I am Maya Terro—or who some of my colleagues at the MESCI program here like to refer to as the 'crazy blonde Lebanese', but I can assure you that Lebanese are most certainly nowhere close to being crazy-- I think it's just me! Seriously now -all jokes aside- indeed, it is a great pleasure and honour to be the first Lebanese ever to be aboard this great program! Prior to Tor Vergata, I did my Masters studies in the American University of Beirut (A.U.B.) in the field of 'Public Health' with an emphasis on 'Health Management and Policy'. What I learned during my masters helped better my definition of development in a number of ways. Indeed, when one speaks of development, several factors (both direct and indirect) come to play. For instance, factors such as education, health, and infrastructure are just a few amongst the many geographical, socioeconomic, physical, psychological (etcetera) issues that need to be addressed when thinking in terms of developing whole populations and countries. Accordingly, I was able, by studying Public health, to view development from the 'health' perspective -particularly that relevant to the acts of management and policy making. And now, with the MESCI program, I hope I will be able to view development from the viewpoint of that of an 'economist'. However, for development to take place, cooperation is not merely an option, rather it is a must -- yes, it comes to me as no surprise that based on the aforementioned 'Development Economics’ and ‘International Cooperation' come hand in hand. As for my future plan, I believe that my task is ''not to forsee it but to enable it'' (Antoine de Saint-Exupery). Along these lines, I hope that towards the end of this year; I will leave Rome knowing that I have tried, with the best of my capabilities and knowledge, to make this Italian endeavour in the realm of development economics indeed one that is 'great' , 'enriching', and all 'worthwhile'.