Navigating International Development: One Woman's Journey from the Midwest to Global Impact with Laura Jagla (USA)

What happens when a chance encounter shifts your entire life path? For Laura Jagla, a brief handshake with then-candidate Barack Obama during her college years sparked a journey from organic chemistry studies to a fulfilling career in international development.

Laura Jagla's story begins in South Bend, Indiana, where her mother's dedication as a teacher and early friendships with international students ignited her curiosity about global communities. Though she initially pursued science, a pivotal moment came when she sprinted across campus—backpack loaded with textbooks—to meet Obama at a university event. This brief interaction planted the seed for her future in public service.

Her transition wasn't immediate or straightforward. With scholarships funding her year abroad in France (despite arriving to find her documents and money stolen), Laura embraced the challenges of immersing herself in a new culture and language. This resilience served her well as she later secured a Boren Fellowship in Mozambique, which provided preferential hiring status for federal positions and eventually led to her selection by USAID.

Throughout her decade with USAID, Laura witnessed the transformative power of international development firsthand. She shares moving stories of colleagues whose work lifted entire families from poverty and innovative partnerships between American and international universities that benefited communities across continents. These person-to-person connections demonstrate how development work creates meaningful, lasting change beyond policy documents.

For aspiring professionals, Laura Jagla offers candid insights about navigating workplace challenges, from building consensus among passionate colleagues to adapting to Washington DC's fast-paced environment. Despite acknowledging current difficulties in entering international development, she remains optimistic about the future and the innovative approaches the next generation will bring to global challenges.

Curious about how unexpected moments might shape your own career path? Listen now to discover how public service can create ripple effects of positive change around the world.

Music, lyrics, guitar and singing by Dr Ariel Rosita King

Teach me to live one day at a time
with courage love and a sense of pride.
Giving me the ability to love and accept myself
so I can go and give it to someone else.
Teach me to live one day at a time.....

Chapters

• 1:15 Introduction to Laura Jagla
• 2:42 Journey to Public Service
• 7:07 Studying Abroad in France
• 11:38 Career in International Development
• 17:00 Navigating Workplace Challenges
• 21:17 Advice for Aspiring Professionals

Transcript

Vivian Costello: 0:38

Hello and welcome to the Business of Life with Dr King, hosted by Vivian Costello. I am the host, vivian Costello, and my guest today is Laura Jagla. Thank you for joining me.

Laura Jagla: 0:47

Thank you so much for asking me to join Vivian.

Vivian Costello: 0:51

So would you like to start out by introducing yourself?

Laura Jagla: 0:54

Yeah. So, Vivian, I know that you and I met at Indiana University. I was speaking there for the US Agency for International Development. I am a career civil servant. I've been in the civil service for 10 plus years and I've served at the US Department of State and the US Agency for International Development most recently, and I have been in the field of public affairs and communications focused around international development and international affairs.

Vivian Costello: 1:27

Wonderful. So what would you like to talk about today?

Laura Jagla: 1:30

Yeah. So I thought of a few things before you approached me and one I can share a little bit for the audience about transitioning to a career in international development or international affairs what that looks like like early career. I can talk a little bit about resiliency and navigating challenges and just the hope of serving and life in the public service what that looks like.

Vivian Costello: 2:00

Yeah, please go ahead. Choose from whichever you would like.

Laura Jagla: 2:05

So I can start a little bit on my background and why I went into public service. So I am the daughter of a teacher and so I grew up seeing her and her service to the community of South Bend, indiana, where I'm from, and I was inspired by her and other family members to look how I could serve people in my community, first locally in South Bend, and I always had an interest in the international affairs, the global community. Some of my best friends in high school and even before were from all over, from France and Malawi, myanmar, all over the world, and from them. I always was curious about where they were from, what brought them to the United States. I had an interest in languages and culture, and those were a few of the things that kind of drove me to public service, but within the international sector.

