1. Why did you choose the IBEI Master’s in International Relations?

Before IBEI, I had graduated in International Relations. I choose IBEI because I was looking for an academic institution where I could continue my education while being abroad and have the opportunity to learn a new language. The variety of the courses offered at IBEI convinces me to apply 

2. What is your experience at IBEI? 

At IBEI, I enjoyed the quality of the program and classes, the implication of the professors to provide intellectually stimulating contents, the kindness of the administrative staff always ready to help. I also enjoyed that other students were coming from other background than I.R or political science, that openness made the debates in class always interesting!    

3. Describe your career path since graduating from the IBEI

After graduating from IBEI, I have started an internship at the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation of the Generalitat de Catalunya – the Government of Catalonia – where I familiarized myself with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs and their localization in Catalonia while providing back-up support on different projects. After this internship, I had the opportunity to work with the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation on two projects: a project proposal for the EU Emergency Trust Fund in North Africa, and another project designed to enhance international projection and inter-institutional cooperation of Catalan entities in projects of development cooperation. Since April 2017, I work at Metropolis.

4. What is your professional experience (your current position, your main functions)?

Metropolis is a global association that connects political leaders, policy makers and practitioners worldwide in order to advocate for metropolitan interests and improve the performance of metropolises in addressing local and global challenges. It raises the voices of metropolises to the global agenda and builds capacity to find common answers to the challenges of metropolisation, one of the most pressing international issues.

There, I am a project officer for the Pilot Projects; specific projects on metropolitan issues and governance, designed for capacity- building & enhancement through knowledge transfer and exchanges from a cross-sectoral approach. I am responsible for the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the different pilot projects financed by the association. Currently, we have 6 projects between cities based in all continents and tackling issues such as food security or transition to low-carbon society, and we recently launched a call for new projects.

In addition, I am also a project officer for fundraising activities, where I collaborate on the fundraising strategy and the liaison with international donors from the public and private spheres.

5. How did the master programme prepare you for the work you're doing now? 

The exigence of the Master program asks the students to be extra-prepared during their time at IBEI, and that is something that helped me later on in various aspects of my professional career. In addition, some theories and paradigms that I have familiarized myself throughout my time at IBEI proved to be very useful in my day-to-day work, especially those related to Global Governance and International Organizations.

6. Is this more or less what you pictured yourself doing after the master programme?

Yes! I have the chance and opportunity to keep learning everyday on a lot of different topics, to work with people from various background and cultures, while advancing my career in a vibrant and challenging international environment.

7. What advice would you give to current students who want to follow this career path? / Some advice to future IBEI students? 

The main advices I would give is to keep learning something new every day, be open to professional opportunities and last but not least be creative! As professionals of international relations, we have the chance to work with very diverse yet complementary and transversal subjects. Each professional experience will teach you something, and your capability of making the connections between all your knowledge, both academic and professional, will be determinant in your career.

8. What do you miss most about the IBEI? 

The quality and diversity of the readings from the different classes, and… the weekly football games between the English and Bilingual tracks!