“I come from nowhere.” –Andy Warhol

MEDZILABORCE, Slovakia – Welcome to nowhere, two small Slovak border towns called Mikova and Medzilaborce, but more widely known as the obscure Eastern European genesis of America’s most famous pop artist, whose mother was born nearby.

Surrounded by monuments to the Red Army and overshadowed by an Orthodox dome, the museum built in Andy Warhol’s honor appears painfully out of place. When we arrived at 3 p.m., we were the day’s first visitors.

After a debate with the single staff member, a clerk in her early 20s, about whether the museum was open, we were admitted, mostly because I was an American. Although there are signs prohibiting photography, my Polish traveling companions didn’t hesitate to reproduce the collection with flashes on.

A Pennsylvania native, I had visited Pittsburgh’s Warhol museum two years earlier. The top floor was devoted to an exhibit of his homoeroticism. Another exhibit showed the oxidation prints created when Warhol urinated on exposed copper plating.

As we wandered from room to room turning on lights, I realized that the biggest difference between the two museums – besides visitors – is the artist. Warhol dropped the vowel from the end of his name to Americanize it, but make no mistake: It is Andrzej Warhola who is on display here.

Warhola was a good Communist. A popular exhibit here includes suddenly non-ironic prints of Lennon and Mao. Hammers and sickles outnumber soup cans.

In Warhola’s world, Ingrid Bergman dressed as a nun outdazzles Marilyn Monroe. The artist’s baptismal certificate is on display, as well as the Catholic liturgy from his funeral service. Surprising only to me, there is a snapshot of Warhola meeting with Pope John Paul II.

Warhola wasn’t homosexual. He had a girlfriend who shot him because he wouldn’t marry her. The only eroticism in this museum is a few colored pencil sketches, tastefully hidden behind a nook in the wall, similar to the way the more graphic scenes of the Holocaust are displayed at the Auschwitz visitor’s center, located only a few hours’ drive away.

Only a handful of my students in Tarnawa have heard of Andy. On our way out, my Polish friends thanked me for inspiring them to see the museum. Warhola many have been a famous American artist, but he wasn’t so different from them. Practically Polish.

Readers interested in more information about the Slovakian Museum of Andy Warhol can watch the documentary film Absolut Warhola.

William is a sophomore in the Elliott School of International Affairs, majoring in International Affairs and concentrating in Europe and Eurasian Studies. In the summer of 2009, he taught students in Poland through Learning Enterprises and has also taught in D.C. with the AnBryce Institute.

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I’m a rising Elliott School senior who has spent the majority of his time (and money) on international affairs-y things like war, peace, war, and some anthropology. For those of us interested in development, we study things like aid policy and political economy, ready for World Bank recruitment come May. So naturally I was surprised a few months back when I found myself in cramped Nairobi offices gathering data on vitamin A, iron and iodine intake figures, and in Africa’s largest slum mapping maize distribution channels and pricing patterns.

I didn’t come to Kenya planning to research nutrition and business strategies in slums. But after a series of events and small epiphanies, I realized that to make the biggest impact on our world maybe the World Bank, UN and USAID aren’t the only post-graduation paths out there. So here’s my quick story of going from a World Bank-bound Elliott kid to an entrepreneurship-and-public-health-strategy enthusiast.

I came across figures last February that caught my attention. For example, Kenya is losing 2-3% of its GDP per year because most people don’t consume food like fortified flour – flour with micronutrients like iron and folic acid. That’s the equivalent of the financial crisis’s impact on Europe. When Kenyans lack nutrients, their IQs suffer, they drop out of school, they can’t work as productively, they’re more susceptible to other illnesses like HIV, and women take the brunt of it. This lesser-discussed health catastrophe called micronutrient deficiency is outdoing AIG.

I also found out a few other things that our neighborhood development ‘experts’ don’t talk about very often: in 1990, the UN pledged to eliminate most micronutrient deficiencies by 1995. It is 2009, and 1 of every 3 people still suffers from deficiencies. Basically, the plague of micronutrient deficiencies is as rampant as ever, with little thanks to the UN. Agencies like UNICEF and the World Food Programme often give out aid-financed nutritional supplements (handouts) to a few at-risk populations such as refugees and then call it a day.

I talked to a woman named Lucy at the Micronutrient Initiative in Nairobi, who summed it up like this: “UNICEF doesn’t produce flour, business does.” So if international aid agencies aren’t up to the task, and if the Kenyan government is failing miserably (which it is), then maybe the private sector could help solve this development disaster – and make some money at the same time. After some number crunching, I estimated aggregate food market expenditures in Kibera – Africa’s largest slum – to be around US $18.75 million per month just for the poorest half of its residents. That seemed like a pretty big number to garner business attention.

I later discovered Insta Products, a Kenyan company that produces fortified flour. With a recent investment by the Acumen Fund – a social venture capital group – they’re poised to tackle the issue in a whole new way: by selling micronutrient-rich flour sachets for USD 25 cents that feed a family of four through informal distribution networks. This entrepreneurial innovation will dramatically enhance Kenyan’s nutritional status while simultaneously turning a profit – a far cry from UNICEF handouts.

