Reflections from Brazil: McCourt Students Strengthen Communities With Evidence-Based Policy Solutions

“A highlight of our trip was accompanying our client, Motriz, to visit one of their partner governments, São Vicente, Brazil. We met with the city’s mayor, secretary of education and various policy implementation leaders, as well as visited two schools, to learn more about their education policy efforts and goals and how Motriz has been a pivotal support mechanism in enhancing the government’s education outcomes. Connecting with the communities where our client’s impact lies helped us as consultants better understand the multiple layers of policy impact Motriz is making and that we are working to better communicate to the world through our partnership.

I came to McCourt with a background in organizational capacity building and education policy, and McCourt has supplemented my skill set to include policy development, data analysis and impact evaluation methods critical for evidence-based policymaking in complex contexts. Together, these skills facilitated a key outcome of our trip: identifying how our client’s organizational operations and capacity are inherently tied to their opportunities for growth in impact evaluation.”

– Issabella Romo (MPP’26)

“Working professionally abroad inevitably brings cultural differences to the surface. Because of my prior diplomatic work in the Americas, I felt well-prepared to identify these differences early and to help bridge them. Linguistic barriers also presented a challenge. Although I began learning Portuguese only earlier this year, I surprised myself with how much translation I was able to do to keep communication smooth and ensure language differences disrupted our work as little as possible. Still, there were moments when both our team and our Brazilian colleagues needed extra time to clarify ideas or provide additional context. Navigating these moments taught our team the value of patience, intentional communication and creating shared understanding so that everyone could contribute fully and work productively together.”

– Kate Barnes (MIDP’27)

“There were many transformative moments on this trip, but one that stood out to me was our interactions with teachers and students during the school visits. We gained deep insights into each school’s priorities and instructional approaches, offering the needed contextual clarity to inform our policy work going forward. 

It was also eye-opening to see the emphasis on holistic learning. Students were not only engaging with academic subjects, but were being taught about different cultures and countries. Seeing the scope of the curriculum provided a new perspective to how Motriz can scale its work.”

– Nadia Baye (MIDP’26)

“The trip highlighted both the practical challenges of doing policy evaluation in real time and the value of the tools we are learning in the classroom that can be used to think through those challenges and how to address them. The MIDP program has taught us the scale and structure of the data that rigorous evaluation requires, while the MPiP trip revealed some of the real resource and capacity constraints organizations face in collecting it. It also made clear the importance of strong internal data systems — especially clarity around what data is collected, for whom and for what purpose. 

The trip has equipped us to better identify where limited time and resources can be spent most effectively, and how to be more intentional about data collection for learning and decision-making goals.”

– Ruby Frazer-Dalby (MIDP’26)