Rising Junior Virginia Dillon prepares for summer internship with NGO in Nepal

This summer, KIE is sending Durham native and rising Junior Virginia Dillon to Nepal for an internship with the World Food Programme (WFP) office in Patan, Nepal (in the Kathmandu Valley). WFP-Nepal directs its aid through a number of projects focusing on social protection. These projects include providing nutritional aid for mothers and children and school meals, supporting agricultural jobs and rural infrastructure, and maintaining data and reporting on the food stability in local communities.

Dillon will be assisting the office’s Monitoring and Evaluations team as it assesses the effectiveness of these programs using quantitative and qualitative methods. KIE has built a relationship with WFP-Nepal through its continuous programs for undergraduate research in Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal, including DukeImmerse: Uprooted/Rerouted.

Dillon is majoring in public policy studies with a minor in history and is also a participant in KIE’s Ethics Certificate program. She is particularly interested in immigration and education policy in addition to international law. This past fall, Dillon helped initiate a program to bring the refugee narratives collected through DukeImmerse to one of the local high schools.

Beginning in June, Dillon will be sharing photos and reflections throughout her internship on the 2013 WFP internship research journal.