Stephanie Tholand starts Bay Area International Development Meetup Group

Stephanie Tholand is one of our most recent alumna, having just returned from her Pro Corps Volunteer placement in Mombasa, Kenya. After settling back in San Francisco in December, she was disappointed to find a lack of local discourse or
 organized community around International Development. In response, Tholand spearheaded the new Bay Area International Development Meetup Group, sponsored by FSD. The objective of this meetup group is to build a community of international development professionals and enthusiasts who share knowledge and promote dialouge about development. In less than a month, more than 100 professionals had already joined, and the group had its first meetup at Passion Café in downtown San Francisco on February 17th. This first event was a huge success, and we look forward to future happy hours, guest speakers, and other networking opportunities organized through the new group. If you live in the Bay Area, we encourage you to join the group to receive updates on all upcoming events!
Learn more >>

As an FSD Pro Corps Volunteer in Mombasa, Kenya, Tholand supported youth development and literacy programs with local NGO, Hatua Likoni. Hatua Likoni provides scholarships and mentoring to local impoverished youth, and is coordinating efforts to bring the community its first library. The organization is very young, and everyone working there is under 30, so Tholand's expertise in non-profit management was greatly appreciated. She helped to design a system of monitoring and evaluating (M&E) to improve the efficiency and impact of Hatua Likoni's programs. Tholand created a publicity campaign for the volunteer program, a system for tracking vacation and sick days, and moved the organization towards a more efficient donor management system. In addition, she took portraits of all of their scholarship students for their sponsorship pages online. But her most significant public project was an event celebrating International Literacy Day. Over 150 people attended, including students, from nine local schools, and local government officials. The event served as a catalyst for getting the local government, community and fundraisers to engage together in finalizing the completion of Likoni's first library. The local fundraiser happened last week, and was very successful!

Though FSD alumni carry their communities with them after returning from the field, the urgency for expanding their impact often becomes diffused by the necessities of everyday life. FSD Chapters provide alumni with the opportunity to re-align with their development interests, bringing global realities home to local communities, providing an ideal place for alumni to meet other engaged individuals, and thereby advocating on behalf of grassroots development and their host organizations.

Whether attending a regional conference on international development initiatives or hosting a guest speaker, FSD Chapter members are ambassadors for FSD’s development model and partner organizations, becoming agents for social change in their home communities. Reflective of members’ interest, Chapter activities vary from casual happy hours focused on professional networking to organizing fundraising events project in the field.

FSD ALUMNI, build a network of grassroots development professionals active at home and abroad.

The FSD’s Chapters are based on three important principles:
* Engaging Alumni in the Development Community upon returning from the field
* Supporting our partner organizations through project fundraising
* Building a sustainable network of professionals to support one another’s career pursuits

To learn how you can start an FSD chapter, CLICK HERE.

Questions? E-mail us at alumni@fsdinternational.org