Humphrey Winter Newsletter - Maxwell School of Citizenship ... · Humphrey Newsletter. Fellow Reflects on Fellowship Experience. Fatoumata Binta Balde is a 2017-2018 Humphrey Fellow

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HumphreyProgram Newsletter

Winter 2018

2 Cornell Trip

3 Day in the Country

4 Peer to Peer

5 Associate Campus

6 GLF

7 Reflections

9 Site Visits, Glimmerglass, Myanmar

10 Orientation

11 Photos

12 Alumni Updates

Ninth Syracuse Cohort Embarks on Humphrey Fellowship

Syracuse University welcomed the latest cohort of Humphrey Fellows in August. They join an overall cohort of more than 150 fellows from 97 countries and hosted by 13 universities.

This year’s fellows at Syracuse University hail from: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Macedonia, Phil-ippines, and Sri Lanka. Their diverse professional experience and academic interests include: NGO management; international development, anti-corruption, policymaking and analysis; IT policy and management; legislative research; human resource manage-ment; and collaborative governance.

In the four months since their arrival, the fellows have been engaged in course-work, cultural exchange, professional networking and development and presentations on a variety of topics.

“The Humphrey Fellows add to the embodiment of global citizenship, which is a hallmark of the Maxwell School, with their diverse professional backgrounds, nation-alities and perspectives. They are at Syracuse University to engage with students and faculty in any number of ways; to expand their networks and participate in profession-al and cultural exchange within the community,” says Margaret Lane, director of the Humphrey Fellowship Program and assistant director of Executive Education.

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Humphrey Newsletter

Cross Campus Collaboration Tradition Continues Syracuse and Cornell Humphrey Fellows traveled to the Adirondack mountains to meet up, network and make plans for future collaborations. Along the way they had a site visit with the Adirondack Park Agency and experienced firsthand the uniqueness of this constitutionally-protected 6 million acre park in New York State. The rainy, foggy weather on Whiteface Mountain made for some dramatic photographs and eerie gondola ride. On the ride back to Syracuse, Fellows stopped at Buttermilk Falls to enjoy the splendor of fall color along the Raquette River.

40 Years of Humphrey In anticipation of the 40th anniversary of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship program, IIE, the State Department and host campuses will be commemorating the program and its impacts in 2018-2019. Discussions are underway to identify the best ways to observe the program, its participants and stakeholders. Stay tuned!

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Fellows Experience a Day in the Country The Fellows and Humphrey Family & Friends spent an afternoon at the country home of Barry and Kathy Kogut har-vesting vegetables, walking to (and behind!) Tinker’s Falls and visiting a large dairy farm. After the day’s activities, they returned to host Barry and Kathy Kogut’s home for a pasta and potluck dinner. All in all, a lovely way to spend a late summer afternoon!

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Fellows Offer Perspective in Peer to Peer Series Four Humphrey Fellows were among presenters during the Fall’s Peer to Peer speaker series. They presented on a variety of topics. Spring semester will feature additional Fellows as speakers in this series organized by Executive Education.

Liva Liepina (Latvia) Baltic Way and The Singing Revolution: Examples of Peaceful Political Transition (available onYouTube)

Sutharsan Sambasivam (Sri Lanka) Challenges and Reflections of Postwar Development in Sri Lanka

Nora Buklevska (Macedonia) Fake news: Are We Really Surprised? (available on YouTube)

Binta Balde (Guinea) Finding Hope in the Darkness: Young Girls in Guinea (available on YouTube)

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Engaging with Humphrey’s Associate Campus

This fall, Fellows participated in a number of activities with Associate campus SUNY Os-wego and its Institute for Global Engagement (IGE). Its director, Ulises Mejias, arranged a campus speed meeting event, where students, faculty and staff had the opportunity to meet all the fellows in a series of short, timed “meetings.” Students were curious about the Fellows’ cultures, media, country as well as their impressions of the U.S. Fellows enjoyed the opportunity to meet undergraduates and hear their thoughts.

