Student Activities Students are involved in every aspect of the IDEV Program - from searching for and interviewing prospective professors to organizing program retreats, and from suggesting course revisions to writing the program magazine. Their good ideas and energy are also reflected in IDEV and SAIS projects that they design and develop on their own. Students created an IDEV "community" chat room to exchange ideas and to organize student-run I-Dev projects, such as a half-day student forum to discuss how IDEV students' summer internships were beneficial to their development goals and objectives. Second-year students take the initiative to organize a fall retreat, which gives an opportunity for first and second-year students to get to know each other better while canoeing, hiking, exchanging stories, and singing around the evening campfire. In the spring, IDEV students have a more academic weekend at a hikers' retreat along the Appalachian Trail in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Each spring retreat winds up with the students and the Program Director reviewing the IDEV program, courses, and future projects, as well as the broader direction of the School of Advanced International Studies. IDEV's student-edited magazine, Perspectives, provides a forum for students to express views about development and share their internship experiences, and it helps keep alumni in touch with each other and with IDEV's current directions. Develpment Roundtable is also coordinated and led by IDEV students. They also participate in SAIS-wide activities and organizations. Some serve on the editorial staff of the SAIS Foreign Observer, a monthly international newsletter. Others have assumed leadership roles in the SAIS Christian Forum and the Student Minority Outreach Committee, and have introduced Washington high school classes to countries and cultures in the developing world. Many students become active members of the SAIS Student Government. Both alumni and current students have recently suggested books that they have really enjoyed during their travels. These are novels related to development issues or those that made overseas travel more meaningful. Click on the following link for the list.
Recommended reading list by alumni and current students. Fall 2006 Retreat On Saturday, October 7 th, over 60 students and the IDEV staff attended the annual IDEV fall retreat. Despite the rain, first and second year students had a chance to get to know each other over hiking, board games, ice-breakers and a night out in Emmitsburg, MD. Second year students shared their summer internship experiences - the good, the bad and the ugly, giving the first year students a taste of what is to come. Here is a short slide show of that day.
Co-curricular Activities - The IDEV program conducts a number of student activities, both social and academic, throughout the year.
- The fall semester begins with an informal get together such as a student faculty barbeque or retreat to the Chesapeake Bay or Catoctin Mountains. This event offers students a chance to get to know each other, discuss program initiatives and play an active role in shaping the program for the next academic year.
- Each spring semester, IDEV conducts another retreat, or some professional activity such as a simulation exercise on some topic related to development. For example, in Spring 2007, a simulation was held on Disaster Relief, focusing on coordination among organizations involved, with IDEV students taking the roles of relief experts from governments, NGOs, international Organizations, and business firms.
- The bi-weekly IDEV Development Roundtable brings prominent speakers from the development community, in a brown bag luncheon format, to discuss with students current issues and initiatives in the development field.
- Each January, a selected group of IDEV students go on a two-week Intersession Field Trip to a developing country, during which they receive briefings from host-country organizations and conduct field research, putting into practice the techniques learned in IDEV courses. In 2007 the trip was to Guatemala, where student teams did field research on issues relating to microfinance and to education. In January 2008, the International Development Program, in cooperation with the Southeast Asian Studies Program will be sponsoring an intercession trip to Indonesia. A group of ten students, five from each program, competitively selected, will travel to Indonesia under the guidance of two faculty advisors and one student advisor, and look into greater depth into key development issues such as community-based development and the role of small and medium scaled enterprises in job creation and growth. A new course on Indonesian development issues, "Indonesian Development: Power, Politics and Policies" will be offered in the fall semester 2007 as background and preparation for the intercession trip.
- Each of the three IDEV tracks conducts periodic tertulias for track members, in which over wine and cheese the students discuss key issues with development professionals in the area concerned, many of whom are IDEV alumni.
- In cooperation with the SAIS Career Services office, IDEV also sponsors activities to help students learn more about job opportunities in international development. An annual IDEV Career fair brings representatives of many government and NGO organizations that employ IDEV graduates to SAIS campus for a day of panel discussions and one-on-one meetings between students and prospective employers.
- Each spring IDEV publishes Perspectives, a magazine with articles on cutting-edge issues in development, many written by IDEV faculty, students, and alumni. Each annual issue focuses on a specific theme, such as The business of Development in 2006, and Ethical Issues in Development, in 2007.
- IDEV students themselves generate various creative activities, thereby building community and esprit de corps within IDEV. Of example, in recent years they have created a Microfinance Club, and IDEV Career Club, and a Socially-Responsible Business Club.
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