Student Profile: Master of Development Practice Alumni, Scott Bohachyk
Scott Bohachyk recently graduated from the Master of Development Practice (MDP) within the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development. Scott is a great example of a student with passion, commitment and a natural skill for connecting and engaging people. Dr. Bruce Frayne, Director of the MDP program looks for students like Scott because in order to be successful in the program and the field, students need to be flexible, adaptable, thoughtful and experienced in multi-cultural contexts. Currently Scott is working in Bhutan through the United Nations Association of Canada (UNAC) Junior Professional Consultant Program. We caught up with Scott to hear how his internship is going so far, and to get his advice on how to break into the development field.
Background:
After teaching in Indonesia and seeing the glaring pollution, waste and destruction of the natural environment, Scott decided that focusing on sustainable development in the local context would enable him to make a positive, meaningful contribution. That’s why he chose to accept the internship in Bhutan. Bhutan is known for embracing a holistic development paradigm. This philosophy focuses on more than GDP or GDP per capita, it takes into account ‘green growth’ and personal wellbeing among other things. “Seeing firsthand how Bhutan’s vision for sustainable development unfolds and how it actually looks like on the ground was a big draw for me coming here.”
Networking lead to UNAC Internship
In the International Development field, Scott admitted that it’s important to be ‘outgoing’ because it really is about who you know and the strength of your connections. “When I was getting ready to graduate I contacted about a dozen people I had taught abroad with and asked if any of them had any connections that were willing to talk to me. I also reached out to contacts I had travelled with, friends and family. I ended up talking with a friend of a friend who had done an internship through CIDA. On the program page she sent me, I saw the “UN Association of Canada” (UNAC) listed as a partner and ultimately that conversation lead me to apply for the “Junior Professional Consultant” internship I now currently hold."
After completing the application Scott was selected to continue into round 2 of the process, and had a 45 minute phone call with the team at the UNAC. The call covered a lot of the basic interview questions. After successfully completing that phone call, Scott was then invited to speak directly with the organization in Bhutan that he would ultimately work for. He found the conversation really energizing: “They were interested in learning more about me, the fit within their team, and to ensure that I had spent some time living abroad. There is a risk for the organizations hiring young people who haven’t lived overseas for an extended period of time because without having that experience some people get really homesick and end of leaving the position before the term is done. They want to make sure you’re committed and capable of integrating and enjoying your time with them.”
Day to day in his job
At that point, Scott was offered the internship position and started officially in May. It was quite a culture shock when he first arrived but the UNAC worked with Scott to ensure he was set up for success. His role within the organization in Bhutan is on the Poverty Reduction and Innovation Unit. There are five other employees and a number of projects that they work on together. A lot of his work day is around dialoguing with neighbouring community members and organizations. They work to develop partnerships to ultimately make their own work more effective and further reduce poverty. One specific project Scott is involved in is a youth unemployment gaming project. The concept is simple- using game theory and activities, engage young people in Bhutan to identify and talk about unemployment in the area, with the ultimate objective to produce solutions to reducing unemployment.
Scott is on contract until December and has already been offered a job at a local organization as an international consultant, focusing on program evaluation. This seems to be a growing area of opportunity as more and more organizations and funders want very concrete, measurable results for programs and initiatives that get approved.
Advice for getting into development work
Adding a last bit of advice, Scott suggests students interested in pursuing a job in the development field should start getting real, on the ground experience. “Before I was interested into the development field I put myself through school by working at a paint store. It was a great job and really helped me in many ways, but it gave me no direct experience to apply to the international development field. If you know that you’re interested in pursuing international development in some way, do something during your summers/volunteer work that is related. Even if you make less money, it is really important to show development agencies that you have direct experience. So instead of saying that you are interested in development work, show it with a variety of experiences on your resume.”
Interested in International Development? Learn more about the Master of Development Practice and the Undergraduate degree in International Development.