By Molly Hanrahan, Summer Monitoring and Evaluation Intern

My name is Molly Hanrahan, and I’m the Monitoring and Evaluation Intern for Mali Rising this summer. I just finished my first year at the University of Utah, and I’m hoping to go into global health, public health, or the nonprofit world.

When looking for opportunities for this summer, I was drawn to Mali Rising, as I’m sure many of you were, because the work they do is important and inspiring. I truly believe in education as one of the best ways to create lasting change. I love MRF’s model for increasing access to education through partnerships, school-building, teacher trainings, the girls’ program, and more. This was an organization that does great work in an area I’m passionate about, and so I was excited to get involved.

The monitoring/eval side of things isn’t always seen as the most exciting part of work like this, but it’s incredibly important. It’s vital to take the time to track the impact you’re having, and its
 effectiveness and sustainability. This is how you maximize the good you can do, how you
continually grow and improve, and how you have the greatest impact.

That’s why I was so excited to apply for this position. Mali Rising is committed to monitoring and improving their work, which is something I believe in, and now I get to be a part of that. Plus, I’m a total data nerd. I’m really excited to work with the data and the staff this summer to evaluate Mali Rising's amazing progress, and to improve any areas that may need it.