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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Wow, a lot of small kernels of truth in these posts mixed in with some sweeping overgeneralizations. Agree with a lot of what PP with 12 years exp said, but wanted to share my 2 cents. I work in international dev as well, mostly focused on environment so a bit of an offshoot of traditional development. I agree that many of these organizations are extremely white and that our lack of diversity is a problem.

However, all of these assumptions about trust fund babies, parents footing bills for unpaid interns, and being motivated by guilt are pretty big assumptions. Those situations are out there, for sure, but in my experience this has been the exception rather than the rule. I grew up very much lower middle class, raised by a single mother to several children who sacrificed and scrimped and lived paycheck to paycheck, sometimes borrowing our Christmas money from grandparents to get the bills paid. I worked my ass off in high school and got a great scholarship to a private school I could not have otherwise attended. After college I worked for a few years, 2 jobs for part of that time. I went to an Ivy League grad school at the top of my field and then landed a paid internship at my dream organization. It paid just enough for me to pay rent and I freelanced editing work on the side, working 60 hours a week, until I got a full time position at said dream organization. Years later I'm still there and have been promoted a few times. I don't make great money actually, but it's solid and I make ends meet and yes have managed to rack up some frequent flyer miles. My benefits are very good and although I work a ton of hours, I love what I do.

I know people hear I went to an Ivy League school and see where I am now and assume I must have had a trust fund. I think I had a lot more opportunities than most people in this world and am grateful for that, but it pisses me off when people assume I must have had all of this handed to me. I will add that most of my colleagues seem to come from comfortable but not wealthy backgrounds. I do strongly agree that our field, like many out there, would benefit from more diversity of all forms including socioeconomic diversity, but the implication that I cannot empathize with someone who does not share my skin color or that I do what i [b]do out of some sense of guilt is offensive [/b]and wrong. [/quote]

You work for an environmental organization. Totally different motive there. I think that the OP was referring to Non-profits that work to diminish poverty overseas.[/quote]

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