Shreya Paudel
(Nepal – GLODEP cohort 2021–2023)

After graduating from GLODEP in 2023, I followed an academic path and I am currently a doctoral researcher at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam. My journey towards this position began already during the fourth semester of GLODEP, when I moved to Rotterdam for my thesis research and worked with the professor who is now the supervisor for my doctoral project. In addition to that, I am based in a management school, conducting research on social enterprises and cooperatives, and using historical methods. The comfort I have in embracing transdisciplinary methods and theories for my current work is a skill I learnt during GLODEP, and they shape and reinforce my work every day.   

I chose to study GLODEP because the programme offered something unique: a mobility structure that allowed me to live and learn in different academic and cultural environments, and a curriculum that encouraged critical thinking about development policy and practice. This held true throughout the master’s program, and I am very grateful for it. In addition to that, the cohort was composed of colleagues from all parts of the world, and all walks of life. The lessons and reflections I learnt through these colleagues is one of the most valuable aspects of the program for me. Also, trying to figure out the challenges in navigating the transitions between countries helped turn these colleagues into family, a lot of them I am still very close to.