Robert McDonald
 An immigrant father and childhood travel led Robert to eventually double major in Global Studies and Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he graduated in 2002. After a brief stint in property management that nearly killed him with boredom, he hopped on a plane to Vietnam for a planned year abroad. Initially in Ho Chi Minh City for a teaching accreditation, Robert landed a job there with an Australian University set up through World Bank funding and the former Australian ambassador. After a year in the South, he briefly returned to the United States in the fall of 2004 to work as a political organizer in rural northwest Wisconsin for the presidential election. Following the election, his love of the country brought him back to Vietnam, this time with the same university but in Hanoi. Robert stayed there for the next 4 years working as an English instructor, staff representative, and sport and recreation director. In the spring of 2008 he returned to the U.S., thrilled to attend SAIS. Robert has completed his first year at SAIS, pursuing an M.A. in International Relations with a concentration in Southeast Asia Studies and a specialization in Quantitative Methods of International Economics. He is interning in Laos over the summer researching the impact on remote villages by economic development programs of an international ngo. Originally intending to pursue a career as a foreign service officer with the State Department, his experiences at SAIS have led him to consider the non-profit and development sectors as well. | 
