LAUREN SERVIN
Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service
Master of Public Administration, May 2010
Bio and Resume (.pdf)
Lauren Servin believes in alternative methods of development based on social business models that are culturally appropriate for the location in which they are initiated. She is currently co-creating two programs that are based in Southern Sudan. Both are in partnership with members of the Sudanese Diaspora who are working to ensure a sustainable peace in their local communities and country. Malek Girls is focused on building schools for girls that will also act as centers for community development. The other organization, Sudan Development Foundation, will focus on a community-based approach to economic development, livelihood, revitalization, and security. She believes that these initiatives represent viable and innovative alternatives to traditional forms of development.
Lauren was a Co-Founder of the New Sudan Education Initiative (NESEI) and Co-Director of its start-up school project. In 2008, she lived in Southern Sudan, where she and a small team of Sudanese and Americans constructed and opened a secondary school geared at improving the standard of education in Southern Sudan. The foundation of this school is based on the principals of social business, and Lauren engineered income-generating projects such as the school farm. She was also responsible for hiring teachers and recruiting students, along with overseeing a variety of logistical issues needed to accomplish work in a challenging post-conflict environment.
During her work in the US for NESEI, Lauren was able to secure 501(c)3 status along with the sanctions license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control , which enabled the organization to legally send money overseas. She was also one of the drafters of NESEI's bylaws, which she later redrafted in order to register NESEI with the government of Southern Sudan. In August 2006, she organized a conference held at George Washington University that was attended by Sudanese Diaspora members currently living in the United States in an effort to engage them as effective agents of change.
As Co-Director of NESEI's secondary school, Lauren helped to develop a transition-year curriculum designed to prepare students with poor academic standing for grade-level studies. She also facilitated a partnership with Winrock, an NGO which provides scholarships for girls enrolling in secondary school. These scholarships enabled the historic movement of thirty girls from desperate and conflict-affected areas of Southern Sudan to be educated at the NESEI school.
Through this work, Lauren produced two short films, Home is Sudan and NESEI FILM, as fundraising tools for the organization. The films have been shown at film festivals and have been a part of NESEI's marketing tours across the country.
Lauren graduated from the University of Vermont in 2005, where she studied political science with a focus on East Africa and the Middle East. As part of the International Honors Program, she participated in an extensive comparative study of conventional and alternative development practices in the countries of England, Tanzania, India, New Zealand and Mexico.