Staff Spotlight: Catherine “Cat” Brozena

I first learned of FSD when I was finishing graduate studies and exploring opportunities that would allow me to offer my time and skills in service to a community while gaining a deeper understanding of the dynamics of sustainable development and globalization being felt around the world. While my overseas pursuits took me in different directions, I have continued my great admiration for the work that FSD does, its mission, and its approach to sustainable development even to today.

In 2003 to 2005, I participated in an international development study and internship program in India through the University of Minnesota. The U of M program offered a combination of four months of instruction in the local language, culture, and history; eight months of volunteer work with a local NGO; and culminated in a comprehensive research paper that I was to write to encapsulate my learnings. Despite having never traveled abroad at that point in my life, I put all my belongings in storage, booked a one-way ticket to northern India, and embarked on the trip of a lifetime.

My volunteer time in India was spent in partnership with the Morarka Foundation in Jaipur, Rajasthan, where I traveled with local teams across the Shekhawati region, helping local farmers turn their farming practices over to organic methods of raising crops and livestock (methods which were sadly lost during the agricultural revolution in India in favor of more industrial farming methods). I also supported the Morarka Foundation’s yearly cultural festival, which celebrated the beauty, art, and history of the Shekhawati region each year in February. Less than a year after returning to the U.S., I went back to India to continue my work as a communications consultant with the Morarka Foundation, further supporting their efforts to tell the story of their work and to foster a burgeoning of eco-tourism in the region, which still thrives today.

I've been really moved by the group of teachers who recently travelled to Kakamega, Kenya. In conjunction with a local partner organization, the group created a presentation and leave-behind materials that served as the basis for an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign. Those materials continue to be used to help prevent the transmissions of HIV in Kakamega and surrounding villages. I think this project illustrates the ways in which FSD programs and projects are not just one-and-done programs. Rather, they are collaborative in all aspects, and are shaped to have positive, lasting impacts on the health of communities.

As an FSD board member, I have been lending my time and skill to support FSD's marketing and outreach efforts, to help grow participation in the organization's projects and programs. FSD's collaboration with communities across the globe is done with such integrity, and its mission is so solid and honest. I truly hope that we can get the word out to more people about this great organization and its model of sustainable development so that more communities can benefit from their partnerships with FSD.

FSD internships have been designed to provide both a positive and enriching experience to interns while also delivering the kind of capacity-building support that communities can benefit most from. There's a real thoughtfulness to how these internship opportunities are designed so that everyone comes away from the experience with a stronger set of skills and understanding.