Next stop: Nepal
As part of the curriculum for the International Affairs program at the George H.W. Bush School of Government and Public Service, each student must complete a capstone project, providing a deliverable to a client by tackling a current issue under the supervision of a current faculty member. We are fortunate to have been chosen to work under Dr. Ren Mu on developing a report based on two research questions regarding the 2015 Nepal earthquakes.
The inspiration for this project began with the idea of one of our team members who spent summer 2015 working with the European Institute for Asian Studies on post-earthquake resilience following the earthquakes in Nepal. After conducting research on Nepal, natural disasters and economic recovery, and incorporating suggestions from the Center on Conflict and Development, our two research questions were born:
Does past conflict experience impact natural disaster outcomes?
What was the impact of the 2015 earthquakes on children’s education outcomes?
Having completed our first research question, we have traveled to Nepal to present the findings of our research to the Rautahat Development Trust and the USAID mission office in Kathmandu, and to administer surveys to schoolchildren in order to complete our second research question upon return. After three flights and 30+ hours of travel, we hit the ground running: arriving just the night before, we conducted our pre-test at 8:30 AM the next morning, followed by a day full of survey adjustments, coordinating with collaborators, campus tours, and a delicious welcome dinner, complete with Nepalese entertainment. Experiencing varying levels of jetlag, collectively our enthusiasm for the project has been our fuel.