NOTES FROM THE FIELD: ISABEL VELASCO '21

Isabel Velasco '21 interned at Instiligio during the 2020 fall term. The following is an excerpt from her internship report.

During my internship this past fall at Instiligo, I was able to have a unique work experience at the intersection of the private, public, and social sectors. Instiglio is non-profit developmental consulting organization whose goal is to ensure that every cent spent to alleviate poverty has the greatest possible impact on the lives of the 2.4 billion men, women, and children afflicted by it. At Instiglio, this is done through result-based financing. While interning at this non-profit consulting firm, I was able to experience first-hand fundamentals of a growing global business and contribute to the momentum of the results movement in international development. Similarly, I got the opportunity to further my knowledge of result-based financing (RBF) and social financial instruments, like social impact bonds, and how they can be leveraged by governments and organizations to improve a project’s outcome and, thus, people’s lives and conditions.  

As a project intern at Instiglio, I was staffed on financing mechanism design project where I was able to contribute to the creation of a result-based grant which is expected to improve the effectiveness of the program in question by over 30%.  In addition, I was expected to contribute to the construction and improvement of Instiglio’s structure and organization as a whole by actively engaging in the day-to-day work involved in any social program. I was lucky to have been staffed in projects with interesting clients and was constantly given the opportunity to attend important meetings and learn from the exchange between the Instiglio team and our client counterparts. 

During my time at this public policy organization, I witnessed how important passion is when it comes to working in places like Instiglio. All of my co-workers were incredibly passionate about their work and that passion surely showed in their work. Moreover, it is that same passion that allowed all of us to work long hours in order to contribute to an amazing cause and make all our effort worth it. 

My experience at Instiglio showed me that I want to pursue a career in the international development sector and continue leveraging all the knowledge I’ve acquired, at both Dartmouth and Instiglio, to contribute to the development of such sector and the improvement of millions of lives. I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have been able to work as such an amazing organization like Instiglio, all thanks to the Rockefeller Center Internship Program. I will remember this experience forever and hope to continue working in the public sector after graduation. 

The Rockefeller Internships Program has funding for Dartmouth undergraduate students to help defray the cost of living expenses associated with a full-time, unpaid, leave-term internships in the fields of public policy, public affairs, and social entrepreneurship.