Staff Interview with Arthur Alexander
Get to know Amizade's staff!
Arthur Alexander is a Brazilian-American graphic designer and marketing consultant with professional focus on nonprofit organizations.
What inspired you to work for Amizade?
Amizade is more than a study abroad provider, we're a network of education partners, community partners, and alumni looking for ways to create a more balanced world, where people can thrive, regardless of color, gender, and the community they're coming from.
We advocate for ethical storytelling and responsible experiences, whether domestic, abroad, or virtual.
Describe a typical day at work.
As the Marketing and Communications Coordinator, I oversee all communication channels used by the organization and create stories through blogs, pictures, and videos that promote our work across the board. On a daily basis, I'm creating content for social media and engaging with our network to find exciting stories that exemplify the outcome of our programs.
Why do you do what you do?
Through Amizade I found an amazing opportunity to use my skill set to catalyze social action. For years I worked for the for-profit industry, but I found passion and inspiration when I got in touch with Amizade's work.
What is your favorite part of your job?
My favorite part is getting in touch with people from all over to listen to their stories, and, based on their tales, to create inspiring blogs and videos.
How do you use your education and international background in your current role?
I'm a dual citizen (Brazilian and American), and that helps me a lot when it comes to seeing the world through different lenses. I’ve lived my entire life in Brazil, where I also got my undergrad and MBA. Coming to another country and starting a life here is also helpful when coming across social issues discussed by Amizade participants.
What challenges do you often face and how do you overcome them?
I often run into budget issues. We don't have a large budget towards communications and marketing. I overcome these with the help of our network, who are huge fans of our work, and help share each story we publish on our blogs or social media.
What are some current projects you are working on?
Because of the pandemic, I am currently working on promoting Amizade's virtual service-learning platform as much as I can. It's something new, so the challenge here is to utilize the right channels to communicate the message.
What advice would you tell your pre-travel self?
It's not an easy journey, but it's completely worth it. Enjoy it and don't worry about your destination. Live what you have to live and have faith that everything will be alright.
What makes Amizade special?
Amizade is a community-driven organization. We only organize programs if it matters to our partners. We advocate for ethical storytelling and responsible experiences, whether domestic, abroad, or virtual.
Why should someone choose your organization over competitors?
People should choose Amizade because we've been creating responsible and ethical experiences for over 25 years, and we know that many competitors are aligned with these values.
What hopes do you have for the future for Amizade?
I hope that Amizade continues to expand its network by working with more community partners across the country, especially with small grassroots organizations that need strong partnerships.
Are there any developments with your organization that you would like to share with us?
In the past few years, we helped catalyze the global service-learning movement in Northern Ireland. We also helped create a coalition that takes youth from low-income areas in Pittsburgh abroad as a way to build better and equitable communities. Amizade is one of the few nonprofits in the sector with a UN Special Consultative Status.
What makes Amizade easy to market to potential participants?
Our program fees are reasonable in comparison to many competitors in the sector. We're providing an affordable experience, but also supporting our community partners on the ground.
What is Amizade's mission and how do you continue to work toward it?
Amizade inspires empathy, catalyzes social action, and links communities through Fair Trade Learning. We continue to work on it by discussing social issues experienced by our partners and helping participants reflecting on it.
What do you hope participants take away from your programs?
We hope that participants take away valuable lessons of civic engagement, ethical storytelling, community leadership, team building, among other lessons–learned in conjunction with our community partners.
How do you help support participants?
Before the beginning of programs, we provide participants with pre-departure sessions to go over important information about their experience. During their time alongside our partners, they're supported by our teams on the ground and remotely. After they return, we hold sessions to get their feedback on the experience.
If you could participate on one of your organization's programs, where would you go and what would you do?
I'd like to visit Navajo Nation to learn more about the history of this particular Native American region. I also have to say that I'm a former participant, who engaged as a volunteer with our partners in Pittsburgh's Hill District.
What questions do participants often ask you, and how do you typically respond?
Participants often ask about the length of the programs, things that they do while serving and learning with our partners, and if they have free time to themselves. We respond accordingly, but also remind them that they have a responsibility to be engaged in our programs.
Why is it important for people to travel abroad and experience new cultures?
It broadens your world and horizon. We are often stuck in one place with work and dealing with daily activities that we forget that there's a whole world out there, living in a different culture and also going through the same struggles that we go through.
Why do you think learning a new language is important?
For the same reason as it is important to travel. Speaking a new language is also a way to cross borders, communicate with people, and feel their reality in a sense that we’re not capable of doing by only speaking our native language.
What advice do you have for individuals thinking about going abroad?
Think outside of your context, out of your comfort zone. You're traveling to a different place to feel uncomfortable with a few situations, to help people being understood, and also to understand yourself in their context.
What does meaningful travel mean to you?
Meaningful travel means seeing the world through a different perspective and not only through the eyes of a tourist who is only traveling for leisure. It means connecting with people on many levels, in an attempt to understand them and also be understood by them.
What issues do you see in the world of international education that don’t line up with your values and expectations for mutually beneficial & educational relationships between providers/programs and the communities in which they are located within?
I see many providers offering experiences with communities for unethical reasons, only looking for profit, and not caring about the people involved in these global experiences.
What does ethical global engagement mean to you?
It means that we should engage with communities abroad, or even domestically, in a way that all sides will not have their dignity harmed by the experiences.
What hopes do you have for the future of international education?
I hope that the sector will look for more and more ethical ways to create bridges between communities, and that both sides will bring something valuable to global experiences.
What qualities in program & host community relations are important to you? (And Amizade?)
It is important that experiences are community-driven, that everyone involved should be compensated appropriately, and that guests should be treated with fair conditions.