J-Term Practica: Peru Wrap Around, 2016
March 13, 2016
J Term Peru has been one of my most proud experiences yet, outside of pursuing a graduate degree at MIIS. The project has been profoundly impactful in my academic and career pursuits, combining my interests and skills in a highly professional environment with real world “4implications.
J-Term Peru is very much a professional consulting project from start to finish. Initially, while we completed significant research on our own, we found speaking with our clients, the AASD, was highly important in ensuring that we were not only on the same page regarding our strategy and goals but well informed of local knowledge and important influential factors within
our research and regarding logistics. This communication was critical throughout the entire experience and allowed us to design a survey that was relevant to the locale from within the constraints of our classroom.
The project allowed us to implement mixed methods research and analysis methodology, to solve a real-world problem. Textbooks cannot prepare you for the sort of application that is found outside of the classroom. It takes a great amount of ingenuity and insightfulness to be able
to apply research and analytical methods to problems without structured preconceptions for a solution. You have to design and strategize the best course of action throughout the entire stage of the process.
J-Term Peru has provided my team and I with a sense of cultural competency which can become a priceless asset in countless situations. We discovered the cultural nuances that can easily lead to large miscommunication and we learned ways to overcome them. On the ground consulting with locals was essential in this regard.
Finally, J-Term Peru has given me confidence to undertake seemingly monstrous problems or challenges and has provided me with the ability to break down these problems, so that we can obtain feasible solutions.
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