Ph.D. student Ana Klincic has developed a key perspective through her studies at the School of CED: Her skills and experience will help her empower people and show them a path to a different future, but her opinion shouldn’t drive them.

“I wouldn’t like to impose that on them,” she said. “The most important thing is that you can work with the community; you can work with a group of people to help them achieve their best potential.”

Ana, of Croatia, works in international microfinance development. She has practiced in Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Zambia and the Czech Republic.

“I am hoping that with my education and professional experience and the things that I am exposed to that I will be able to work for the benefit of the communities,” she says. “I can have the greatest impact on decision making if I am working on a policy level.”

Because she travels so much, the School of CED’s supportive environment is comforting.

“My faculty is there for me and I have a very good rapport with them,” she says. “The school is like family.”