Larissa Siregar

Larissa Siregar grew up in Southern California and received a BA in Psychology and a Minor in Spanish from University of California, Riverside. With an interest in community development, she worked with various national and global agencies on education projects focusing on the importance of critical thinking and facilitating collaborative processes to build capacity, rather than imposing one’s biased ideas of need. After graduating, she worked with Americorps’ University East-Side Community Collaborative (UECC), a project started to increase academic achievement in communities facing challenges of violence and increasing drop-outs. Following this service, Larissa gained intercultural skills while pursuing her TESOL certificate in Thailand in preparation for her Peace Corps service in Sierra Leone, West Africa. she also went on to work with a non-profit in Tanzania and then on a USAID funded project in Liberia through Peace Corps Response. Living in rural villages, she learned about the realities community development from the lens of the community members and saw the successes and challenges of the organizations that sought to provide services. As a Global Activities Scholar in the MSW program, Larissa hopes to gain further skills to help agencies, which focus on working with marginalized communities, reach their intended outcomes.