Kristin Cataldo
Kristin studied on our MA International Relations in 2017 and has since worked for a number of international aid organisations, most recently in Jordan with an Italian NGO.
Tell us more about what you’ve been doing since you finished your Master’s at ARU
After my degree I moved to Brazil, to volunteer for three months. Then I started volunteering for internships. My goal was to work in the Middle East, so the first internship I did was in Lebanon with a local NGO, providing healthcare for Palestinian and Syrian refugees.
After that I applied for another internship in Jordan with the UN Reliefs and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees for six months. Then I started applying for jobs, and I’ve been working with Italian NGOs since 2019, providing support and protection services for vulnerable Jordanians and Syrian refugees in Jordan.
What was your day-to-day work in these roles like?
In my most recent work I was Project Manager for a project funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS). The whole cycle starts by applying to the donor with a proposal, which we write as team. The donor then evaluates the proposal, and if they think it’s valid, we get the funds and the project can start.
As a Project Manager I had to manage the field staff, the budget of the project, write the interim and the final reports. The work was quite dynamic day to day. There could be field work - going to work directly with partners and seeing where the refugees live. And then a lot of office work. Every day was different, sometimes meeting with partners, sometimes meetings with the donor, dealing with the HQ on a daily basis and sending updates, trying to sort out issues – issues were one of the main tasks I had.
The project needs to be reported with all the details, and all the data collated on the services we provide and to whom - disaggregated data of gender, nationality, age etc. I can’t describe a single day because every day was literally different, but this was more or less what I did until the final report, when I had to report everything that happened during the cycle of the project to the donor.
Where and what did you study before ARU?
I studied languages and foreign literature in Rome, La Sapienza for my bachelor degree.
Did you always know that you would go to university and if not, what changed your mind?
No. As a child I never thought to go to university, because I grew up in a family where it was not something essential, for my parents. But when I finished high school I realised I wanted to know more things, I felt very curious. So I took a gap year and, after that, I enrolled at university, first in Rome, then at ARU for the Master’s.
Why did you choose to study at ARU?
After my bachelor degree I came to Cambridge to do a small internship, and then I heard about ARU. I was undecided between studying in the UK or going back to Italy for my Master’s degree. So I went to the ARU website and saw that they teach the MA International Relations, which was something I was thinking about doing. I looked at universities in Italy, Rome and Bologna, and another in the UK, but then I applied only to Anglia Ruskin.
Entering a career in International Relations, for me it was better to study in the UK. First of all to improve my English, and also to enter into a different culture, a different methodology of teaching. In Italy all the exams are oral, while in the UK you write essays and you develop your critical thinking. This was essential in my career, because you have to write proposals and reports.
What inspired you to get involved with International Relations in the first place?
I think a sense of justice that I always had; the idea that someone has everything, and opportunities, and someone else has almost nothing. It’s a concept that makes me a bit angry. It’s not that I can change the world by studying international relations, but working in the humanitarian sector made me feel that I could bring a small difference.
There were many things I wanted to know better, like why governments, for instance, allow refugees to row in a boat on the Mediterranean knowing that probably they won’t reach any coast. All those kind of things that are happening in the world made me go for international relations.
What’s the most valuable thing you took away from your Master’s course?
First of all, I had the chance to learn how the United Nations work; where the money comes from etc. But also, it really supported me to have my own critical thinking about things that are real, things that are happening, politically-speaking, in the world. So the Master’s helped me to seek my own opinion and ideas, and start a career in the humanitarian sector, because knowing how the U.N. works also made me narrow down my focus of interest.
Also, Anglia Ruskin is a very international university. In my class I had a lot of colleagues from the Middle East – Palestinian, Syrian and Jordanian – and this also shaped the way I wanted to work, because I got very close with them. Speaking about the Syrian crisis and everything that is happening in the Middle East, I got very into it. It helped me realise that I wanted to work in the Middle East. The perspective of newspapers, media etc – it’s certainly different than the people who actually live there and experiences these things. So my way of seeing and analysing the day to day things that happen there changed completely after I lived there.
Which aspects of the course most helped your career development, and why?
Maybe for someone that studied their whole life in the UK, writing is normal, but for me, it was essential that I learned this, doing my Master’s in the UK, as it helped me be able to write a lot of things like records, project proposals, policies etc.
But also Dr Solava Ibrahim, who was my supervisor, had previous work experience with the U.N. Development Programme, so what she did, how she applied, and hearing how the whole system worked helped me understand how to enter into the sector.
In a way, studying international relations and career orientation is very much about international organisations. That can be the U.N. or NGOs, so you know where to go, and we talked about it during the course, so the path to take after the Master’s was quite clear to me.
What piece of advice would you give to other people hoping to study International Relations?
First of all, I would advise them to be flexible, because the work isn’t fixed contract usually. So you need to be mentally ready that you have maybe one, two or three years of contract, so then you need to reapply. And you need to travel all the time. So you might live one year in Jordan, then two years in Lebanon, then two more years in Senegal, to work the U.N. and international organisations. So you have to be ready to give up your comfort zones, and go into something new.
Also, you don’t know what can happen from one year to the next. I used to work for six years with Syrian refugees, but now they are going back home, so the projects that are about to end will not be renewed by the donors. When Donald Trump froze all the U.S. overseas aid funds, a lot of people lost their jobs. I was supposed to have an interview with an American NGO, but they emailed me to say “No, we are not hiring any longer”. There were people that were actually employed and lost their job, and a lot of services stopped. So if you’re in a refugee camp, and an NGO is providing water, people have been left from one day to the other without water. So the impact that one person has is on millions of people, and it’s a sector that is uncertain. One day you are working, the next day maybe you are not working. So it goes with political changes. You need to be ready to be at risk, so it’s not always the most comfortable life.
On the other hand, it’s very fulfilling. You meet a lot of people, you seen so many new places, you learn a lot from other cultures. So there is always a balance: you get something, you lose something else. But for sure, if someone is looking for a stable life, it’s impossible in this sector.
Is there any experience you’ve had that’s given you real hope?
There are a few projects that are providing, for instance, water, which is the basic need to live. In a refugee camp, a project that provides running water is not changing the universe but it’s changing their daily life.
Also, I was working on a project providing vocational training for women. It’s difficult to work with women in the Middle East sometimes, because the parents are not allowing them to go out, etc. But this training was followed by employment: a few of them found a job after and started to have their own income. So this is also, all things considered, a positive story. I have seen change in some lives, but also I’ve seen so much poverty and issues, that it’s just a drop into the ocean.
What gives you the strength to carry on in such a role?
To be honest, I don’t know. For me it’s just spontaneous. I liked the work I was doing. I always wanted to use my career to do something good, instead of maybe destroying a forest or something! It’s a two way thing, because I receive so much from those experiences. It’s sometimes hard to be an ex-pat all the time, but it was out of passion, out of love, to do it. So for me it was not a sacrifice.
What was your favourite thing about studying in Cambridge?
I love small cities, so it’s very comfortable to get around walking or cycling, without taking public transportation. I loved that I could work by the river, and I also felt quite safe. I felt comfortable – it felt like home to me.
The airport is very close, and London is very close. One of my best friends from Italy moved to Bristol to study, so we could meet as well. So it was honestly perfect to live here and study here.
What projects are you currently working on, both at work and outside it?
I’ve been working for the past seven years, and I’ve now finished my protection project in Jordan, that was focussing on providing support for women and people with disabilities. So since the project ended I’m having a little break to rest, and I’m also spending some time applying for jobs. It’s always a cycle - when a project ends something else comes.