From October 20 to October 24, 2013, 180 Humphrey Fellows representing 93 countries attended the 2013 Hubert H. Humphrey Global Leadership Forum, “Confronting Global Challenges: A Focus on Climate Change,” at the Key Bridge Marriot Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. During the five-day Forum, the Fellows focused on how global warming affects the world, their nations and even their professions. They also explored the importance of developing leadership skills, managing change and making the most of their program year.
The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program
A program for young and mid-career professionals sponsored by the U.S. Department of State
News & Updates
In 2011, Teresa Nwachukwu (Nigeria, Tulane University, 2010-2011) received an Alumni Impact Award to develop and implement a youth leadership program in Abuja, Nigeria. Her goal was to provide orphaned and disadvantaged youth with the resources necessary for them to “grow into well-adjusted adults, ready to take on the challenges of a highly interdependent world.” While Teresa saw that orphans in Abuja were provided with food and shelter, she noticed that they “had a very poor self-image, low self-esteem, [and] a feeling of worthlessness from being abandoned.” As a result, she set out to recruit 60 teachers and 30 mentors to provide leadership training to 100 children in Nigeria’s capital city. Using the skills and training she received during her Humphrey year, Teresa created the Steps to the Top Leadership Center, which recently held its second annual summer leadership camp for Abuja youth.
Five years after her Humphrey experience, Aissata Traore (Niger, Pennsylvania State University, 2007-2008) attended a workshop in Mombasa, Kenya on the leadership challenges that confront women in developing countries. The workshop, entitled, “Transformational Leadership for Women’s Empowerment” was led by one of her role models and fellow Humphrey Alumna, Shanta Nagendram (Malaysia, Tufts University, 1987-1988).
Shortly after returning to Egypt following her Humphrey Year, 2011-12 Fellow Mona Taha was going through a challenging job transition and re-adjusting to life in her native country. At the same time, she was seeking a way to “do something for myself and others” and implement what she’d learned in the U.S. Taha, who studied Communications/Journalism at Arizona State University, reflected on her experiences and decided that creating a workshop on leadership – a large component of the program – would be her goal.
Enhancement Workshops, which are offered to current Humphrey Fellows, provide opportunities for cross-disciplinary and multi-regional interchanges among Fellows and their US professional counterparts. These workshops give Fellows the chance to make professional site visits, meet and interact with senior professionals, increase their understanding on a particular topic, and develop professional contacts.
Hubert Humphrey alumna Larissa Novikova (University of Maryland College Park, 2007-2008) was awarded an Alumni Professional Development Grant to attend Freedom Summit 2013, a two-day conference that serves as a catalytic event to bring different communities, organizations and interested individuals together around the issue of human trafficking. Freedom Summit 2013, which took place on January 25-26th in Fremont, California, stands as the largest anti-trafficking gathering in the US.
Hubert Humphrey alumni Shanta Nagendram (Tufts University, 1987-1988) and Khairuddin Tahir (UC Davis, 1988-1989), both of Malaysia, were recently lead trainers of a training and study tour for Afghan Ministry Officials. The ten-day tour brought 16 agriculture research and extension specialists from the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) to Malaysia to learn from experts in agricultural development.
Each fall, the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program gathers the current cohort of Fellows together in Washington D.C. for the Global Leadership Forum (GLF). The GLF provides opportunities for Fellows to meet their colleagues in the Humphrey cohort, establish professional connections, and begin new friendships. In addition, Fellows learn what experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) foresee as challenges the world will confront in the future.
Oana Claudia Iacob, 2010-11 Hubert Humphrey alumna from Romania, has contributed to the Anti-Corruption Guidelines, released in November by the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham Romania). The guidelines are “meant to contribute to the prevention of bribery and corruption, as well as to a more efficient approach towards corruption to be embraced by the companies in Romania.” Claudia recently appeared on Romanian national television to discuss the guidelines, as well as corruption and transparency in the country.
Complementing the professional development activities that play such a large role in the Humphrey Fellowship Program is the long-term Professional Affiliation (PA). Fellows are required to devote at least six weeks of their Humphrey year to working full-time with a U.S.-based organization outside of their host universities. The goal of the Professional Affiliation is for Fellows to exchange knowledge and expertise with their American professional counterparts and hopefully continue these linkages after returning home at the end of their Fellowship year.
On November 26th, 2012 Humphrey alumnus Yussef Auf (American, '11-12) was interviewed by NPR regarding his views on the recent decision made by judges in Egypt to strike after a series of controversial decrees were made by President Mohammed Morsi. Please click here to view the article.
The 2012 Global Leadership Forum was held Sunday, October 21, through Thursday, October 25th. Fellows participated in a number of activities, including listening to presentations from two Humphrey alumni and other engaging speakers, participating in roundtable discussions about some of the world's most difficult challenges, attending a reception at the Department of State with Assistant Secretary of State Ann Stock, visiting local high schools, and touring Washington, DC.
We are looking for outstanding stories from Humphrey alumni describing their Fellowship experience and the impact it has had on their lives, both personally and professionally.
After a harrowing day in March 2002, on the eve of the re-election of President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean lawyer Arnold Tsunga dedicated himself to defending human rights.
Since her work began for the Ugandan government over fourteen years ago, Agnes Igoye has been passionately committed to eradicating modern-day human trafficking.- When 2005-2006 Humphrey Fellow Orlando Acosta (Rutgers University – Natural Resources, Environmental Policy, and Climate Change) learned that he would be attending pre-academic English language training at the University of Oregon, he sought to learn more about the state’s local history. Once he began his research, he was delighted to discover numerous connections between the city of Eugene, which is home to the university, and his native country of Panama.
- 2005-2006 Humphrey Fellow Elizabeth Swastiwari reflects on her experience in the United States, and discusses some challenges she faced while adjusting to her life there.