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Friday, May 27, 2022post has video

The University of San Diego would like to congratulate all of our wonderful students who are graduating this year. We will be spotlighting students from across campus, sharing their educational journeys leading up to graduation.

Alicia Schwarz is graduating from the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies with a Master of Arts in Social Innovation (MASI). Schwarz grew up in Germany and all of her family still lives there.

After receiving her bachelor's degree in international business, she wanted to spend a year giving back to her community. "I felt this urgent need to help people and I wanted to contribute something with my work and have more of an impact," said Schwarz. That's when she decided to become a paramedic in Germany during the pandemic. "It made me question how other countries would deal with it, who don't have a well-established, or even an established, healthcare system. That made me really curious about the global challenges and how we can tackle them as a society."

Schwarz says she then decided to look into programs and landed on the MASI program at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies. "It was all I've ever wanted because it combined my background in business with my passion for wanting to become a changemaker and wanting to create change in the world," added Schwarz.