Roman Torres is a first year student in the International Affairs program. His focus while at the Elliott School is international economics and data analysis, so Roman wanted a summer internship that would give him some practical experience working with data and economic issues in the real world. He found a perfect match with Planet Indonesia; a newly formed NGO based in the Indonesian part of West Borneo.
Planet Indonesia’s main goal is to help poor communities (especially those in areas with sensitive ecosystems) engage in productive economic activities that preserve natural habitats and cultural traditions. They do this by facilitating the creation of small joint-business groups in which people work together to develop skills, produce valuable goods, and successfully bring it to the market. Additionally, Planet Indonesia helps communities organize communal banks that are funded from the business groups’ sales, making credit accessible to populations outside the scope of mainstream financial institutions.
Planet Indonesia has asked Roman to assist in capacity training for the Indonesian staff. Particularly in areas like long-term strategies, monitoring and evaluation of programs, project management, and data analysis. Roman has held several workshops, introducing concepts and tools to help the
Indonesian staff think about the organization’s mission, ways they can achieve their goals, how to measure their progress, identifying good indicators, generating and tracking data, and effective ways to communicate this information to donors and potential donors.
Roman plans to enter the field of international consultancy after graduation. His time with Planet Indonesia is giving him valuable experience working with a client from a completely different cultural background and with a different language, as well as to learning how to be effective while managing clients’ expectations. Roman hopes that the skills he nurtured during his internship at Planet Indonesia will make him a more competitive candidate in the job market later on.
He will also really miss Indonesian food! You can reach Roman with questions or comments at romantorres@gwu.edu
