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World Learning Gives Mother, Daughter Global “Four-sight”
(October 31, 2011) -- Many families boast of multi-generational ties to World Learning programs, especially The Experiment in International Living. But few can match the claim of a mother-daughter duo connected to four World Learning programs.
Sarah Gaylord-Ratsimbazafy is currently studying sustainable development at World Learning’s SIT Graduate Institute, her mother Lisa Gaylord’s alma mater. In an interesting turn, Lisa recently returned to Vermont to speak to Sarah’s class about her 30-year career as an international development and environmental expert.
“This generation has an opportunity to make development more holistic based on a comprehensive, systematic approach,” said Lisa. That’s why the skills that SIT teaches are so needed.”
Lisa’s interest in international affairs began with her family’s decision to host two Experiment exchange students from Germany in 1961. She went on to earn an SIT master’s degree in 1980 and do an SIT internship in Burkina Faso and Madagascar.
She later helped World Learning’s International Development program implement a training project in Cameroon and a natural resource management project in four nations funded by the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID. In 1990, Lisa settled in Madagascar where she established the country’s SIT Study Abroad program and met Sarah’s father, a Malagasy government official.
Growing up in Madagascar helped spark Sarah’s own interest in international development.
“I used to wonder ‘why are these children so poor? Why are they walking on the side of the road, while I am in a car?’”
These questions—and her mother’s encouragement—led Sarah to volunteer at an orphanage and seek internships that increasingly focused on health care. For a different perspective, she also participated in an SIT Study Abroad program to France in 2006.
“I realized that around the world, people need better access to health care,” said Sarah. “It seems especially important to work on mother and child nutrition and family planning. When women are having three children in two years, it is really difficult.”
Sarah earned a bachelor’s degree in health sciences from Linfield College in 2009 and returned to Madagascar to work on a food security project funded by USAID. Sarah said the project linked health and agriculture, combining her interest with her mother’s field of expertise.
When Sarah decided that she needed further education to create community-based change, she chose SIT Graduate Institute.
“Here at SIT I’m getting the tools I need to be a better leader, to interact with people and integrate their perspectives, to make connections between the issues and help people develop themselves,” said Sarah.
Her mother Lisa added, “That’s the difference of an SIT education: future leaders learn how to bring about sustainable change by understanding how the cultural context influences decision makers.”
As for their futures, Lisa will head to Haiti in January to work on a USAID natural resource and agriculture program. Sarah is looking forward to her SIT Policy Advocacy class in Bangladesh and to taking the next steps in a career that combines social action, media, training, and community health for women and youth.
Together, the Gaylord-Ratsimbazafys say they will continue to support and inspire each other in their individual, but common journeys.
By Susal Stebbins
World Learning is a nonprofit organization advancing leadership through education, exchange, and development programs.
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