Pardee, the world, and you Thank you for your interest in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. Founded in 2014, Pardee now has more than 10,000 alumni around the world (including everyone with a BU degree in international relations or a regional study), 45 faculty members, 750 undergraduates, and 150 graduate students. Together, we seek to ensure a future with Knowledge that transforms, Development that works, Peace that lasts. We can’t do it without you. Specifically, we seek your support in the key areas we describe here. Each of them will help us tackle the world’s toughest problems—problems that take multiple skills to solve. And each will carry forward the central mission that drives the Pardee School: advancing global human progress. We welcome your curiosity, your enthusiasm, and your support. Let’s see what we can do together.
We at Pardee are both hugely optimistic and deeply practical. We know we can make a difference. But we also know that to do our best work—on the scale that is needed—we must make new investments.” DEAN ADIL NAJAM
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Blaze a trail You probably remember the excitement—and the anxiety—of taking the first steps toward building your successful career. Perhaps you came to BU knowing exactly what you wanted to do; perhaps you knew only that you wanted to explore your options. Today’s students are like that, too. Wherever we meet them on their career path, the Pardee School wants to help each one find the right career. You can help show the way. Unlike most professional schools, Pardee doesn’t yet have a full-fledged career development office. So the events, workshops, and trips we do provide are especially important, and they’ll help us move toward creating a more robust program. Our current offerings include PardeeWorks and an annual trip to Washington, D.C., for graduate students.
WHAT YOU CAN DO Many students just can’t afford the Washington trip, and you can help. You can also help us expand and build PardeeWorks, with more frequent workshops and more international guests. All of these efforts help prepare our students to network and build careers once they leave campus. Here’s how you can help: • Contribute to the Michael Corgan Internship & Career Fund: any amount up to $25,000 • Sponsor a career trip to Washington, D.C.: $25,000 • Endow a named career development fund: $100,000 • Endow a named career series: $500,000
PardeeWorks features events and workshops specifically focused on international careers, both here and abroad. The program’s annual Global Career Symposium includes panel discussions and networking opportunities, and a regular series of speaking events brings working professionals to campus to present on their chosen careers in more depth. Recent speakers have covered everything from national security to international education and the US Department of Commerce. The Washington trip takes graduate students to the capital each year to explore careers in global affairs. Students and accompanying faculty visit think tanks, NGOs, and government departments, and meet with high-level policymakers and practitioners of international affairs. They also enjoy many opportunities to network with BU and Pardee alumni around D.C.
On the Washington trip, what we really focus on is giving them a chance to network. Not ‘Oh, can you give me a job,’ but how do you break in, how do you market yourself, what are some different avenues? You can study it, but there’s something about talking to someone in person.” ROBERT LOFTIS Pardee associate dean of studies and professor of the practice of international relations
STUDENT TRAVEL
Launch a journey Like us, you know the importance of real-world experience. What students get in the classroom and the library is essential, but nothing beats putting that newfound knowledge to work on the ground. That’s why the Pardee School puts travel at the center of the educational experience. Travel helps our scholars, both graduate students and undergraduates, see the world and its challenges up close. Both in the United States and abroad, they travel to conduct field research, to deepen their understanding of their chosen specialty by attending and presenting at conferences, and to gain new insights into global issues and the ways they might help address them—not just at Pardee, but throughout their careers.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
The travel grant allowed me to capitalize on
More than 77 percent of Pardee’s students study abroad—far above the US average of 1.7 percent, and even higher than the 40 percent rate across BU. So the need for financial support is truly great in any given year.
beekeeping sector in a different context—
established relationships, and to explore the to really try to understand the challenges from firsthand accounts. The rich field experiences I had provided many insights,
• Contribute to the William R. Keylor Fund for Student Travel: any amount up to $100,000
including some I had not considered.”
• Endow a named travel fund: $100,000
BRIAN WOERNER (PARDEE’18, QUESTROM’18)
• Endow a named graduate assistantship: $150,000 • Endow named, competitive travel grants: $500,000
INTERNSHIPS
Inspire a mission If you’ve ever worked with recent college graduates, you know what a difference it can make if they’ve had the chance to do real work in an internship or fellowship while they were still in school. That combination of academic and practical experience launches graduates with a clearer understanding of the work they’re going to do, gives them a head start on building their careers, and prepares them to start making substantial contributions to the world from day one.
WHAT YOU CAN DO Your gift can provide stipends for talented students in need, making it possible for them to choose a great but unpaid internship instead of having to take a paying job. You can also provide a real service by helping students find internships with your own organization or in your network, giving them opportunities to volunteer, and mentoring them in your field. Some giving options: • Contribute to the Michael Corgan Internship & Career Development Fund: any amount up to $25,000 • Sponsor two students in unpaid summer internships: $20,000 • Endow a named internship fund: $100,000 • Endow a named internship fund that will fully fund two students annually in perpetuity: $500,000
Internships also help students explore a variety of career options and choose the best fit for their interests and skills. As you undoubtedly know, it’s much easier to switch gears early on than to spend years feeling vaguely dissatisfied and then try to enter a new field. With a few internships under their belts, the Pardee School’s students head into the world with a confident sense of what they can do and where they want to do it. In many fields where our students hope to work, the first step is an internship with a nonprofit. But these internships are often unpaid, so many students face a tough decision.
