Hi! I’m Maria and I am Italian. After the end of high school I went for a month in a rural village of the Democratic Republic of Congo. That was a truly enriching experience, and it helped me understanding which path to take. When I came bake I enrolled in Bachelor in Economics offered by Tor Vergata (Rome). In those three years I became familiar with micro and macro-economics, while focusing my attention on international economics. Meanwhile I started to volunteer inAmkaOnlus - a non-profit organizationthat promotes development activitiesin several countries - being involved in the management of a microcredit project. I contributed to the creation of the project, working in the office of Rome and then I went to the office of Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo) for one month to monitor the project start-up. After the bachelor degree, I moved to Milan and continued my study with an MSc in Economic and Social Sciences. I deepened my knowledge of development economics and became very interested in impact evaluation methods and counterfactual analysis. I decided to undertake the MESCI in order to improve my skills study development issues from different perspectives (not just the economic one), hoping to become a successful professional in the field of international cooperation for development.