Most of us – probably including myself – won’t end up innovating business strategies to combat micronutrient deficiencies in severely low-income markets. We don’t learn about vitamin A at the Elliott School, and we certainly don’t concern ourselves with business. But I think there’s a good lesson learned for soon-to-be-graduates-and-job-hunters: in a complex world where the UN and World Bank don’t have the answers to everything (or much), we shouldn’t forget to take a look at what’s out there beyond the Foggy Bottom big-names. So to all other rising seniors, keep your eyes open, and maybe we’ll catch each other designing flour sachets in Africa.

Grant is a senior majoring in International Affairs concentrating in International Development and International Economics and minoring in Political Science. He’s studied in both Argentina and Kenya and works passionately in the field of social entrepreneurship.

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It rains almost everyday in the early afternoon in La Palma. While walking I notice buckets collecting the water to be used for later. My first day with my host family, they explained that water was a valuable resource and was to be used sparingly. Basically, I understood from my basic level of Spanish that I should simply live by the old saying, “if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.” I have gotten more and more used to taking 60 second showers and brushing my teeth with as little amount of water as necessary.

For some reason, I assumed all of this effort to conserve water was the whole “Going Green!” fad. However, a few days ago while riding a chiva (a bus without a schedule), I noticed all of the people around me throwing their trash out the window as if the ground was their own personal trash can. I kept it cool until I reached my house and could ask my host family about littering. They explained to me that there was indeed a law against it, however it was not enforced whatsoever.

I learned that my family and others living in La Palma do not conserve to save the environment, but instead to save money. While it makes complete sense, I was a bit dissapointed.

Yesterday I introduced the three R’s to my classes: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. They looked confused even when I switched to Spanish. They simply could not fathom holding onto their trash for more than a minute. I admit, I may have gotten a bit carried away in class while talking about global warming. I preached that it was the job of every single person to take care of this world. They looked very lost so I switched to a song to get the message across. It was a bit more successful than my preaching. “Clean up, Clean up, everybody everywhere. Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share.”

The lyrics were translated and hopefully the message as well. Throughout the week we will continue the environment lesson plan, making posters for the school and a concert for the parents presenting a few environmental songs. While some might argue that I should be lecturing in my own country, I see it completely fit to teach this lesson plan in my community. My classes at GW teach that it is just as important – if not more important – to educate the international developing communities about global problems. It is, of course, a joint effort.

And so at the end of the week when I take my students to do a trash clean up around the city, I hope they understand that it is up to them to convey the message to their peers and I’m crossing my fingers that the next time they have trash, they think twice before tossing it out the window.

Emily is a sophomore in the Elliott School with a major in International Affairs and a concentration in International Development. She is currently abroad teaching English with Learning Enterprises in La Palma, Panama.

“Polish Alaska” – that’s how Janusz Krajnik describes the region of Bieszczady to me.  Janusz, like many others of his generation, studied Russian and not English in school, but even I am hard-pressed to think of a better description. Bieszczady is a wild paradise with mountainous terrain, packs of bison and wolves, log cabins and even natural oil. During the winter it even looks like Alaska.

Janusz is the directior of the Jan Pawel II Gymnasium in Tarnawa Dolna. For four weeks I’m teaching English classes to 60-some students in this village. Equipped with one semester of Polish classes and a crash course in international affairs courtesy of the Elliott School, I’m standing in front of a classroom on Poland’s border with Slovakia and Ukraine, an area that just a few years ago was at the center of the history I’m studying at GW today. Although I can’t attest to the amount of English my students have picked up in four short weeks, I have certainly learned a lot by teaching and living in the beautiful homes, fields, and mountains of the Polish Alaska.

William is a sophomore in the Elliott School of International Affairs, majoring in International Affairs and concentrating in Europe and Eurasian Studies. In the summer of 2009, he taught students in Poland through Learning Enterprises and has also taught in D.C. with the AnBryce Institute.

After studying Arabic for the last academic year and getting a taste of financial management through a course at the Business School, I decided in the spring that it would be good to get some experience in finance in an Arab country. With a background in political science, Japanese studies and anthropology, I figured it would be hard to start managing a Gulf-based investment fund right away. Instead, I decided to look for an opportunity in microfinance.

My interest in international development and base-of-pyramid business models made me curious about this much-praised approach to help ‘the poor’. Especially after setting up a team of Students in Free Enterprise at GW, I was curious to see how other organizations stimulate entrepreneurship. All the while, it would give me an opportunity to test my newly acquired finance and language skills in a new environment.

So I went online, looked for microfinance organizations anywhere in the Arab world (strategically omitting Afghanistan) and send them e-mails offering my services as an intern. Of the scores of messages sent, just a few resulted in a reply. But eventually, I only needed one, so when Al Majmoua in Lebanon asked me to do an Activity-Based cost analysis to look for ways to improve their profitability, my plans for the summer were sealed.

