Spotlights
Madeline Vander Velde
When I began my undergraduate studies at GVSU, I wanted to begin on a path that would ensure a career related to political science and culture, and allow me to continue to study foreign language. My second year of undergraduate studies, I spent the academic year (2013-2014) living and studying in Angers, France. A year and a half later (2016), while in my final semester, I studied abroad in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
During my time in Cluj, I developed a specific interest in intercultural communications, ethnopolitics and the Syrian refugee crisis. After graduation in 2016, I began graduate studies in international relations at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey. While attending courses in the fall of 2017, I interned at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for six months--three months in the Livelihoods Unit and three months in the Refugee Status Determination (RSD) Unit.
In June 2018, I moved to Brussels, Belgium, as an Erasmus Trainee at the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) Secretariat. While working as a Project Assistant at UNPO, I am currently finishing my Master's degree.
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