Laura Jagla: 3:13

At Indiana University I had a really fun experience. I was in my organic chemistry class and of all things I was was studying science. I was thinking I was going to go into a field that combined science and art and um in international, something international. I didn't know quite what, what I was going to go into, um, so, sitting in chemistry class and then I heard that um, president Obama, who was at the time a candidate to become president. He was at the Little 500 track and, for those of the audience who don't know, little 500 is a race that takes place every year at Indiana University. It's a really big thing, campus wide and throughout the community. Did I get that right, vivian? Oh, yes, yeah, okay, every year at Indiana University. It's a really big thing, campus-wide and throughout the community. Did I get that right, vivian? Oh, yes, yeah, okay. So I heard he was going to be at the little 500 event and he was walking around and meeting with students.

Laura Jagla: 4:14

So as soon as my chemistry class was over, I had the heaviest backpack but I took off, sprinting out the door and I ran. It was about a two mile run to the bike track for my building. So I ran as fast as I could with my backpack on and made it to the track and um. So he was there. He um walked around and suddenly he was right in front of me and there was a guy right next to me who asked him a question. But the entire time he was shaking my hand and I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe it. I just at the time I was really inspired by his message and I was. It was just such a formative experience to see how he was connecting with the students and something that I'll always remember and I think it was. At that point I realized that I wanted to work in the federal government and wanted to come to Washington DC, and it was a little bit of a roundabout path to that work, but it was also a fun and interesting and challenging path as well.

Vivian Costello: 5:26

Yeah, no, that is awesome. So how did? How then? Did you like change paths? If you were in organic chemistry, I mean, and then what I mean? Was it that just one interaction, that like flip that switch, and you were like this is it, I know what I want to do? Or was it more of a kind of gradual figuring out, like getting into the international development sector, sort of thing?

Laura Jagla: 5:49

Yeah, I definitely would say that it was a gradual path. I didn't exactly know what I was going to study. Going into undergrad at Indiana University. I had a lot of ideas of things that I was interested in, but I really didn't know how that translated to a career path. Luckily, at Indiana University I had the opportunity to intern at the Aspen Institute, both in Washington DC and Colorado, and I met other people who were in public service types of roles and I just found that very fascinating and it seemed like a very role. And so it was.

Laura Jagla: 6:31

It was a slow shift. I I remember talking to my parents on the phone one day and I said mom, dad, I want to become a French major and I want to study in France for the year. And this is after I was taking all these really intense science classes and they're like what, what's going on? Let's listen to the plan. I'm the oldest of four, I have three younger sisters, and so I have always been a person that has been like okay, this is step one, two, three, four. It's very structured. So this was completely off the career path and I know that my parents probably worried at first making the shift and also they had a question. They were like how are we going to fund the study abroad? And luckily I was able to get scholarships to fund almost my entire time in France, and so you ended up going. So I ended up going.

Laura Jagla: 7:26

I was in Aix-en-Provence for a year. I remember going to a introduction and it talked about culture shock. I didn't think culture shock actually existed at the time because I had never traveled out of the country before. So this was my first time out of the country and I, so I was in actually for a shock. I got there and I realized that somewhere during the travel someone had stole some of my important documents. So my entire, all my credit cards were gone, some of my I'm not sure, I don't think it was my passport, I think I had that, but everything else that I had brought with me was gone.

Laura Jagla: 8:10

I had no money. I mean, I didn't have a phone with me either. Um, I think that was. That was before the time where smart phones were common or phones at all internationally. So it was. It was just me. I ended up at the dorms and was really freaked out because I didn't have anything. I didn't have any money, no way to contact anyone, and it was. It was a little bit of a hard transition, which to a year that ended up being such a great learning experience overall. Yeah.

Vivian Costello: 8:45

Yeah, despite all of those first challenges I can't imagine to another country. I feel like if there's a will.

