Chigozie Okwu presents at the Policy Pitch Competition.
Transcript:
Hi My name is Chigozie Okwu and I'm a 2nd
year Master's of public policy student
here at the ford school growing up at home
in Chicago I was exposed to 2 distinct
cultures Nigerian and American my parents
spoke to me in a language that I called
a bone glitch a combination of Evo and
English Some days my home style
they spoke at the meatballs and other
days it's more like if you see superfood
Nigerian Staples I recall my experience
stories about going to the market to get
the freshest opera and it was the to make
the soup of the day and looking back at my
childhood I think that's what inspired
by policy interests and Food Policy and
International Development This summer has
given the unique opportunity to work with
the United States Agency for International
Development better known as USA ID
us here it is a development organization
that tries to help address and
levy poverty in developing countries
across the world by implementing different
projects based around
the environment how and
a range of other projects in this
capacity I worked in USA ideas
Indonesia office in Jakarta where
I was on our occasion program so
I work to help office the program
office and the Environmental Office so
one of the most unique aspects for
me was working in the environmental office
where I got to work on a project called
Sustainable ecosystems advance and
what that is it's a project in the eastern
part of Indonesia focused around
conserving biodiversity tourism and
sustainable fisheries So
a project that really directly aligned
with my project with my interests and
in that capacity I interviewed local
stakeholders who were directly impacted
by USAID to war provided recommendations
on ways I could I could see the per
program improving and also learned about
the importance of cultural diplomacy.
My time at U.S.C. ID taught me a lot
about how to work with people from
different cultural backgrounds
how to write clearly and.
How to work for
a federal bureaucracy all of which I'm
sure will help me in my future career.
Also my time in Indonesia solidified the
fact that I see myself working abroad and
on issues related to the environment and
food thank you for your time.