Leonardo Palumbo graduated from ÌÇÐÄvlog in 2008 now works in advocacy and humanitarian affairs in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan for M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res – Holland. He also served as a Senior Policy Coordinator for Eurohealthnet in Brussels. Majoring in French Civilization, he completed a double minor in Italian and International Studies. He also received an MA in Migration Studies at Kent University in 2009.<\/p>\n
Here is what he had to say about the Montclair experience in a message from 2015:<\/p>\n
“I studied at Montclair along with both of my brothers. As a student, I took advantage of the campus activities, clubs, and opportunities, and was lucky enough to study abroad in Nice and Chambery over the summer. Before graduating, I also had the opportunity to do an internship at the International Institute of New Jersey working with French speaking asylum speakers. After graduating, I left to complete my Masters degree in Brussels \u2013 the capital of Europe. Studying in Brussels helped me build the research and analytical skills that I developed at Montclair State. In this Northern European city, I also had the opportunity to (re)connect with my Italian roots \u2013 I quickly got involved in the Italian community and had the opportunity to meet family in different parts of Europe.<\/p>\n
Upon completion of my Masters, with merit, I worked in a migrants\u2019 rights organization, a NGO working in the field of public health, and a network of public authorities working on health inequalities. These experiences allowed me to gain insight in to the European Union decision-making process, and the policy design and implementation process. Working for European networks, I have had the opportunity to travel to Germany, Austria, Greece, Latvia, Romania, Croatia, France, Luxembourg, Spain and Portugal as well as Taiwan.<\/p>\n
Keeping up with the Red Hawk spirit, I became involved in young professional networks, such as Young<\/em> Ambassador Society <\/em>in Italy, the Young European Health Forum <\/em>Gastein, Young European Leadership<\/em>, and the One Campaign Youth Ambassadors<\/em> program.\u00a0 Through these experiences, I got to work with Italian students on recommendations for the G8 and present ideas for a sustainable Europe in the European Parliament. Watch this interview (in Italian) by the Movimento 5 Stelle (5 Star Movement) about these recommendations<\/a>.<\/p>\n This year with the One Campaign, I will be travelling to the G7 in Germany and organizing awareness-raising activities on malaria.<\/p>\n I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to study at Montclair where I had professors who challenged students to think critically and pushed them to excel academically.\u00a0 My research and critical analysis skills serve me well in a fast-paced political environment. My time at Montclair also familiarized me with working in a multi-cultural environment. For students of international relations this is essential, and now I make use of this skill in interactions with decision makers from 28 different member states. I would encourage Montclair students to learn about a new culture and travel as much as they can as students.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Works for Doctors without Borders – Netherlands in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206599,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions\/206599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}