Laura Jagla: 9:12

There's a way. I wasn't sure if it was going to work out financially, but I was able to apply for scholarships, which was great. My French was pretty terrible when I first arrived. People really didn't understand what I was saying at all and I realized that, and that was a hard learning process as well. But I just kept with it throughout the year and learned from my classmates and my professors there and it was overall a really hard but really great learning experience and kind of made me think oh, I think I can pursue an international career because I really like being in new environments yeah, no, and and thank you for like elucidating on, like how your career got to where it was.

Vivian Costello: 10:04

Like, especially, you know, I feel like when you go to college, you know people are like, okay, I'm going to do this and I'm going to graduate with this, the very. You know there's a step-by-step to get to a career, but there's some points sometimes at in college or university when you're like, oh wait, no, this is not what I want to do and I actually want to turn this completely around and I'm going to go to France for a year or um, and I'm going to do something entirely different. Like that is, it's so interesting to hear you know how people have come to be where they are now.

Laura Jagla: 10:34

Yeah, I was completely undecided. It took me, I think, until midway through sophomore year to realize what I wanted to do, and so it completely yeah, shifted from the sciences to language study. Shifted from the sciences to language study.

Vivian Costello: 10:49

Yeah, no, and that's that's so interesting. So what have you done? You know, after graduation, you say you know you're about a mid-career professional is, I believe, what you. You told me when I first contacted you is how you would describe yourself. So what? What have you been doing?

Laura Jagla: 11:06

Yeah, so after graduation I had quite a few different experiences abroad through fellowships and scholarships and was able to gain some international experience. Before heading into the civil service, I had what you call a Boren Fellowship. It's funded by the Department of Defense, and I did language study and research in Mozambique and through that program I had what you call, I think, preferential hiring, and so I can be hired more easily into the federal government, I think non-competitively. I went to a career fair in Washington DC, put my resume in a pile and got selected out of the pile by HR at the US Agency for International Development.

Vivian Costello: 11:57

Yeah. So what were you doing then for USAID?

Laura Jagla: 12:01

I was first working on the internal communications team so working with different offices throughout the entire agency team. So working with different offices throughout the entire agency. So I got to learn a lot about the different economic development, education, health programs that took place globally and I ended up on the most fantastic team. And I was focused on economic growth, communications around economic growth, also worked with our education office, gender equality, women's empowerment and so I worked with a variety of offices that serve abroad in about 100 different countries. I was able to travel to, I think maybe six or seven different posts that we have abroad and meet some of our colleagues who work what we call like in country with local organizations and those things. Those experiences were incredible. Like, I met a colleague in Serbia who was actually working in Kenya and she said that through her work at USA she was actually able to bring her entire family out of poverty oh wow, get them all through school and provide housing for her entire extended family and it really transformed her life, her family's life, the life of the community. And when you hear these stories up close and personally, when you hear these stories up close and personally, you know how impactful the work is overall and what it means to people globally, and it did such a wonderful job in kind of spreading goodwill and also showing people the best of the United States and what we stand for. So um I I was in Egypt and Morocco. Um and Thailand, um I w it was in quite a few of our offices abroad either. Um working with in what we call the program office, so the office that manages um communications, among other things. Um for our, for our offices abroad, working with local partner organizations, hosting events and just kind of seeing and writing about and sharing the impact of what the organization was doing for people in other countries, people in other countries.

Laura Jagla: 14:34

And then most recently I was at USAID. It was in the office of the chief diversity officer, and I think what was wonderful about that is that we were able to reach people and communities across the entire United States and make those connections between colleges and universities in the United States and universities abroad. For example, there was a program with a university based in the US with another university in Nepal around agricultural innovation, because the US had a ton of expertise in specific agricultural areas and they were able to be connected with the Nepalese university and I met the person who was running the program from Nepal and he's like, wow, this is teaching our students a lot and they're really transforming kind of the agricultural sector in the country, and likewise the university students and the professors there were learning a lot from the Nepalese counterparts. So in a way I would say that it was a little bit of, in addition to being, international development. There was a lot of public diplomacy, citizen-led diplomacy, taking place.

