{"id":12046,"date":"2014-05-01T10:47:06","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T15:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=12046"},"modified":"2015-10-26T12:15:42","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T17:15:42","slug":"college-close-to-home-opened-doors-to-china-cairo-and-two-degrees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/college-close-to-home-opened-doors-to-china-cairo-and-two-degrees\/","title":{"rendered":"College close to home opened doors to China, Cairo, and two degrees"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
Camille Ridgeway<\/dt>\n
Degree<\/strong>: BA Economics, BA International Studies<\/dd>\n
Hometown<\/strong>: Milwaukee<\/dd>\n
It\u2019s a Fact:<\/strong> From 2010-12, Camille Ridgeway played first violin in the University Community Orchestra at UWM.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Between her resum\u00e9 and her passport, it\u2019s been an intense five years for econ\/international studies double major Camille Ridgeway. She served in student government and interned for the U.S. Department of Commerce.<\/p>\n

She learned conversational Mandarin in China. She avidly recalls the intense energy of Tahrir Square, 2012, as a UWM junior in Cairo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tenuous situation being an American in Egypt. Things can get intense very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what she remembers most vividly is the thriving community surrounding Tahrir Square: artists, protestors, performers, the museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Egyptian Museum is left completely untouched. There could be fighting all day, but no one would touch the museum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not bad for someone who went to college just a few blocks from her parents\u2019 home, and just down the street from her high school alma mater, Riverside University High School. In fact, her road to the Middle East began there.<\/p>\n

Riverside high achievers are invited to take a course at UWM their senior year. Enthralled by the language\u2019s elaborate, elegant script, Ridgeway took an intro course in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).<\/p>\n

But MSA study only goes so far outside the college classroom, as Ridgeway learned her first week in Egypt.<\/p>\n

\u201cEgyptian or Tunisian dialects are completely different from the Arabic I had just spent three years learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Student life in Milwaukee was equally complex \u2013 her preference \u2013 for the Chancellor\u2019s Diversity and Leadership Scholar.<\/p>\n

Two years as the Student Association Finance Committee chair gave Ridgeway a front-row view of the segregated-fee allocation process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the more vocal positions in student government and a committee that works intimately with the university administration. There can be some disagreements, but I\u2019d like to think I set the stage for students to be more active in their university\u2019s affairs in a more critical and constructive way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her interest in economics truly flourished in the McNair Scholars Program, where she studied Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the Middle East with UWM Economics Professor Swarnjit Arora.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned to think of FDI as a gateway indicator that tells you everything you need to know about the health of a country\u2019s economic and political situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eager to test her knowledge in a professional setting, Ridgeway landed a 2013 internship with the U.S. Department of Commerce\u2019s Milwaukee Export Assistance Center.<\/p>\n

Synthesizing declassified intelligence data, marketing leads and supplier information on business markets abroad occupied the first semester of her senior year. Her work proved useful to the center\u2019s client base of Milwaukee companies looking to expand exports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been a game changer for me, applying what I\u2019ve learned in my degree programs to work with real companies that have real needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next is a year of reflection and preparation as Ridgeway applies to political economy PhD programs. The ideal program will blend data mining and statistical analysis with cultural studies, negotiation and interpersonal communications.<\/p>\n

Her target schools are in Chicago, D.C. and New York. Her applications are well under way: GREs taken, letters and statement of purpose completed. Much of that process was funded and supported by McNair. \u201cOne of the things I value most about my time at UWM is the McNair Program,\u201d Ridgeway now says.<\/p>\n

Her world-view, of course, is evolving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was definitely not in the Middle East long enough to say I ran the place,\u201d Ridgeway laughs. \u201cBut my time in Cairo inspired me to see the region for what it is and what it isn\u2019t. I\u2019ve realized how I interpret things is so dependent on my American identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working on how to take that lens off, to be more neutral and less biased.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been an intense five years for econ\/international studies double major Camille Ridgeway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":588,"featured_media":12059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[122,124],"display_categories":[],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[],"class_list":["post-12046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","section-campus-community","section-students"],"yoast_head":"\nCollege close to home opened doors to China, Cairo, and two degrees<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s been an intense five years for econ\/international studies double major Camille Ridgeway.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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