Rising Junior Kate Hahn-Madole recently attended the Public Leadership Education Network (PLEN) seminar on "Women in Global Policy." The Altman Program, along with the Newcomb College Institute, supported her trip to the seminar in Washington. While in DC, she got to network with established professionals, meet students from across the country, and visit job sites. She says: 

"As a member of the Altman Program in International Studies and Business, I have been focusing on global policy and the various actors involved in global policy since I came to Tulane. I know that I want to pursue a career that combines my academic interests in Latin American Studies, Business, and Political Science, but I have little exposure to people actually working in fields that combine these interests outside of academia. The PLEN Women in Global Policy seminar provided a unique opportunity to meet like-minded students and inspiring professionals who are entrenched in global policy at various levels. I applied for Newcomb College Institute funding for this seminar because I hoped to use this week to gain a thorough understanding of what a career in global policy would look like, and if it was a career path that I was capable of and still found interesting. 

The biggest takeaway that I have from the seminar is that if I want to pursue a career in global policy, I am capable of it, and there is a strong community of women currently working in this field that would support me.  I believe that this sense of empowerment will stay with me because the seminar focused on providing that sense of empowerment through a realistic, practical education on careers in global policy through the US government, international non-profit or for-profit NGOs, and multilateral organizations.  

I highly encourage students to look into attending a PLEN conference. PLEN provides an incredible opportunity to meet with passionate and established professionals and students from around the country with similar interests in a unique setting that balances a structured environment with personal responsibility and independence. Attending a seminar of a topic you are interested in will allow you to gain an understanding of what working in that field would actually be like and to gain skills and connections necessary to be successful."