From ballroom to river barge

At first glance, you may not see the connection between organizing a barge shipment on the White Nile River in South Sudan and planning a glitzy fundraiser in Washington, D.C. But the same heart and the same talents fueled both jobs.

“If I look back, it all falls into place and makes sense,” says Jessie Cochran ’05. She might be “doing it at a warehouse or an airport, instead of a ballroom, but it’s the same sort of skills.”

Read more in the spring issue of Furman magazine about her four years in South Sudan with the United Nations World Food Programme.