A mile outside the center of the coastal city of Fortaleza, Brazil, skyscrapers give way to crude shacks. Jessica Depies (CAS’17), an economics and international relations major at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies who visited Vila Vehla, the settlement on the outskirts, during a study abroad trip in fall 2015, was shocked by the disparity. She spoke with residents about the hardships they face. There is no waste management or running water. The roads are unpaved and the homes flood. There are no buses, so children can’t get to school.

Approximately 6 percent of Brazil’s population—12 million people—live in these shantytowns, called favelas, which are plagued by crime, drugs, and violence. Local governments will take on gangs and crime, Depies says, but often fail to address poverty or provide services.

Jessica Depies plans a career in global development policy. Photo by Dan Watkins

Depies was visiting Brazil on a Boren Scholarship, which is awarded to undergraduates studying in countries vital to US national security. As part of her scholarship, she carried out an independent research project in Vila Vehla, living with a family for a week and conducting follow-up interviews to investigate the intricacies of the conflict between favela residents and the local government.

Vila Vehla originated as a government housing program, but it expanded too quickly, with residents spreading into neighboring environmentally protected mangrove areas. To stop even more people from moving in, the local government refused to provide basic services to the overspill homes, Depies says. That has led to further degradation; waste, for instance, now flows directly into the mangroves.

To understand both sides of the issue, Depies also met with environmental experts and government officials who, in her view, underestimated the ability of the locals to comprehend their situation. The residents understand that they’re on protected land, Depies says. “They’re not stupid. They literally don’t have anywhere else to go.”

Though Depies could not resolve the complex problem, “the experience gave me a way to see issues of poverty from a local level.” This viewpoint will guide her career in global development policy—perhaps at the State Department or an international aid organization, where she hopes to help bridge the gap between policy makers and the communities they serve. In spring 2016, she completed an internship at the US Embassy in Peru, which gave her a “top-down view from the government,” the counterpoint to her bottom-up work in Brazil.

Both perspectives are “necessary to ensuring sustainable, lasting policies that most effectively respond to the issues these communities face,” says Depies, who is writing a senior honors thesis on the subject as it relates to informal settlements like Vila Vehla. After graduation, she plans to study the implementation of international policies in other Brazilian favelas and attend graduate school, supported in part by a prestigious Harry S. Truman Scholarship awarded to just 54 students nationwide.