Five of the female fellows spoke as an International Women’s Panel on the Oswego campus. The discussion was moderated by Debra Geroux as part of her Gender and the Workplace class. Fatoumata Binta Blade (Guinea), Panoreja Buklevska (Macedonia), Liva Liepina (Latvia), Mir Taifa Siddika (Ban-gladesh) and Mireille Laurentine Tchakounte Tchatat (Camer-oon) spoke about the role of women in their societies, gender discrimination the Humphrey Fellowship and its impact on the fellows’, futures and work-life balance. The Fellows also answered a wide array of questions from the students.

As part of an International Education Week observation, SUNY Oswego Syracuse Campus Director and Humphrey Family Kim Armani invited the Fellows to present about their country and cultures over a pizza dinner, attended by Hum-phrey Family & Friends, and graduate and undergraduates enrolled in courses about international business, cultural envi-ronment of international business and business organization.

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GLF Features Connections, Presentations, Networking, Celebrations

The annual Global Leadership Forum provided the opportunity for Fellows from all 13 campuses to meet and share experiences. This year’s topic was “Humphrey Voices: Leadership for Our Shared Future” in which all campuses created presentations. “Collaborative Governance: Engaging Citizens for the Future” was a collaborative effort by all the fellows which also included an academic poster. Binta Balde, Pierre Lovens Merolein and Sutharsan Sambasivam serving as presenters for the group. Nazla Mariza and Samir Akundov created a poster based on the presentation; Taifa Siddika was on hand to discuss the poster’s elements.

A reception at the U.S. Department of State featured embassy staff, State Department representatives, Humphrey Fellows and included Anne Howard-Tristani, Hubert Humphrey’s niece. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, Alyson L. Grunder, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy for Education and Cultural Affairs at the State Department and Dr. Allan Goodman, CEO of IIE welcomed attendees. and stressed the importance Humphrey’s ideals and program.

2016-2017 Syracuse Humphrey alum Andrea McLean was selected to be on a panel on professional affiliations. She is completing an extended PA as a consultant at the World Bank. On a visit to the World Bank, Fellows met two Exec Ed alums, Oleksiy Anokhin and Stela Leuca who talked about their experience working as consultants at the World Bank. The fol-lowing day, Enrique Rubio, HR Specialist at the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank, arranged a conversation with other HR professionals at IABD to look at elements of HR management including succession planning, performance measurement and innovation.

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Fellowship Provides Inspiration Based on Observations and Experiences Mireille Laurentine Tchakounte Tchatat is a 2017-2018 Humphrey Fellow from Cameroon. She provided the following reflection of one element of her experience so far.

If I had been asked a few weeks ago how I wish to use my fellowship experience upon return in my home country, for sure that I would not have anything to say because everything was still confused in my mind- I changed my ideas every day. But now I have a clear vision of what I’ll have to do in my country in relation to this program. With Maxwell being a school of Public Affairs and Citizenship, I’ve decided to create a NGO that will focus on the sensitization of people in Cameroon on the role and the benefit of being a good citizen, which could have a big impact in the development of my country.

This idea came from the fact that I noticed in the U.S. in general, and in Syracuse in particular, people are very polite and respectful of the code of good conduct proper to modern society. For example, most drivers have respect for traffic signals and pedestrians. The highlight and trigger of my idea is when I noticed that every time a school bus stopped to drop a child, all the vehicles behind him

stopped and even more surprising was that the vehicles in the other direction also did so. I was moved to tears and I thought oh my God, what respect for human life.

In addition, I really liked and enjoyed seeing the American flag float in front of most houses. For me, it’s a sign of patriotism, the fact to be proud of the country, to be grateful for it. On the whole, experiences like these I have seen with my eyes in combina-tion with the theoretical courses that I will take at Maxwell School, will no doubt provide me with knowledge to replicate in my country through my NGO.

An unforgettable memory so far was the Global Leadership Forum which occurred during my birthday. Nearly 200 people were gathered and sang happy birthday to me; I was very proud and smiling, greeting the audience with a raised hand like a first lady. The apotheosis was during the reception held for Humphrey Fellows at the U.S. State Department. Even in my wildest dreams, I had never imagined that I could celebrate one of my birthdays at the U.S. State Department- never, never, and it really hap-pened, what emotions oh my God!

