Rigsar Wangchuk

If there was one theme punctuating our modules, overseas practice and even the dissertation writing process, it was ‘power’. Hence, it feels quite appropriate that I am currently working as a  ‘Shifting Power Lead’ for SHIFT - a campaign accelerator for young people - under Save the Children International.

My current role involves a mix of conducting research, coordinating with various country partners (19 countries in 3 continents currently) in implementing child and youth-led campaigns, and orchestrating thought leadership to move from working ‘for’ children, to working ‘with’ children - in other words, genuine transformative participation. 

The incredible diversity of SDP (20 nationalities during my time) with peers from various backgrounds - culturally, religiously, racially, socio-economically, and gender identities - meant that we often had to bridge our barriers and find a way to work collaboratively on many projects, most exciting of which was the Indonesia overseas practice. These learnings that takes place outside the classrooms allowed me to form deep bonds of friendship with many of my peers; cultural sensitivity and intercultural communication (i.e. skills often sought highly in any global workplace) just happens to be a natural by-product. This has made the transition to my current role with teammates from 4 different countries (not to mention the countless partners I have to work with across the globe) like a second nature.  

My dissertation allowed me to zoom in on a topic I cared about, street-connected children, and investigate processes of exclusion in urban cities - Calcutta in my case. This ensured that although no module within SDP focuses on young people specifically, I was able to bring my own topic and integrate it within my master’s so that I could simultaneously deepen my knowledge and position myself for my next career move (both professional and possible PhD).

I had the opportunity to practice most of the skills required to execute my current tasks during my master’s at the Bartlett DPU; the research-focused assignments prepared me to identify core concepts in a given social development topic and develop a critical argument, highlighting research/policy implications. This has been directly relevant as one of my projects involve researching cutting-edge social change movements and identifying core pillars required to foster long-term social change. Even otherwise, the ability to conduct a high-quality, evidence-based investigation on any given topic is a skill, sought after in most development sector positions.