Following an unexpected return to the Pioneer Valley after 14 years, I revived connections with long lost friends/colleagues.  With a bit of friendly pressure (read DRE), I’m taking a moment to sashay down memory lane and reconnect with the CIE community.

After leaving CIE Homa returned to Afghanistan.  From 2001 until 2017 Homa worked as a Technical Advisor with UNIFEM/UNWOMEN.  In that role she collaborated with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs on identifying policies and projects to empower women and promote gender equality.  She commented at one point during her work there that “The men think that shelters are a concept from the West that encourages women to run from their homes. A lot of men are trying to damage the reputation of shelters because they are fearful of their girls and women actually defending their rights.”

My career since leaving CIE has focused on teacher training and school/program improvement in developing countries. Generally, my work has been divided between the South Pacific and the Middle East.

After leaving CIE, Antonieta worked as a consultant for various organizations, including ITD in Amherst, John Snow, Inc., and Greater Options for Adolescent Lives, Inc.  She then spent more than 15 years working with the Boston School system.  She served in multiple roles there including working as an Analyst in the Office of Language Learning and Support Services, as the Senior Director for Research & Instruction, and as the Assistant Superintendent for English Language Learners.

Many things in my life have changed since I left Amherst in 1994, but some things remain constant: I am still working on a UMass campus, still doing union and community organizing, still in a socialist group, and still being nagged by DRE to submit past-due writing.

I am currently the Vice President of Equity and Inclusion at Madison College, one of the sixteen technical colleges in Wisconsin. Previous to this position, I served as the Director of the City of Madison Department of Civil Rights for ten years and prior to that, I was the Equal Rights Division Administrator for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. I also served as the Deputy Secretary for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

Since 2005 Layton has worked as a Senior Data Analyst with the Victoria State Department of Health in Melbourne, Australia.   In that role he develops and manages projects for data analysis, forecasting and database activities for the state.  He also produces short- and long-term forecasts of hospital in-patients and emergency departments.

After graduating from UMASS with a M.Ed. from CIE, my partner (now wife) Peg Giffels (UMass M.Ed. 1993) and I moved to Seattle and have grown roots here.  I taught ESL in the Seattle area Community College system for a couple of years.  Then I joined Starbucks Coffee Company to assist in the development of the Starbucks Foundation’s literacy and young entrepreneurs’ grant program.  I enjoyed a ten year career at Starbucks and was part of the creation of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility Department.

In 2021, Tony Savdié is back in his village in the western highlands of Guatemala, a place he has called home since concluding his time with CIE's Proyecto COMAL in 2000. After twenty one years in Guatemala he has put in his papers and hopes to get his Guatemalan residency shortly. He feels he has devoted sufficient time to meditating on this important decision.

Sumon is currently working as an Equity Specialist with British Council/ADB Nepal and is responsible for ensuring equity in the School Sector Development Plan of the government of Nepal.

Previously she worked as the Nepal Team Leader for the project “Youth and Uncertainty: Marginalised Young People's Strategies in Fragile and Conflict Affected Situations in Ethiopia and Nepal,” funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of the Department for International Development (DFID) Poverty Fund. (2016 to 2019).