Practicum

Practicum is an opportunity for us to get experience in NGO’s and get a feel for the Kazakh business culture (such as having office wide tea breaks 10 times throughout the day). I was originally assigned to a company that was trying to develop the tourism sector in Almaty, but the director had to travel to Moscow and there was nobody else in the office so I was moved. I am now working at a place called Community Connections. This organization works with USAID to train NGO’s, political officials, media representatives, and religious leaders in the US. This company recruits and selects participants to participate in a 5 week study abroad type program in America and then facilitates alumni productivity in their respective communities. The work is interesting, the people are great and there are even some former PCV’s (ex-pats) that work is the same office.