In today’s competitive world, often, achieving a good education serves as our primary route to reaching our aspirations and a fulfilling life. We become better with our chosen craft and of greater help to society through the valuable learnings and inspirations that we primarily receive out of our education.

As an institution focused on developing highly competent public servants, KDI School takes pride in providing a robust and innovative education and producing students who can keep up with the modern world’s challenges. Fresh from his academic success at KDIS, we interviewed one of our outstanding alumni who recently started a postdoctoral research position at one of the leading academic institutions in the United Kingdom, the University of Glasgow. He shared his recent academic success in the hopes of inspiring students who might have aspirations to follow in his footsteps. Below is a short snapshot of our interview:

Can you please introduce yourself and your background to our readers?

Hello, my name is Souleymane Yameogo from Burkina Faso, and I finished my Masters in Public Policy at KDIS and just recently my PhD in Public Policy also at KDI School. I came to Korea in 2017 with a Korean government scholarship. Before coming to KDIS, I was working on Monitoring and Evaluation for 6 years and then I established my own NGO where I promoted democracy and organized speaking contests, which helped me get a grant from the US Federal Government and eventually led to my scholarship at KDIS.

I was interested in institutions, mainly informal institutions, that is why my master’s thesis, for which I got the “Outstanding Thesis Award”, was about how the official language of a country might be affecting how fast it can industrialize, after my master’s degree, I got into research assistant work, so then I decided to apply for a Ph. D. in Public Policy in 2021. I worked on several research papers, which eventually led me to get into my current post-doctorate post. Currently, I am here in the UK at the University of Glasgow where I got a research associate job in Democratic Politics.

What was your motivation in deciding to study in KDIS? 

The first thing that led me to study in Korea was because when I was in my country, I had a Korean professor, who used to teach Korean history. He used to talk a lot about Korea and said things like, “You know, I know you are very motivated in promoting democracy in your country and to help your country to get developed. So I think the best place for you to learn is to come to Korea specifically to KDI, the institution that worked to develop Korea at the beginning in the early 1960s”.  I think that was one of the motivations to come to Korea to learn about its experience and in the end bring those learnings to my country.

What are some of the hardships and challenges that you encountered in your academic journey? How did you overcome them?

Perhaps one of the difficult things when I was doing my master’s was, you know, when you're not good in English and you must think in English. So sometimes writing takes time, and I think a lot of the foreign students can relate to this as well. I had to do things ahead. For example, if I had an assignment due in like 2 weeks, I had to work on it at least one week before, and then try to take time to polish it, to be sure that everything is good.  I spent a lot of time with Professor Plumb to get help with my papers in grammar and editing, and every morning I had to read the dictionary and listen to Ted Talks and really practice communicating better.

What was your motivation in applying for a postdoc at a top global institution? How do you think your KDIS education prepared you and helped you get the post?

Since my specialization is political science and political economy, if I want to become an expert in my field and be competitive, I need to go to the west to do something in between my doctoral studies and a future post - and I learned that from my KDIS professors. 

With their advice, I learned that the University of Glasgow is one of the top political science institutions, and since I am interested in democratic politics, after the post doc I will improve my network, my capacity and eventually my profile which will then expose me to the job market related to my field.

Through my education in KDI School, I was able to publish papers and had the opportunity to present them internationally, which I think was pivotal in my success in getting the post-doctoral post. KDI School taught me very well about econometrics, and my experience teaching AMPP during TA sessions also helped me develop my knowledge and skills so that during the interview, I was just relaxed and was somehow able to answer the questions.  

What message can you share to students and all those who aspire to be successful academically and in life? What core characteristics and attitudes do you think one should possess to be successful in life?

The first thing is to be patient. Be very patient building skills and competence, because when you want something, it takes time to get it. You might not have a lot of friends, miss some parties or some trips, in the end however it will all be worth it. In my case, I was very patient in school reading, writing and while I had some fun from time to time, I put learning as my priority. 

Remember that the real competition is not between you and your classmates but between you and the rest of the world who might have the same goal as you have. So, gain, build your profile to compete with the rest of the world.

Indeed, the road to success is never an easy route. There will be trials and detours along the way, but if you focus on what you can do to deal with them and work hard to become a better you, anything is possible. All the struggles will be worth it if we just put our hearts and minds into working to achieve our life aspirations. After all, the world is limitless.