You have been working as a Project Coordinator for the Geneva Challenge, the Advancing Development Goals International Contest for Graduate Students organised by the Institute, for the last year and a half. Can you tell us a little about what your job entailed and what this specific time was like with the Geneva Challenge and its themes for 2024 and 2025, “The Challenges of Youth Empowerment” and now “The Challenges of Migration”? 

As project coordinator, I have organised anything and everything that goes into the Geneva Challenge. At the start of each calendar year, that means inter alia drafting the call for proposals that outlines some of the key issues related to the annual theme, updating the website, creating a social media strategy to promote that year’s edition, and reaching out to partner organisations, alumni, and thousands of professors around the world. 

I am also the person responsible for processing the participants’ registrations after they have registered. I hold office hours, advising them on the projects they are developing. Last year, I organised several online events during the “rentention phase”, which is the period between the registration and submission deadlines, with past winners of the Geneva Challenge and several of our partner organisations. 

I also organise the project evaluations through the Academic Steering Committee, a panel of professors from the Institute, and the Jury, made up of high-level policymakers. Then, once we have selected one finalist team per continent category, I organise a communication workshop to prepare them to pitch their projects before the Jury in Geneva, coordinate their travels to Geneva, and work closely with the Graduate Institute’s events team to plan the days around the award ceremony. 

At the end of the year, we wrap up the previous edition, doing some administrative tasks, such as finalising the financial year and processing reimbursements, and then I start preparing for the next edition.

What was a highlight of your time working on the Geneva Challenge? 

Seeing all of my work over the past year culminate in the award ceremony last November was truly a highlight. Having advertised the contest to thousands of university contacts around the world, processed hundreds of team registrations, and organised evaluation meetings through the Academic Steering Committee and Jury, to then finally getting to meet the finalists in person, was truly a highlight. I especially enjoyed hearing them present their projects, implementing the advice they had received during the communication workshop we organised, and listening to our keynote speech.

Apart from coordinating the Geneva Challenge, you are a final-year MINT student, specialising in Human Rights. What drew you to the Institute, and what has it been like studying your topic in Geneva? 

I first learned about the Institute from some of my older peers at university who had gone on to study here. When I was in my final year of university and began thinking about where to go to graduate school, I reached out to them and asked them about their experiences studying at the Institute. They all highly recommended it. I also spoke to some of my professors, who also encouraged me to apply.

What ultimately convinced me was how applied the education here is. Most of the professors are also practitioners, and many of them have played integral roles in their respective fields. 

I had also heard of the many opportunities the Institute provides for current students and alumni to work in and regularly interact with renowned international organisations and NGOs. One example are the Applied Research Projects (ARP) within the MINT programme and the opportunity they give students to gain practical experience at a leading organisation in the field as part of their studies. As part of my ARP, I had the incredible opportunity of advising the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on its emerging climate strategy. Actually, researching the impact of climate change on HIV, TB, and malaria as part of my ARP is what ultimately led me to the topic of my master's thesis. 

You are in your final semester at the Institute — what did you work on for your thesis? What do you hope to do next? 

My thesis built on my ARP research for the Global Fund. In it, I researched the impact of climate change on HIV services in South Africa, identifying key population and health system vulnerabilities that need to be addressed to minimise the negative impact climate change is already having and is expected to have on HIV service providers in the country. 

I greatly enjoyed this research and could imagine working on HIV/AIDS research or programmes in the future, since it is such a pressing issue. Especially in the South African context, it is inextricably linked to poverty, gender, race (and the legacies of Apartheid), as well as to human behaviour – including cultural norms, which were incredibly interesting to learn about. 

As of mid-July, I will be interning for the Sector Initiative Global Health of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Germany’s main development agency, advising the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development on Global Health-related issues. I am greatly looking forward to applying what I’ve learned about Global Health in courses at the Institute and during my ARP in my internship and hope to continue working in Global Health after my internship.