About Me
To Whom It May Concern,
being originally from Ethiopia, I believe my adoption at the age of 8 has had a significant influence on my academic and career aspirations. At the age of 19, I decided to volunteer in my native country, quickly learning about the local culture, language, and its people. There-fore, I undertook my bachelor’s degree in Politics and International Relations.
During my first trip to Ethiopia, I provided administrative assistance to the head of the Italian NGO, Cisp. Beyond coordinating meetings with local stakeholders and other NGOs in their Addis Ababa office, my active role gave me the opportunity to support the organisation’s development projects in the country’s Tigray region, bringing youthful innovative ideas to the program. By managing projects focused on gender inclusion and young girls’ education – in line with Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 5 – I gained first-hand understanding of the country's complex socio-economic situation.
In Ethiopia, I became interested in inclusive development and social justice. This urged me to participate in the Oxfam’s project “Transatlantic Youth Dialogue” where I learned to be a good team player. The Transatlantic Youth Dialogue brought together youth from across Canada and Europe to identify common solutions and actions to address climate change, gender inequality and violent extremism. With my group, we worked with a result orientated approach to realise a report on the violent extremism and how the phenomenon directly affects young people in Rome. Once the document was concluded, we went to Montreal to expose our findings. Being part of the project helped me acquire not only communication and teamwork skills but also experience and knowledge to participate in public debates in a multicultural environment.
Following this experience, my passion and commitment in helping others led me to volunteer for other NGOs in Italy and France, working mostly with homeless shelters and immigrants support associations. In addition, I had the opportunity to work for an Italian NGO -‘Spazzi di Campagna’- which helps immigrants by supporting their professional integration in the Italian labour market, in particular eco-responsible agriculture.
Furthermore, with ‘Spazzi di campagna’, I had the opportunity to work in the project that aimed to economically dynamize depopulated areas of Northern Italy. To tackle this issue, projects attracted and convinced young people and sub-Saharan immigrants to live and work in the depopulated areas. To accommodate their social and economic inclusion, the projects tasked them to be the protagonist for the economic revival of those territories.
In addition to these professional and volunteering activities, my bachelor’s degree enabled me to deepen my knowledge of Africa’s political context from a theoretical standpoint. Notably, during my course ‘African history and institutions’, I focused on case studies related to the impact of European
colonialism on Africa’s institutions and economic development – nurturing a keen interest in the way modern African states modelled their growth policies in the post-colonial era. This led me to focus my bachelor’s thesis on the relationship between Ethiopia’s and China’s development paradigms and on the countries’ economic interdependencies.
Progressing through my bachelor’s programme and appreciating the importance and dynamics of interregional collaboration in the African continent, I grew increasingly fascinated by West African economies. Consequently, I set out to learn French and completed an Erasmus programme in Paris.
My academic experience in France taught me how to be flexible and especially how to be adaptable in a foreign environment. Indeed, I managed not only to pass successfully all the exams, sustained in the local language, but also, I managed to integrate into social voluntary groups that have the objective to help homeless people in Paris. My experience in foreign countries shows my capacity of adaptability both in academic and social contests.
After completing my bachelor's degree, I decided to continue my studies enrolling on the Master program Migration and Development at the University of Sapienza. This program consists of the study of the most intimate aspects of migration and the link between migration and development opportunities both in the country of origin and the country of destination.
In conclusion, I believe that my academic language, and professional experience demonstrate my passion and commitment to deepening my knowledge of complex issues related to socioeconomic, development policies and social inclusion.
Habtamu Albeggiani
