This past semester, I had the privilege to work as
a research assistant under Global Affairs Professor Singh. The project that I
and two other students were assisting Professor Singh with dealt with determining
the socioeconomic impact of information technology on developing countries. By
utilizing quantitative and qualitative research methods, I will critically
analyze closed projects from the World Bank from 1990 to 2010. By analyzing the
closed World Bank projects, the two research assistants and I will assist
Professor Singh in developing a coding scheme and publishing a book that will
help gauge whether technology is playing a participatory role or not in
developing countries. On a weekly basis, I and two other research assistants
had about a week to analyze and code three World Bank projects that Professor
Singh picked from the online project database on the World Bank website. After
analyzing and coding each of the three projects, we would meet up in Professor
Singh’s office to discuss each of the three projects and improve the coding
scheme from the feedback that he received from each of us. As a research
assistant, I discovered how the importance of my role as a research assistant
who was assisting Professor Singh with developing his coding scheme even though
I was only an undergraduate student. I see this opportunity being very relevant
to my long-term goals. As a global affairs major and a student who has always
been eager to learn the research process, this opportunity has helped me to see
a scholar making an impact in the field of Global Affairs. I hope to go to
graduate school for international affairs and work for the Department of State.