I had already met several people from Lebanon at GW, so I had heard all kinds of stories about it. But when I saw Beirut by night through the window of the airplane, I had no idea what it would be like to live there for 2.5 months. After having been here for about six weeks, I have had all kinds of pleasant and unpleasant surprises.

As I was told, Lebanon is indeed a beautiful country. However, most cities aren’t beautiful at all, and in general the view of the magnificent mountains and Mediterranean sea is spoiled by ugly apartment buildings and excessive billboards (attracting most attention are the large lingerie advertisements with a warning in the top-corner saying “Keep your eyes on the road”). Using Arabic in real life is much harder than I thought it would be, but I finally reached the point that taxi drivers approvingly concede “Ah, btehki ‘arabi” after I’ve explained them where I want to go in their own language.

And then there’s the development part. In a way, Lebanon is always in development. Frequent wars have ensured that buildings are always in need of repair or total reconstruction, and a vast diaspora of emigrated Lebanese spend their dollars, euros and pesos when they come back during summer, generating a large inflow of hard currency. This results in ten-dollar beers in the most popular bars, while many Lebanese can’t afford to spend that amount daily on food.

Working for an NGO that is offering financial services to the poor gives an interesting viewpoint of these different social strata. First of all, it is interesting to see how policy differs from practice when comparing the procedures designed at the head office and the daily routine of loan analysts in the field. When I’m thinking about this discrepancy between management and staff in one organization operating in a small country like Lebanon, I can only guess how hard and inefficient it must be to design a development policy for a country across the ocean from an office at the World Bank or IMF in Washington, D.C.

Another eye-opener was that I soon understood the reasoning behind the reckless mortgage providers that led to the financial crisis. Even if you run a considerable risk, the profit on large loans is so high that it is very tempting to disregard safe lending practices. Which brings me to another dilemma: should a development organization go for the profit, or for the impact? Of course, the organization has to be financially sustainable. Right now, Al Majmoua doesn’t need external funding to maintain daily operations, but it does if it wants to expand. In addition, it might be able to lower interest rates if it generated more profits.

Today I was having a discussion about this with my manager. She insisted that Al Majmoua should serve the lowest-income groups, meaning that it would issue mainly small loans (between $500 and $2000). However, I was proposing to increase both principal and maturity to generate more income and allow for lower interest rates. Eventually, it will be a balancing act to keep serving Al Majmoua’s target group while generating enough profits for expansion. I still have one more month in Beirut to find a way to do this.

Bram was born and raised in the picturesque Dutch town of Beerze before going to university in Leiden. Now a resident of Washington, D.C., Bram is an M.A. International Trade and Investment Policy student, focusing on International Business. He is also the chairman of Students in Free Enterprise GWU.

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I am currently living in a rural village called La Palma in Panama teaching English at the secondary school. I teach 7th, 8th and 9th grade which is an awkward age no matter what country you live in. My students are more than a handful but after teaching for three weeks, they have started to grow on me.

Though my school already has an English program, the teacher barely speaks English and it is actually easier for us to converse in Spanish. She basically hands over her classes to me everyday and I have complete freedom to teach them whatever and however I want. The first time I entered the classroom I noticed a sign that read “God created me to be a winner, not a loser so this term I will study hard.” I took a picture and then kindly removed it, leaving the rest of her very religious posters.

I try to speak only English but after they stare at me for a good five minutes, I switch to Spanish. My students are stunned by how many games, songs and activities I know. We just finished learning the basic body parts and the song “head and shoulders, knees and toes” has definitely made a comeback. I’ll be walking to the store in my village and hear kids teaching it to their siblings!

We have done activities using chalk, water balloons and construction paper and all of a sudden, the students are starting to grasp the information more quickly than before. The reason for this is that normally the students are forced to copy the board full of English verbs and sentences for over an hour. The content might be the same but the technique I use is completely different from what they are used to, and it is working. Many times, the teachers do not have the resources to play fun games and the school does not have enough money to provide them. It is not even guaranteed that my students will show up to class with a piece of paper and pencil.

While teaching I have learned that you work with what you have. Initially my goal was to motivate the students to learn English and teach them about some American customs – however, I am starting to notice that my fellow teachers are hungry for ideas to spice up their subjects. I took the easiest songs such as “B-I-N-G-O” and the easiest games such as “I Spy” all for granted. Now more than ever, I appreciate my earlier school years.

Every day my students surprise me with their English knowledge. One day I will try to explain direction words (up down left right and so on ) and they will look completely confused. But then, there are days like yesterday when we played a game and the team that lost came up to me and said “Mission failed.”  Seems like Wall-E is a good source of English phrases. I have so much fun with my students and being able to teach them is really an adventure.

Emily is a sophomore in the Elliott School with a major in International Affairs and a concentration in International Development.  She is currently abroad teaching English with Learning Enterprises in La Palma, Panama.