Kris Ozar '00
What degree did you graduate Calvin with?
Business/Communications
IDS minor
What's your official position where you are working now?
Specialist, Monitoring and Evaluation/Learning
Catholic Relief Services
Please describe briefly the path you've followed since graduation that led you to this position?
After banging pots and pans as a cook for some time in Grand Rapids' and Detroit’s casual fine dining eateries, I became a Maryknoll Lay Missioner working in Mombasa, Kenya from 2002–2005. During my service in Kenya I implemented a village banking savings and internal lending methodology which worked to empower local communities to start, manage and profit from their own financial lending institution. After service in Kenya I came back to the United States to pursue a Masters Degree in International Development Management with a focus on Monitoring and Evaluation from the School for International Training in Brattleboro Vermont (2005–2006). Following my on-campus studies I returned to East Africa (2006–2007) to conduct my field research with Caritas Dar es Salaam inTanzania, where I worked as a consultant and implemented a monitoring and evaluation system for an agriculture micro-finance project. I returned to the United States (2007) and landed in New York City where I started to once again carry knives and wear clogs to work; cooking for a Manhattan restaurant. Six months and several burns later I was hired by Catholic Relief Services as the US Operations Specialist, Monitoring and Evaluation/Learning where I am currently employed.
How does your faith influence the work that you do?
Operating from the simple premise that we are all created in God’s image, I believe we are all interconnected as one human family in which we are all obligated to work for the integral human development of our brothers and sisters next door and around the globe. Moreover, the yard stick by which individuals, communities, nations and policies should be judged is the simple measure of how they assist the most vulnerable of people. My faith is my north star, my light on the horizon on which I keep a keen eye in order to navigate the turbulent waters of global poverty and injustice.
What is your best advice for current IDS students?
Students interested in pursuing careers in international development need to proactively seek progressive work experience in developing countries where they can gain competency in Spanish, French, Portuguese or Arabic. Ideally students will gain specific sector experiences in Health, HIV/Aids, Peacebuilding or other areas of development.
What is your biggest regret looking back at your time at Calvin? What do you wish you had done differently?
Get out and take a look around! Granted Calvin has a lovely campus, but students need to get out and experience the pulse of other nations as we can’t be a part of the solution if we don’t really understand the context of the problem. One can learn the theory of swimming from the beach, but at some point practitioners needs to get their feet wet!
Do you have any other words of hope or wisdom to offer soon-to-be IDS graduates?
Every development student and practitioner needs to wrestle with two very fundamental concepts in their approaches and programming; subsidiarity and sovereignty. We must be vigilant not to repeat the mistakes of the past!
