For almost two years now, I have been working with Dr. Singh, a
Professor of Global Affairs and Cultural Studies here at Mason, on his research
project concerning participation within development projects in the sector of
information technology and communications. The work we have been working in
since last year has included coding over 200 World Bank Projects, we have since
then finished this as of May 2015. Now we have moved on to the next step in
order to support our findings we are now comparing our data sets to the Independent
Evaluation Group’s (IEG) findings on these same projects. This year, we are
working with over 11,000 projects and hope to extract information for these
projects in order to further support the results Dr. Singh, myself, and the
other research assistants have come up with.
On a weekly basis, I input data into both coding sets we
currently have; our World Bank Project coding and now, the IEG findings.
Currently, I am inputting IEG data information into our World Bank data in
order to make it easier on us when comparing data sets.
One thing I have discovered this week are the barriers
researchers go through; there comes a time when research encounter an obstacle
and in order to push through it you have to find a solution through various
means. A coding scheme was created for us, when we jumped on board, but now I
am seeing Dr. Singh come up with another coding scheme for the new data set, so
this year has been a completely different experience because I can see how
difficult it can be in order to fit all criteria need especially when looking
for accuracy.
I am a senior graduating in May of 2016, and I hope to continue
working within the field of Global affairs in any aspect of international
relations. I have currently applied to George Mason’s Master’s Program and hope
to continue my education and also continue having a hand in research.
