Some background info

Hey everybody,

I thought I'd introduce myself before getting into the details of my internship, so here it goes.
I just started my second year in the MPA program at ASU. I'm currently doing the non-profit concentration, but I'm planning on dropping it so I can have the freedom to take some other courses that I'm interested in. I've liked the program so far and I've enjoyed getting to know all of my fellow classmates - the school of public affairs is filled with a lot of really great people.

I am originally from Des Moines, Iowa and grew up there until my family moved to Tempe when I was in middle school. I decided to do my undergraduate studies back in Iowa at Cornell College, a small liberal arts school near Iowa City that we fondly refer to as "the other Cornell". I majored in Psychology and History and planned on going in to Social Work.

After I graduated, I worked as a Case Manager for at-risk youth at a small non-profit. I loved the job but it helped me realize that social work probably wasn't for me.

After about a year I moved up to Minneapolis where I found a very glamorous job (heavy sarcasm) working as a mortgage loan auditor. It was actually pretty interesting to be working in the industry in the midst of the housing crisis. But eventually the recession caught up with my company and all of the most recent hires, including my self, were laid off. I remember feeling relieved when it happened because it forced me to move on and gave me the opportunity to try something I had always wanted to do - work abroad.

I used my severance pay to get TEFL certified, sold all my belonging (which wasn't much) and flew to Thailand with my girlfriend to teach English. We lived in southern Thailand and taught at a university for six months and then traveled around southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Borneo) and southern India for another 6 months.  It was an amazing trip and I'm sure I'll do another post about it in the near future. But if anyone ever has questions or just wants to talk about Asia or teaching abroad, I'd be more than happy to share my experiences!

I applied to ASU's MPA program while I was in Thailand and returned to the states right before classes started last year. I didn't work my first year in the program - not entirely by my choosing. I was lucky enough to land this internship with the ASU Foundation this past May. I'm learning quite a bit and I'm looking forward to posting about it.

In the little amount of free time I have these days, I play on a couple of soccer teams, read and probably watch a few too many TV shows. I'm pretty obsessed with Breaking Bad at the moment! Sorry if I rambled on a bit here, I'll be sure to keep future posts more brief.