As time goes on, I begin to acclimate to life in Syracuse. I do not miss an opportunity to enjoy myself and appreciate what I find positive for me, right here. The proof is in pho-tos that accompany these reflections.

I’m really enjoying my stay in Syracuse based on what I have seen and done so far- they are largely positive and foreshadow more beautiful days and even better times by the end of the Humphrey Program. If it was to start again, I would do it with great pleasure.

All my initial apprehensions are just a distant memory now. It is with great pleasure that I will recommend this program to others with all the necessary assurances.

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Fellow Reflects on Fellowship Experience Fatoumata Binta Balde is a 2017-2018 Humphrey Fellow from Guinea. She penned a perspective of the first half of her Fellowship.

The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program will definitely enhance my career and foster my great ambitions to build up the Guinean administration upon return home.

So far, the experience that I have been rewarding. In the academic setting the Humphrey Leadership seminar, the Conflict Manage-ment Center (CMC) Workshops with Professor Gerard and the Public Budgeting class with Professor Hou have definitely fos-tered my knowledge and set of skills in these subjects.

Volunteering in the Syracuse and nearby communities by teaching English to refugees through the Syracuse University Center for Refugee Assistance (SUPRA), serving meals to the Samaritan Center, sharing experience with students in community colleges in

SUNY Oswego in topics covering gender, discrimination, and women in the work place in developing countries have built mutual understanding.

My public speaking engagement has been enhanced in a number of ways, I have given speeches at the Global Leadership Forum on the Collaborative Governance: Engaging Citizens for the Future, also at the Rotary club focusing on my country access to independence, on a peer to peer sessions presenting issues facing girls in Guinea and at SUNY Oswego campus in Syracuse sharing insight on my tribe “the Fula People” during the international Education week.

Also, I have loved meeting and exchanging with the Cornell Humphrey Fellows at Lake Placid, a beautiful place that I will remember forever! Getting to know the extraordinary people and their respective coun-tries was enlightening! Those long lasting connections are necessary in a globalized world in order to tackle development’s challenges. And of course, never without the work hard, play hard statement, we have done great parties and enjoyed excellent moments in

Syracuse!

I am also grateful to my host family! Melanie, Tom and their two daughters have been a blessing to me. And last but not least, a round of applause to the program coor-dinators Margaret, Martha and Denise for their valuable support!

Slowly, but surely winter is approaching and far from be-ing scared I have chosen to remember instead the warmth of all the love, joy, care and kindness that I have experi-enced in this vibrant community!

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Site Visits Provide Context to Leadership and Organizations Site visits and meetings this fall touched on organizations, structures and components of U.S. institutions. At the City of Syracuse Innovation Team, Fellows learned how the city uses data to make government more efficient and provide this data to the public on its website. The Onondaga County Executive’s office discussed organizational struc-ture to the government, how budgets are determined and approved, and how human resources works within the civil service structure. Fellows queried Minar Pimple, Senior Director of Global Networks for Amnesty International about their individual coun-tries and they learned about local campaigns with a visit to mayoral candidate Juanita Perez-Williams.

Glimmerglass Program Offers Innovation and Information The Fellows had a unique opportunity to discuss homeland and conflict in advance of the Glimmerglass Opera’s performance of “The Siege of Calais” in Cooperstown in August. Liva Liepina (Latvia), Sutharsan Sam-basivam (Sri Lanka) and Ibrahim Shahristani (Afghanistan) discussed a specific element of conflict, justice or equality in their countries and its impact on society. They took questions from the audience and then attended a performance of the U.S. premiere this opera. Humphrey Di-rector Margaret Lane moderated the discussion and is hoping to return in the spring, during its Summer 2018 pre-season series of events, to enable the Fellows to continue to add a global perspective.

Humphrey Director Visits Myanmar Alums During Trip

Humphrey Director Margaret Lane travelled to Myanmar (Burma) in October, where she met with Humphrey alumni from Cornell, Penn State, Virginia Commonwealth and Syracuse Universities. It was a chance for the alums to meet and reminisce about their Humphrey year: its impact on them, their country and their profession. In ad-vance of the 40th year of the Humphrey Fellowship, Margaret engaged them in conversation about ways to connect alums with future fellows through mentoring programs and networking events.

