for the dual degree program with the School of Social Work and was accepted. I have found the two programs to be highly complementary.
SIPA’s Human Rights Program has enabled me to integrate a human rights perspective in all facets of my work and to encourage others to do the same. This has been through rigorous, coursework, access to accomplished professors, excellent mentorship advising, and my fellow students who are an endless resource of knowledge and experience. In addition, SIPA encourages practical learning. During the summer of 2010, I traveled to Haiti for the fourth time since entering SIPA, contracted by the Restavek Freedom Foundation (http://www.restavekfreedom.org/) to create policies and procedures for a transitional house for female domestic servant children (restaveks) in Port au Prince, slated to open the spring of 2011.
In addition to this contract position I have had the pleasure of taking part in four other internships during my studies at Columbia University. During the summer of 2009, I was involved in 2. The first was as a Research Assistant for Kevin Bales, President of Free the Slaves (http://www.freetheslaves.net/) in Washington, DC, working on a book-in-progress about forced marriages worldwide. Later that summer I worked in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, as a teacher (of teachers) for Pwof Ansanm (http://www.pwofansanm.org/). [See my article published in the Morningside Post and Huffington Post regarding my experience that summer – http://themorningsidepost.com/2009/09/child-slavery-in-haiti-odettes-story/].
One of the School of Social Work’s requirements is to perform two years of field placement, at 24 hours per week. During the 2009 academic year, I worked as a children’s counselor at a domestic violence agency, Sanctuary for Families (http://www.sanctuaryforfamilies.org/). Currently, I am working as the Wellness Coordinator at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) (http://www.theirc.org/), with the refugee resettlement program. I have had the opportunity to develop and implement a new mental health program. This internship has greatly informed my future career choices and, upon graduation, I intend to seek employment related to forced migration, refugees and/or human trafficking issues.
There are many unique opportunities available at SIPA, two in particular that I have taken advantage of include the United Nations Studies Program’s new initiative ‘A Day at the UN: A View from the Inside.’ I am one of 40 students (of 90 applicants) to have the privilege of shadowing a UN staff member as he/she participates in meetings, briefings, teleconferences with the field, and other activities, and will gain a sense of a “typical day” within a chosen office during the spring 2011 semester. Additionally, a major highlight of my time at SIPA has been being nominated by administration and selected by Dean Coatsworth as one of two student speakers at the 10th Annual Global Leadership Awards in April 2009 at which time Fareed Zakaria (Newsweek), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Managing Director of the World Bank) and Partners in Health were honored. Participating in that evening was a great privilege and one I will certainly not forget.
I feel fortunate to be studying at SIPA at a time when human rights are at the forefront of international relations. I am confident that, at the completion of my program, I will be prepared to effectively advocate for the protections of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. My experience has fostered a deep optimism toward the success of SIPA graduates. I have no doubt that we will be instrumental in bringing about lasting change where it is most needed.
[2010]