Ellen recently moved to Washington DC to begin her Masters at SIT, a program of World Learning. As a Graduate Student, she is studying Sustainable Development with a focus on Monitoring and Evaluation and is also working as a Program Assistant, supporting the Education Unit in the International Development and Exchange Programs (IDEP) branch of World Learning.

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, she taught English in Secondary schools in Nicaragua and worked closely with the ACCESS program in her site of Boaco, and nationally. She also worked in youth development, coordinating multiple camps and workshops focused on youth leadership, life skills, health, and English language skills. Her service sparked interests in access to education, improving education systems as well as the myriad of push factors that contribute to migration within Central America and immigration to the United States.

After graduating from SIT in August 2017, she hopes to pursue a career in the international development field and would like to focus on program development, management and monitoring and evaluation. Her dream job is to be a DPT at a Peace Corps post in Latin America.

Ellen hopes to use the Peace Corps mentoring program to gain insight into the development field in Washington DC, and to begin to make connections to better inform her career goals.