A native of Northampton, Massachusetts, Claire Topal finds herself almost home again in Boston after a 26-year journey through the United States, Western Europe, and finally, Northeast Asia.

After focusing on French and Studies in Modernism at Cornell University and interning during the summers at the Associated Press and the Louvre Museum in Paris, Claire took off for Santa Fe, New Mexico in June 2001. There, she intended to have some fun and work in the Education department of SITE Santa Fe, the city's contemporary art museum. She felt her college degree had prepared her well for her additional part-time job eating green chilies while selling cowboy hats and cowboy boots at a local market.

Impressed by the diversity of cowboy boot brands but ready to head back East, she got back in her trusty beige car (new beautiful Resistol 3X hat on head) and sped off to NYC, where she worked for a year as a fundraising and management consultant for The Vantage Consulting Group.

Feeling like it was now (or rather then) or never, and recalling her Aunt Regina's motto "you only regret what you don't do," Claire decided to spend the next year in Shanghai, China, teaching English and Art to primary, middle, and high school youth at Shanghai High School - International Division. She returned much changed and influenced by her time in China and travels throughout North and Southeast Asia and decided to pursue a Masters of Arts in Pacific Asia and International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at The Fletcher School of law and Diplomacy in Medford, Massachusetts. She now happily finds herself only an hour and a half from her parents and visits with them while waiting for her the spin cycle on their washing machine to finish.

After a year of many papers, much discussion, endless questions, and little sleep, Claire interned this past summer in Taipei, Taiwan at Issues & Studies: A Social Science Quarterly on China, Taiwan, and East Asian Affairs. In Taipei she discovered a surprising affinity for chou dofu and humidity, as well as a desire to become more active in groups that sought to bring people with a similar interest in and passion for Pacific Asia together for dialogue and networking opportunities.

She is now back in New England, hard at work on her thesis, editing for Fletcher's international affairs journal, excitedly working to link Boston's students interested in Asia together with local professionals and government officials through ORIENTED. She looks forward to many events, more discussions, and of course happy hours, and promises to leave the chou dofu at home.