On February 9-15, 2016, thirteen Humphrey Fellows from the University of Minnesota traveled to Arizona to study immigration with Humphrey Fellows in journalism at Arizona State University. Fellows learned hands-on through site visits and meetings with leaders and academics dealing with issues on the border. This year for the first time, Fellows crossed the border into Nogales, Sonora, Mexico to examine border issues from the Mexican side. The following is a reflection by Ja Aung Lu, who attended this cross-campus collaboration.
The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program
A program for young and mid-career professionals sponsored by the U.S. Department of State
News & Updates
Utku Cakirozer was already an accomplished journalist when he embarked on the Humphrey Program in August 2008 to expand his skills in online and multimedia journalism. After ten months of non-degree study at the University of Maryland, College Park, Cakirozer returned home to Turkey to several promotions. First he was made Bureau Chief for Aksam, a prominent daily Turkish newspaper. Then he was appointed as editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper.
Cabo Verde is a small nation, comprised of an archipelago of 10 islands located about 350 miles off the coast of Western Africa. After gaining independence from Portugal in 1975 and writing a constitution in 1980, the first multi-party elections were held in 1991. Two years later, Cabo Verde’s first Humphrey Fellow, Andre Corsino Tolentino arrived in Minneapolis to study public administration, management, and planning as part of the Humphrey cohort of 1993-1994. After Tolentino’s departure in the spring of 1994, it would be 20 years before another Cabo Verdean won a fellowship.
Asia Mbajja Namusoke says she applied for the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program in 2011 because “I had a dream to achieve: making a difference in the lives of marginalized and disadvantaged populations [in Uganda]. Although I had convinced the panel at the U.S. Embassy in Uganda that I would design a youth program to support vulnerable children living with HIV/AIDS on my return after my Humphrey year, I didn’t know how to do it.”
From October 25 to October 29, 2015, 167 Humphrey Fellows representing 90 countries attended the 2015 Hubert H. Humphrey Global Leadership Forum, “Resilience in the Face of Climate Change: A Global Perspective on Leadership,” at the Key Bridge Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. During the five-day Forum, the Fellows focused on how global warming affects the world, their nations and their professions. They also explored the importance of developing leadership skills, managing change and networking with their American and international peers.
Welcome to our new Alumni Roundup series, where we will feature short updates on significant achievements of the Humphrey Fellowship Alumni. Humphrey Alumni have had some great accomplishments so far in 2015, including an elected president, a high court justice appointee, a founder of a successful NGO, and more. Please read further for more details regarding these stunning achievements.
Recently, Americans sat down together to eat, socialize, and watch football, commercials, and the most popular concert of the year. As the most watched telecast in U.S. history—this year’s event was watched by 114.4 million viewers—the Super Bowl promises a grand spectacle. This year featured a very competitive game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks that was decided in the last minute of the game. We asked some Humphrey Fellows in Boston and Seattle what their experiences were like.
In June 2014, Humphrey Alumnus Andras Petho resigned from his job, as Deputy Director of Origo news, a popular Hungarian online media source. Andras had been pursuing an investigative story on a senior Hungarian government official’s extraordinarily high travel expenses. As his investigation progressed, his news organization was put under pressure to drop the sensitive story. When the organization’s leadership resisted, Origio’s editor was dismissed. Andras resigned as well, along with, “the entire politics section and dozens of other reporters. Altogether, more than half the newsroom decided to quit in protest of what they saw as the end of Origo’s editorial independence.”
From November 2 to November 7, 2014, 171 Humphrey Fellows representing 98 countries attended the 2014 Hubert H. Humphrey Global Leadership Forum, “Resilience in the Face of Climate Change: A Global Perspective on Leadership,” at the Key Bridge Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. During the five-day Forum, the Fellows focused on how global warming affects the world, their nations and their professions. They also explored the importance of developing leadership skills, managing change and networking with their American and international peers.
Magteld Smith, a Public Policy Humphrey fellow from 2012-2013, has been using the skills gained during her Humphrey year in Minnesota to work towards providing opportunities for those with disabilities in South Africa. Throughout her career, Smith has helped establish the analysis of disability as a field in academic research and teaching.
Earlier this summer, Judy Gibson, director of the Humphrey Fellowship Program at the Institute of International Education, had the opportunity to meet with Humphrey alumni who were attending the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) annual conference in Puerto Rico. Nearly 20 Humphrey Alumni were in attendance at the four-day forum which focused on building international collaborative research on drug abuse. During the conference, Humphrey alumni sat down with Ms. Gibson to discuss the impact that the Humphrey Program has had on their career trajectories.
Ms. Lu Sam, a 2013-2014 Fellow placed at Vanderbilt University, was recently the recipient of the annual Humphrey Community Service Award. Ms. Sam has pursued several volunteer assignments during her long-term English placement at Virginia Tech and at her Humphrey campus at Vanderbilt, dedicating much of her spare time to the service of others. Whether sorting packages of school supplies and frozen foods, serving young children with developmental disabilities, or leading students through service-learning projects, Sam has demonstrated the spirit of a servant leader.
On February 7-8, 2014, a group of Humphrey alumni organized the inaugural Egyptian Humphrey Alumni Forum in Cairo. The event brought nearly 25 Humphrey alumni together to discuss the unprecedented challenges that the country has faced since 2011. The two-day event featured sessions on politics, economics and the role of the private sector, law and constitutional issues, education, health, media, women, and ethics and national identity.
On January 14, 2014, Coca-Cola Brazil and the Coca-Cola Foundation announced an investment of $2.1 million in projects intended to promote the social and economic inclusion of Afro-Brazilians in Brazil. One of the NGOs that will receive funding from this generous investment is the Instituto Mídia Étnica, an organization co-founded and directed by Humphrey Alumnus, Paulo Rogério Nunes (Brazil, University of Maryland-College Park, 2011-2012).- The Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board recently released the 48th edition of its Annual Report, which highlights the impact of Fulbright programs and Fulbright alumni around the world. This year, five Humphrey alumni were featured in the publication. Congratulations to Kenneth Kanda (Ghana, Princeton University, 1979-1980), Teresa Nwachukwu (Nigeria, Tulane University, 2010-2011), Edmon Marukyan (Armenia, University of Minnesota – Law School, 2009-2010), Tashi Chhozom (Bhutan, American University, 2005-2006), and Aneesa Ahmed (The Maldives, Pennsylvania State University, 1985-1986) for being selected to share their stories.
On November 7, 2013, Humphrey alumus Illac Diaz (Philippines, MIT, 2005-2006) was awarded the Sustainia Community Award in Copenhagen, Denmark for his Liter of Light (Isang Litrong Liwanag) initiative. The Sustainia Award is an annual international award given to a solution, technology or project with a significant potential to help build a more sustainable future.- For this month’s Humphrey Photo Contest, we asked Fellows and Alumni to send us pictures of their favorite American traditions. Fellows submitted pictures from their Halloween festivities, Thanksgiving dinners, and community service activities. The two photos displayed above are the winning photographs for the month of November. They are displayed in their respective portals as well. Congratulations to the winners!
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.
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.