Ariyand Aminpour, GLID MS 2022

Project Lead (National Institutes of Health) at CRDF Global

How did the GLID MS help prepare you for your career trajectory?

As I begin a position that focuses on the administrative side of global health research, I know my GLID MS helped prepare me for this step in my career. I gained experience in grant proposal writing and editing through grant writing experience in my Perspectives in Infectious Disease class. Additionally, my degree has given me the opportunity and the practice to read, analyze, and critique global infectious disease research articles, gaining a higher-level perspective of the current state of global health literature and study methods that prepared me for a career in global health research. Moreover, through my MS courses in global health security and diplomacy I learned the importance of global health research as a soft power tool that can be used to improve international relations through research collaboration. Finally, the Capstone Research Project allowed me to conduct hands-on research of an infectious disease topic of my choosing. Through this, I gained research project management, as well as project proposal and design experience that set me up with important skills to move forward in the global health sector. 

What’s your advice for alums thinking about a master’s degree?

My advice to Georgetown undergraduates thinking about a degree in GLID would be to consider the accelerated GLID Bachelors/Masters degree. I pursued the accelerated degree, which I found to be a manageable transition from undergraduate to graduate, as I began my Masters courses my senior year of undergraduate. I had originally feared that adding two more semesters of education after undergraduate would leave me burnt out, but the accelerated program prepared me my senior year to know the caliber/level of grad-level courses, making the transition seamless. 

Additionally, I knew I wanted to take a deeper dive into the intersectionality of policy and infectious disease, which I only scratched the surface of in my undergraduate studies. I was able to do this through the GLID degree because of the choice I had in either the policy track or data modeling track. I got to take classes in immunology and epidemiology, while also taking classes in policy analysis and global health diplomacy. The duality of this degree allowed me to study my passions, while also making me a desirable candidate for my current role.