Laura Jagla: 15:45

So really a person-to-person connection to really a person to person connection. Yeah, and I think that was that has been one of the most exciting things of this type of career, because you really do, you feel and you see um the person, the person connection, all that you do, yeah and that is that's extremely valuable.

Vivian Costello: 16:03

I mean those connections. They not only are you helping people, but but you can help them help others in turn if they wish to. It's a very valuable thing to build. I wanted to turn the conversation now to your second point that you mentioned when we started was that there are challenges that you have encountered in your career. Can you elaborate a bit on that? Sure.

Laura Jagla: 16:26

Yeah, I'm trying to think of where to start With every profession when you have so many people who are so passionate about different issues, sometimes you have to come's a good skill set to build during early in your career how to reach consensus about with people who have different viewpoints and ultimately leads the program to be stronger. Working on a program it was called the Women's Global Development Prosperity Initiative and we had a lot of people that had different ideas about what should go into the program and like what type of messages we should develop, and I think it's because we had so many different viewpoints from across the government that we were able to come to such strong messaging and have such positive reception on the program. So that's one thing coming to consensus. Another thing in terms of challenges is, just as a young career, professional kind of adapting to the workplace, I think it does take some time. Place, I think is um it it does take some time.

Laura Jagla: 17:49

I remember um when I first came to Washington DC, um being a Midwesterner and had never I've had never lived in the DC area for such an extended period of time. Um I was. It took me some time to understand like the professional culture um learning how to write memos and the shorter style of writing effectively, and I know that you and I had talked about this before. Um, like the reading skills are really important to have um being able to present well during conversations and meetings, um being informed about what leadership wants Just some of those things. When you transition to a workplace does take time, and I would say that the Washington DC area is sucha dynamic environment and things are so fast moving and I also think that takes some time going from an academic environment um to the federal government uh sector.

Vivian Costello: 18:55

Yeah, no, and I think also what you said you know it can be applied not just to DC but, you know, to any government really is figuring out what the, the government, um, the, the politicians want, or you know, the, the respective, uh, government bodies are seeking, I mean, and learning to practice those writing skills. Um, I, I might say I'm not familiar with other government systems outside of the United States, but I'm pretty sure you know policy memos and white papers are pretty frequent. You know, um political documents that need to be circulated throughout governments in order to transfer information, and so having those skills and practicing them is a very good thing to have and they're not the easiest thing to do.

Laura Jagla: 19:37

Speaking from experience, yeah, I wouldn't even say even with. I mean, I know AI is such an up and coming thing. I think, regardless of how people use AI, that having the basic, the writing skills, that's something that people should have because it really helps you think critically and ask the right questions. So it's not just producing the final document, it's about the skills you need to think through specific policy decisions or think critically about what questions to ask others in different departments about a specific issue. So definitely writing skills are something that I would suggest honing in on.

Vivian Costello: 20:25

So for anyone listening, don't slack off. We are coming up almost about our time. Is there anything that you would like to say as a closing remark, or any advice you would like to give to up and coming young professionals?

Laura Jagla: 20:40

Yeah, I would like to say I know that it's a hard time to go into international development and international affairs and public service. I think it's so important to have a new generation of people in public service and it's such a rewarding area to go into and I know you can create social impact regardless of what organization you go into. For example, there's things that you can do in the private sector and there's things that you can do with nonprofits. There's a lot of routes you can take, but I would tell people just to stay hopeful and know that things change so rapidly that there might be some innovative ways to get engaged in international affairs that people haven't thought about yet. And I mean, this is going to be the generation to make the changes, and that's something that really excites me as well.

Vivian Costello: 21:36

Yeah, no, perfect, wonderful way to wrap up. Thank you, laura, for joining me today. Thank you, vivian, it's been a pleasure. So this has been the Business of Life with Dr King, hosted by Vivian Costello. My guest today is Laura Jagla. Thank you again, Laura. Oh, thank you, Vivian.