Age: 26
Home Town: North Olmsted, Ohio
Education: BA Anthropology & Global Poverty and Practice, The University of California at Berkeley
Specific Field Interests: Slums and Informal Settlements, Food Sovereignty, Public Health, Youth Empowerment and Education.
Placement: Magic Bus, Mumbai, Maharashtra
Area of Focus: Youth Development

Highlights: Ryan is back for a second year with the Fellowship to build on work done during the previous year as a Fellow. Having long been dedicated to service and advocacy for the marginalized, Ryan has found himself working on various social projects spread across four continents. Being abroad has given him the opportunity to balance theory with practical understanding of the complex realities of working in development. Themes of human rights, empowerment, racial subordination, gender discrimination, sustainable community development, poverty reduction, health as a right and ethical representation of the poor have created a passion for this line of work. South Asia has become a new frontier in his life. In 2009, he found himself in India for the first time observing and learning from a student-led coalition for water and sanitation in slum neighborhoods of Mumbai. In 2010, he was awarded as a Tata International Social Entrepreneurship Scheme Fellow and lived in Jharkhand, India researching strategies to improve maternal/infant health and sexual health in rural communities. While at Berkeley, he devoted himself to a part-time job as a College Advisor and Program Coordinator for under-served students from Oakland, CA with the non-profit College Track. In Spring 2011 he completed a youth photography project in Accra, Ghana with street children. When he's not working he loves dancing, art and just enjoying the good things in life.

Posts by ryanrballard

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Exploring APV: Rethinking Education and Poverty

One evening a few weeks back, I found myself sitting upon a rustic, old swing […]

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10 Reasons Why I Can’t Leave India

It’s a little early, but with five months left to go I have been thinking […]

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A Lot Can Happen over Chai: Analyzing the Extremes, Appreciating the (Indian) Monotony

What I love most about chai is the down time is gives you to sit, […]

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India and It’s Youth: Maneuvering Sports to Empower

In essence, it is easy to say that Magic Bus is a youth development organization. […]

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They’re not just poor, They’re kids.

This past month was a really big shift in my role at work with my […]

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Dazed in the Mumbai Maze

Life in Mumbai has been a lot like a board game for me. The past […]

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Introducing Ryan Ballard

I’m Moving to India While leaving India last summer after nearly three months, I was […]

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