My internship with the National Defense University taught me more about the diplomatic and academic elements that work with the military to construct US engagement with the world. It provided me with many mentors, ranging from ambassadors to officers, who combined their love of learning with their love of service and who continue to inspire my academic pursuits back at BU.” KASEY WELCH (PARDEE’20)
RESEARCH
Make a discovery If you want to contribute to solving the world’s critical problems, from climate change to security, the Pardee School is a great place to start. Research here combines rigorous scholarship with relevance to policymaking, and it cuts across disciplines—because big problems cut across disciplines, too. The urgent issues our faculty members tackle cross international borders as well. So our research teams travel around the world to pursue projects, often in conjunction with international partners, that will affect the lives of people in every part of the globe.
WHAT YOU CAN DO Some donors support research by endowing a professorship or a center in a specific area. But even a relatively modest gift can go a long way in advancing research at Pardee. Some options: • Contribute to the general fund: $5,000 • Support one graduate assistant for an academic year: $10,000 • Endow a named research fund: $250,000 • Endow a named distinguished visitors fund: $1 million • Endow a position for a distinguished practitioner in residence: $2 million • Endow and name an existing faculty position: $2.5 million • Endow and name a new faculty position: $4 million
Many schools foster this kind of international perspective, but they often focus solely on relationships between governments. That’s where Pardee goes a step further, exploring the tough, knotty issues that transcend borders and will take multiple disciplines and skills to solve. Pardee has another advantage: the specialized centers and institutes we host, which focus on specific regions or areas of study. (See the back of this page to learn more.) In addition, several Pardee research programs cross disciplines to advance policy-relevant knowledge: the Global Economic Governance Initiative, the Initiative on Forced Migration and Human Trafficking, the Project on the Political Economy of Security, and the Policy and Security Initiative.
Pardee’s interdisciplinary approach allows you to develop your own intellectual agenda, and to find your own voice. That’s exciting. That’s liberating!” NOORA LORI Assistant professor of international relations and founding director of the Pardee School Initiative on Forced Migration and Human Trafficking
PUT RESEARCH AT THE CENTER A distinctive feature of research at the Pardee School is the collection of centers and institutes within our Division of Regional Studies. Each center brings together scholars from different disciplines across the University to focus on solving problems and breaking new ground:
Center for the Study of Asia
Center for the Study of Europe
Center for Latin American Studies
African Studies Center
Institute on Culture, Religion & World Affairs
Global Development Policy Center
WHAT YOU CAN DO Your gift to any of these centers can help speed the progress of research in an area you care about. In addition, we are currently seeking to build a Center for Middle East Studies, and we welcome your support. You can contribute any amount to the center you choose.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Change a life You’ve seen the headlines about the rising cost of college, and about the burden that student loans can place on young people just starting out in their careers. About half of the increasingly selective group that gains admission to BU has a demonstrated need for financial aid. And even though the University strives to maximize grants and minimize loans, students who take out loans graduate with an average of more than $40,000 in debt. That hurts students, and it hurts the University. Building our financial aid funds will help make us more competitive with other schools, and that will help us ensure true diversity in the composition of each entering class, particularly in our smaller programs. And it means
WHAT YOU CAN DO You can make a real difference to a deserving student with a gift of any amount. And BU has a unique tool that makes your undergraduate scholarship of $100,000 or more even more valuable: the Century Challenge, which will match your fund’s income for 100 years. Some giving opportunities: • Provide general scholarship support: any amount up to $25,000 • Create a current-use fellowship fund for a graduate student: $25,000 • Create such a fund for two graduate students: $50,000 • Support one student a year for eight years: $100,000 • Endow a named student fellowship fund: $250,000 • Endow a named fellowship, fully funding one graduate student, in perpetuity: $2 million
we’ll be able to support more students who will really benefit from a Pardee education. By the way, people often think of financial aid only for undergraduates. But many also can’t afford the high cost of graduate education without aid. That’s why we seek to build the Pardee School’s funds for master’s-level fellowships. Increasing our funds for financial aid will also help students graduate with less debt. Particularly for those who plan to follow less lucrative paths, as many Pardee graduates do, financial aid can make a life-changing difference. Freed of excessive debt, they can choose a life of public service, for example, rather than having to take a job that will pay off loans. In short, financial aid makes for stronger students, a stronger school, and ultimately a stronger world.
I knew I wanted to go into international relations, and when I toured BU and Pardee, I knew this was the place for me.” LORNEX RONO (PARDEE’19) who fled violence in Kenya to come to Boston, graduated from Boston Public Schools with a 4.7 GPA, and received a full BU scholarship as a Thomas M. Menino Scholar