Summer Internship: Trinetta Chong
This summer, GSPP student Trinetta Chong is working with Cambodian Child's Dream Organization, an non-governmental organization that builds wells and latrines for rural communities and supports local schools through an education and breakfast program.
As a monitoring and evaluation intern, Trinetta is responsible for reviewing the effectiveness of existing programs and recommending new strategies for improvement. Her projects include creating a well maintenance database, developing surveys to find out students' meal habits and analyzing trends using school attendance, test scores and demographic information.
She notes that two of the classes she took during her first year at the Goldman School, Quantitative Methods and Stata Lab, were especially helpful in providing the skills needed to examine data and draw inferences. Trinetta's Introduction ot Policy Analysis project prepared her to work with multiple stakeholders and manage tasks under tight deadlines.
"This internship gave me a glimpse into the field of international development." she says. "I'm definitely looking forward to taking more related classes next year, including International Economic Development Policy and Foundations of Sustainable Development. I'm also currently learning basic Khmer because it is really challenging to work in an local environment where I am unable to speak the language. I am thus eager to continue language classes at Berkeley next semester."