Tanzania trip will enhance career counseling

BY KIMBERLY LEONARD, '09

Katybeth Dreisbach spent 18 days in Tanzania to understand the needs of employers and help Richmond students prepare for overseas jobs.

Katybeth Dreisbach realized she needed to learn more about the needs of employers abroad after hearing that many of the students she counseled in the Career Development Center wanted to work in international development.

"I thought, 'What better way to learn than to go there and talk to people who are actually doing the job?'" Dreisbach said.

So she applied for and received a Carole Weinstein Grant for Summer International Projects and Study and was on her way to Tanzania to interview professionals working in a variety of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Dreisbach spent 18 days last May in Arusha and Moshi in northern Tanzania. She interviewed NGO professionals each day, including representatives of Peace House Foundation, Save the Children, Amani, Pamoja Trust and other organizations committed to ending poverty, fighting disease and advocating for human rights.

She asked them how they got their jobs, what advice they would give to students, what skills they seek in employees, and if they would be willing to serve as a point of contact for University of Richmond students.

Dreisbach discovered that organizations must serve many different roles. For example, one devoted to helping orphans also has to look at health, education and micro-finance strategies. "The issues are so intertwined it's hard to separate them," she said.

Many children have families who cannot pay for education because they are poor, sick or in desperate situations. The children often end up on the streets and start using drugs. Eventually, some end up in orphanages, she said. Many never finish secondary school.

Dreisbach said the trip was encouraging because she heard similar strategic themes, though she saw little collaboration among NGOs.

Her primary recommendation to students thinking about working overseas is that they first examine their intentions.

Learning a skill, such as a language, is an important strategy, she said. In Tanzania, the official languages are Swahili and English.

Dreisbach suggested students take a "scouting trip" to learn a region's needs and then return later to work after learning a skill or earning an advanced degree. NGO representatives recommended that students commit to a year's stay in countries where they would like to work in order to genuinely appreciate the culture. It is important to be strategic, she said, by pursuing research projects during study abroad or getting involved in community efforts at home.

The most important personal quality needed for work in Tanzania, Dreisbach discovered, is humility.

"You don't have all the answers," she said. "There may be a grandmother who cannot read and has never left her village, but you have to be humble enough to learn from her."

In addition, students cannot make assumptions about technology, resources and pace of life. Much news and information in Tanzania is hand-written because of frequent power outages. And Tanzanians are less concerned about time than Americans are.

"People have to realize that's OK," Dreisbach said. "They can still be good workers and come up with good solutions."

Dreisbach has been a frequent traveler ever since making her first six-month trip to 12 countries after graduating from college in 2002. "I have been bitten by the bug," she said.

After seeing much of the world, she says she knows her actions impact others around the globe.

Her main goal as a career counselor, she said, is to help students find career paths tied to their passions. "Success is subjective," she said. "For some people it takes a while to define."