The Long

As the youngest of three children growing up on a farm in Palmer, Alaska, I am no stranger to stacking hay, scooping manure or weeding the garden. By raising cows, alpacas, pigs, the occasional turkey, a few cats and a dog, I grew to love animals and quickly learned the value of hard work and perseverance. 

​

As a youngster, I enjoyed building forts in the woods using sticks or snow depending on the season, watching tadpoles turn to frogs, and betting on when the last dusting of snow would fall on the mountaintops to signify winter was around the corner. 

​

In high school, my family had the great honor of hosting a Rotary Youth Exchange student from Denmark for a year. She fit into our family like a glove, and brought so much wonder and joy to our lives. The following year, I applied to study abroad through the same program and was placed in a mid-size city two and a half hours north of Bangkok: Lopburi, Thailand.

The experience that followed is difficult to describe in just a few words, but suffice to say that it changed me for the better. By living with host families, wrapping my tongue around a challenging new language and encountering a totally new way of life, my eyes were opened to the world in a way that was impossible in my rugged Alaskan home.

​

Following my year abroad, I returned to finish my senior year of high school a semester early before interning with a travelling, educational dance company sponsored by the University of Montana. Shortly thereafter, I matriculated at the University of Oregon and began my Bachelor of Arts in International Studies focusing on South & Southeast Asia.

Taking courses on the Israel-Palestine conflict, international development and and poverty led me to propose Global Ethics as my focus within the major. During school, I ran a successful peer mentorship program for international students and interned for the Peace Corps.

After graduating a semester early, I moved to Washington, DC to work for the world's largest association for international educators: NAFSA. After about a year in the big city, I moved back west to Boulder, Colorado where I assisted the local school district's Early Childhood Education department deploy a new website, redesign training materials and guided the use of technology to enhance the department's efficiency and workflow.

​

Currently, I am pursuing a Master of Science degree in the University of Colorado Boulder's ATLAS Institute studying Information & Communication Technology for Development (better known as ICT4D or in short, technology for social impact). I aspire to harness my foundation in international affairs and marry it with a growing understanding of technology to build sustainable, culturally-aware community development initiatives in my community. I am specifically interested in access to education, poverty alleviation and the rights of women and girls.

​

In elementary school, my first grade teacher noted on my report card that I was "a force to be reckoned with" and I intend to be just that.