My name is Stacy Peralta-Ortiz and I was a 2022 UNESCO Fellow with the Education Monitoring and Evaluation Unit at UNESCO’s Regional Bureau of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean (OREAL). Since the last time I posted, I have officially concluded my program and have returned from Chile. Although the time I spent with OREAL was very short, being a GW UNESCO Fellow was an amazing experience both professionally and socially. Through the program, I was able to meet with a lot of incredible people who helped make this program an unforgettable experience. I will treasure the time I spent in Chile.
The last month of my fellowship consisted of wrapping up my qualitative research project. As a reminder, the qualitative research project consisted of conducting a preliminary review of post-COVID educational recovery plans specific to Latin America and the Caribbean. The goal of the project was to help find commonalities and trends across Latin American nation-states about their planned actionable goals. Creating a rubric based on the recommendations of the international educational recovery frameworks, proposed by the UN, World Bank and other NGO’s, the rubric helped present an overview of the current state of Latin American educational systems, which would help the office understand how to tailor resources and programing.
In the end, the project managed to included data of 16 different Latin American nation-states. With the preliminary data completed, the next step was to present this data to the interested parties within the department. Much to my surprise, plenty people from different departments at OREAL attended the presentation. Through this meeting, I was able to see how the different departments collaborated. I was able to see the skill, talent, and passion the OREAL office brought to the topic at hand. It was interesting to see the diversity of thought, largely in part due to their different educational backgrounds which brought different perspectives. The meeting was also insightful in helping me see the role of monitoring and evaluation has within the field of intergovernmental organizations. The wealth of experience from the office was amazing to see and be a part of.
For the second half of my project, I was tasked at reviewing the Voluntary National Review (VNR). The VNR’s is a process in which nation-states can present progress made in implementing the 2030 Agenda. The VNR’s also include remarks on their progress for achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the pledge to leave no one behind. More information regarding these reports can be found on the OHCHR website. The reports were very telling in how each nation-state wanted to present themselves. The exercise helped me understand the value of having consistent resources to help with monitoring and evaluation, as well as the current state of a nation. These reports are very good resources for anyone who needs data or information from a specific nation state.
Overall, my time in Chile was a great as it allowed me to evaluate my career goals and discover new professions within UNESCO. I was however, surprised at the amount of culture shock I felt during my stay in Santiago. Being Mexican-American, I was confident in my ability to understand Spanish but Chilean Spanish had many phrases that I had to learn. I was also glad that my fellowship was in Latin America because it helped me gain confidence in my ability to read and write in Spanish. Thank you for reading about my experience as a GW UNESCO fellow!
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
-Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Stacy is a Master’s candidate in International Education with a focus on improving access to higher education for disadvantaged students and creating more opportunities for students of color to study abroad.