Eric Washington

This ePortfolio is intended to inform the reader how my passion for people and servitude grew into a passion for social justice and human rights work. I expand upon this growth and exhibit my improvement in the skills required for such in various reflections. For example:  

• In my Leadership Reflection, I expand on how my time as an AmeriCorps College Advisor trained me to learn valuable leadership skills and how my supervisors were great exemplars of leadership in a time of crisis.
    
• In my Service and Volunteering Reflection, you will find that by engaging with a community to empower them economically, I furthered my passion for being in the field, firsthand with the communities I intended to serve. 
   
• By practicing graduate-level Critical Thinking, I was able to draft a 60-page policy report for the Texas A&M Transportation Institute for Texas policymakers to make an informed decision on transportation strategies that would all major Texas cities for the next 15 years.
    
• I reflect on my teenage years at Harvard University, Washington, D.C., and abroad in the Mediterranean, and how those early stages of my Lifelong Learning were the catalyst for a career in international affairs and public service.  
   
• Via Dr. Valerie Hudson, I learned the importance of gender analysis and how essential it is to recognize that women's rights are human rights and therefore advocate as such. Dr. Valerie Hudson's course, Women and Nations, significantly contributed to my Diversity and Global Learning. 
   
• Lastly, I had the privilege of working on a seven-member task force under the instruction of Dr. Valerie Hudson, operating for the Department of State's Office of Global Women's Issues. Our team's Capstone Project was to draft a report on the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of various legal reforms and how they contribute to women's economic empowerment.