Christine Shepherd
Beta Sigma, University of Georgia

While a junior at the University of Georgia, Shepherd began to realize her interest in the intersection of international affairs and business, particularly as they related to international economic development. At the time however, Shepherd dedicated over twenty hours a week to captaining UGA's cross country team, not leaving much room in her schedule to explore her interest. Though committed to running, senior year, Shepherd made a difficult decision to retire from college athletics pursuing an internship in international trade instead, a decision which helped determine her post-college path.

Graduating from UGA's Terry College of Business in 2005, Shepherd moved to Washington D.C. working for four years in a variety of positions, most recently for the foreign policy program of the Brookings Institution.

Last year, to build on her professional experience, Shepherd returned to school to pursue a joint MBA/Masters of International Relations. Completing an MBA at HEC School of Management, located just outside of Paris, Christine discovered that she could work on a business related project in the developing world to fulfill some of her credits. 

Seizing this opportunity, Shepherd discovered Samasource, a San Francisco-based, young, dynamic organization, which leverages internet technology to bring paying work to workers in economically under-served communities in Pakistan, India, Kenya and most recently, Haiti. In need of associates, with work experience and business training, to spend a few months with their field partners, Samasource invited Christine, to spend a summer offering business  assistance and training to their Haitian based partners.

While a summer spent working in Haiti is quite atypical for an MBA student, Shepherd found that the experience enabled her to gain a first hand view of the difficulties of working and trying to run a business in a third world country, something that no textbook or case study could teach.

This fall, Shepherd moved to Boston to pursue the other portion of her masters degrees at Tuft's University's Fletcher School of Law in Diplomacy, where she will study international trade and commercial policy. After graduation, she hopes to return to D.C. and find international economic development related work.

Read Christina's recent article for Businessweek, "Doing Good—and Well—in Haiti," as well as her past pieces about her MBA.