By Barry McNamara

Awijeeta Joshi poses with some of her friends at the annual Intercultural Festival in 2003

“If I ever get out of here, I’m going to Kathmandu,” wrote singer Bob Seger.

In transit, he might have passed Awijeeta Joshi, a 2005 Monmouth College graduate, coming the other way.

Joshi left her native Nepal to study at Monmouth College from 2001 to 2005, and she plans to return to the United States later this year to attend graduate school at Indiana University-Purdue University in Fort Wayne.

“In both classes she took with me, Awi enthusiastically pursued course materials and expressed a strong interest in the problems and policies of development in developing nations,” said MC associate professor of sociology Judi Kessler. “I am delighted that she is returning to the Midwest to pursue graduate studies.”

In song, Seger picked the faraway destination as a haven from the pressures of constant touring and record company politics. Joshi’s reasons for coming the opposite way in 2001 were less about retreat and more about advancement.

“I always knew that I wanted an international standard education and that actually led me to apply to the colleges in the United States,” she said. “I found out about Monmouth College while browsing through the Internet. It had my major – environmental science – and at the time my brothers were studying in Iowa, so I could stay closer to them.”

Further aiding her decision to attend MC was its small size, which Joshi said made “access to everything from library books to professors easy and reliable. Even though Monmouth is a small college, it provides numerous facilities in a convenient manner.”

Once on campus, Joshi really clicked with Monmouth’s other international students, and she enjoyed hanging out at the International House.

“Sometimes there would be a party, sometimes just a movie, but the main thing was it was always nice to be around friends,” she said.

A highlight each year was the college’s intercultural festival, which features international entertainers, as well as mouth-watering dishes from different countries.

Food was also the source of another of her favorite MC memories, as she recalls regularly pulling several tables together in the dining hall to allow her large circle of friends to stay together.

“I remember our huge table in the cafeteria that we used to set up so we could enjoy dinner with all our friends,” she laughed. “It used to be quite a noisy table … My friends all made my stay at Monmouth worth everything. I still wish sometimes that those times could return.”

Joshi made memorable connections with MC’s faculty, as well. She credited Dick Johnston for leading some trips to Chicago for international students; Jeff Draves for his help with her senior research; her adviser, Kevin Baldwin, for his guidance through the years; and Baldwin, Kessler and Petra Kuppinger, who all assisted with her graduate school recommendation.

“I don’t want to pinpoint that one professor is my favorite because all of them contributed in one way or the other,” she said. “Mostly, I enjoyed being in a small class rather than a big lecture hall.”

After graduation, Joshi returned to Kathmandu and started working for the Swiss Development Agency in the Decentralized Rural Infrastructure and Livelihood Project (DRILP).

“The agency works with Nepal’s developmental issues related to roads, forestry, pollution and rural poverty,” Joshi explained. “My work as an environmental assessor was to look after environmental activities in rural road districts of DRILP. I was responsible for initial environmental evaluation, monitoring and mitigation reports, and I also contributed on writing reports of environmental activities.”

Joshi also made visits to rural districts for “walkover surveys,” sometimes logging 10 miles in a day. That’s no small feat considering that Nepal, which is home to the world’s highest mountain, Mt. Everest, has a slightly more challenging terrain than what she experienced in western Illinois.

Although Joshi has enjoyed her work, she said “it’s high time” she gets back to her studies, and she chose IPFW because of its organizational leadership and supervision program.

“I believe the path to self-actualization starts with leadership,” she said. “I will be able to identify ways to develop a distinctive leadership style, avoid false starts, encourage a team and overall just work for the betterment of a company. Basically, with leadership skills, I can even start something on my own. I want to do my master’s in environmental science as well, but for now, I have leadership on my mind.”

After four years of study at Monmouth College, Awijeeta Joshi did get out of here and go to Kathmandu. But now she’s says she happy to be headed back and excited to be tackling her next challenge.