Humphrey School alumnus Kalvin Moschkau (MDP ’23) freely admits he has followed a “meandering career path” since he completed his undergraduate degree in computer engineering and computer science at UW-Madison several years ago.
That path has led the Minnesota native to Montana, where he worked for the U.S. Geological Survey; to California, where he raised organic vegetables; to Minnesota, to work on his Master of Development Practice (MDP) degree at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs; to Mongolia for his field experience; then to the South Pole.
The latest stop on that path has taken him back to Mongolia, where he will spend the next year working on global conservation efforts, thanks to a fellowship from the prestigious Henry Luce Foundation.
He is one of 15 young American professionals named Luce Scholars for 2025-26. Luce Scholarships provide recipients with year-long immersive, professional experiences in Asia, with a goal of strengthening cross-cultural understanding and leadership.
Moschkau’s work reflects the Humphrey School’s commitment to global engagement and sustainable development, priorities that are central to the School’s Constellations of M(pact) initiative.
About Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country of about three million people in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. While more than half its population lives in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, the country’s economy is primarily based on livestock, agriculture, and mining.
The livestock sector—comprised of millions of sheep, goats, cattle, and horses—is a major contributor to Mongolia's exports, particularly of wool, cashmere, and meat.
But the country is suffering from more frequent and severe climate-induced disasters like harsher winters, droughts, and dust storms that, in turn, are leading to the deaths of millions of animals and damaging the herders’ traditional livelihoods.
The work that Moschkau will do over the next year is meant to address some of those climate-related issues. He is joining the Mongolian Nature's Legacy Foundation, which is implementing a sustainable finance program called Eternal Mongolia designed to safeguard 30 percent of the country’s land and biodiversity. Among the steps it will take to accomplish that are supporting sustainable herding practices and investing in the sustainable tourism industry.
Moschkau will focus on community-based natural resource management programs, including loan programs and training to integrate herders into sustainable supply chains and tourism initiatives.
“I'm thrilled about this opportunity because it is an ambitious, long-term initiative that intersects finance, conservation, and sustainable agriculture, and is centered around local, community-driven proposals and community-managed practices,” he said. “The grass-roots approach really excites me, and it feels like a great match for my interests and experience.”
This isn’t Moschkau’s first time in Mongolia. In 2022, he completed his required summer field experience there as part of the Development Practice program, and credits it with solidifying his interest in community-based international development.
“Mongolia has really captured my heart and my interest, because everyone I worked with was super passionate about improving the lives of those around them,” he said.
Humphrey School was a turning point
The path to Mongolia was definitely a meandering one for Moschkau. After he completed his bachelor’s degree he worked in a variety of jobs, some unrelated to his engineering background. He came to realize “there were more important problems to solve; important enough to make a career change.” So he took a big step and applied to the Humphrey School.
“The Humphrey School was a very large pivot for me. It provided me an opportunity to develop some independence, to develop some leadership, and to develop a broader way of knowing the world,” he said. “That just comes from a lot of exposure and intentionally challenging oneself to be put into unfamiliar contexts, and to be given important work to do in those contexts.”
Moschkau also discovered that he could blend his development work with his technical background.
“A lot of the most effective development projects have to do with capacity building. That takes infrastructure and it takes understanding complex systems,” he said. But that approach needs to be combined with the appropriate context, “understanding socioeconomic history, the culture, and the needs of people that you work with,” rather than just implementing a project based on a set of instructions.
He was also attracted to the MDP program’s international field experiences.
“For me it was super important that I didn’t just go to school and get a ‘book education.’ I was looking for something that would … put me into the field, with all the challenges that come with it,” he said. “When you’re presented with a challenge, you begin to understand who you are. It breaks you out of your shell and presents to you both your strengths and weaknesses in a much clearer light.”
The South Pole
Moschkau has taken that spirit of challenge seriously. From October 2023 to November 2024, he served as a technician at the South Pole— “because I needed a job, and because Antarctica is the last great adventure,” he said.
He helped maintain the IceCube Neutrino Observatory—one of the world’s most advanced astrophysics research stations, which is operated by scientists at UW-Madison. He was part of a 41-person team that kept the facility running through the eight-month Antarctic winter, when no airplanes could reach the station due to extreme weather conditions.
Moschkau’s role was essential: keeping the neutrino detector online, monitoring systems, and performing repairs in one of the most isolated and unforgiving environments on the planet. That experience, he said, further sharpened both his technical and interpersonal skills—lessons he brings with him to Mongolia.
Takeaways
At the Humphrey School, Moschkau worked on global initiatives and gained tools to navigate the complex challenges facing communities and ecosystems around the world. But his biggest takeaway was more personal, he said.
“It’s my cohort—the people that I met and spent a lot of time with over the two years I was there. I still chat weekly with at least one or two people that I’ve been close with,” he said. “It was super cool to be part of a program that was so international. It was an opportunity to learn and grow with people who have different life experiences and skills, whom I looked up to and learned from.”
Dave Wilsey, director of the MDP program, praised Moschkau’s accomplishments and his recognition through the Luce Scholarship program.
“Kalvin represents the very best of the Humphrey School. He is a scholar who is deeply committed to public service, and also ready to lead in a global context,” said Wilsey. “We are thrilled to see his work recognized at this level.”
Moschkau is also thinking about his next steps after the program in Mongolia ends next summer. That same focus on international development and sustainability will continue to drive him.
“I’m interested in working at a higher level—to solve problems that cross boundaries like climate change and biodiversity conservation, which all require international cooperation.”
