Alumni Spotlight: Theresa Lieb (Class of 2015)

After obtaining her BSc in International Development[1] at LUC, Theresa Lieb (25, Class of 2015) took a year off from studying to get some practical experience. She went to Brazil where she did an internship for the German Development Bank (KfW) working on financing the transition to renewable energy in Brazil. After that, she stayed in Brazil to intern with the German Development Service (GIZ) in their “Green Economy” project. Earlier this year, she started an MPhil in Environmental Change and Management at the University of Oxford.

theresa-lieb

Where did you go to school before LUC?
Originally, I come from Germany, where I did a ‘regular’ Gymnasium.

How did you like being at LUC?
I definitely enjoyed my courses and the small-scale teaching style at LUC. I made some great friends there, for the rest of my life. The experience at LUC was rather intense and you always had lots to do, especially in terms of essay writing. But, in a way, getting used to the work load has been very helpful for my later internships and current study at the University of Oxford.

You graduated LUC with a major in International Development, do you feel like that left you well prepared for your internships and Oxford?
The biggest take away for me was how to do research and write papers, applying different methodologies, as well as thinking critically and structurally. I still use these skills all the time.

In terms of direct contents it´s a bit more complicated because I am studying a slightly different topic now. But I am using environmental economics again. Also, some of my knowledge on institutional design, policy making and natural resource management is still helpful as background theory.

At LUC we deal with global challenges and are taught to dream big. So, which global challenge are you going to solve in the future?
I am now focusing a lot on environmental issues and also learning much about climate change, so I will definitely be working on treating our planet more sustainably. I am, specifically, interested in the future of food systems spanning from climate-smart agriculture to plant-based diets and urban food governance. But you can´t really solve any global challenge without systems thinking, so what is really required is structural change and more cooperation and communication between fields to reach that.

[1] For graduates after 2016, the major in International Development has been combined with the major in Policy Science to form the major Governance, Economics and Development at LUC.

 

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