I grew up with the idealistic desire to help people and engage critically with the problems facing our world. My tertiary education began at home, in Australia, initially studying social and health sciences with the aim of pursuing medicine. However, as my interests in the social sciences deepened, I enrolled in the Graduate Institute’s winter programme; a powerful catalyst that exposed me to the vast world of humanitarian relief, conflict and international affairs.

When entering this field of work, one of my biggest frustrations was constantly hearing that there were no clear-cut pathways into the humanitarian world, which I discovered to be true. My brief first experience at the Graduate Institute lead to defining interactions with professors and practitioners in Geneva, sending me on a journey, first working in New York, then Melbourne and finally, a prolonged stop in the Middle East, which was an unexpected turn of events, as soon after finishing my bachelor’s degree I found myself working on the Syria crisis. This instigated a crucial two-year period of learning where I worked on a host of challenging public health, conflict analysis and gender-related projects, initially based in Jordan, then Iraq and with periodic visits to Syria. It was during this time that my interest in conflict and the interaction humanitarian actors had with it intensified. It was also where I was first exposed to the troubling realities of this work: the harsh impacts of prolonged war upon societies, the inherent contradictions of aid work and the complex and murky landscapes of war. Every day, I had more unanswered questions.

In search of answers, I began a masters programme in Humanitarian Emergencies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Whilst doctoral studies felt imminent, I first decided to ground my learning in another practical context by working on the humanitarian response in Afghanistan, which led me to the insights, humbling experiences and observations that I needed to develop a sound PhD project for the International History Department.

Geneva and the Institute provided me with a wonderful launch pad a few years ago, one that has allowed me to maintain a symbiotic relationship between academia and practice. In doing so, I have made some incredible friends and identified a topic of research I am extremely passionate about. My idealism has definitely been curbed by a healthy dose of realism, but that will only help with doctoral studies and beyond.