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Humphrey Newsletter

Getting Settled and Raring to Go

The first few weeks of the fellowship year focus on getting settled and learning about the program year, the campus and region, and essential concepts of American governance and culture. It’s a busy month that lays the groundwork for the fellowship. Besides academic presentations, highlights in-cluded volunteering at the Samaritan Center, a soup kitchen; Humphrey Family & Friends Welcome BBQ; walking tour of downtown Syracuse; campus tour; and boat tour of Skaneateles Lake.

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A semester filled with experiences in the classroom, on campus and in the community Fellows spent the fall in a myriad of pursuits- it’s a herculean task to capture them all! Below are some highlights.

Sutharsan Sambasivam participated in a “Train the Trainer” facilitator workshop conducted by the Conflict Management

Center at the Maxwell School. He then led a facilitation for First Year Forum class this past fall.

Binta Balde and Lovens Mérolien spoke at Sunrise Rotary Club in Novem-ber. Pictured with them is Sunrise Rotary president Blessed Sikhosana and

Humphrey Director Margaret Lane.

The fall session of the Humphrey Seminar is held in conjunction with Executive Education students as part of Managerial Leadership. Catherine Gerard leads the course, and enables a rich classroom environment of shared

self-reflection through the lens of various leadership theories.

Some fellows attended the Tanner Lecture on Ethics, Citizenship, and Public Responsibility and heard keynote speaker Christine Todd Whitman, former

EPA Administrator and former Governor of New Jersey.

You never know where or when Syracuse’s mascot, Otto, will appear! Sutharsan, Dastan and Mireille met him after a site visit in October.

An annual fall tradition is Executive Education’s pumpkin party. Liva Liepina and Mireille Laurentine Tchakounte Tchatat demonstrate their

jack-o-lantern carving talents.

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Alumni Updates Alumni Updates

Samuel Cole (Liberia, 2010-2011) was in Guinea representing the National Elections Commission-Liberia at the ECOWAS (Eco-nomic Community of West African States) Conference of electoral authorities to share lessons learned from elections conducted in the sub-region in 2015 & 2016.

Nampoina Rabenasolo (Madagascar, 2010-2011) is serving as a consultant with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Madagascar in charge of resource mobilization.

Rezwana Siddiqui (2011-2012) and Bilal Memon (2013-2014) attended the inaugural Hubert H. Humphrey National Alumni Re-union convened by the Pakistan-US Alumni Network in October.

Adrián Pérez (Argentina, 2012-2013) caught up with Gina Chacon (Mexico, 2012-2013) during a recent trip to Mexico City on behalf of the Argentinian government. Adrián is currently Secre-tary for Political Affairs for the Argentinian Government and Gina is a project manager and researcher at Fundar Center for Analysis and Research (Think Tank) in Mexico City.

As Director of Connect Network, Dee Moskoff, (South Africa, 2013-2014) networked with ProLiteracy while a Humphrey Fellow at Syracuse University. ProLiteracy staff from Syracuse traveled to Cape Town to connect with Connect, in a new partnership to devel-op a women’s literacy health program. Dee also presented about Connect Network and some internship opportunities in conjunction with a presentation about the Global Health program in South Africa by Mary Ann Middlemiss at Falk College of Syracuse University.

Kokou Amouzou (Togo, 2015-2016) is leading a SAP Implemen-tation project as Business Team Lead at the National Healthcare Institute. He assures the Syracuse staff that he actually misses the snow!

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André Ndjallè(Cameroon, 2015-2016) reports that he joined the African Tax Research Network Association. His article “Why and How to Improve the Land Tax Assessment in Cameroon” was selected for presentation during the Congress held in Madagascar this year. The genesis of the paper was in Maxwell Prof. John Yinger’s State and Local Government Finance course.

Temitope Aladesamni (Nigeria, 2015-2016), is the recipient of a small grant from the U.S. Consulate in Lagos. The project, “Enhancing Coding Capability and Entrepreneurship for Female School Leavers in Ife Central Local Government, Osun State, Nigeria” focuses on the empowerment of women and youth. The project is aimed at reducing the vulnerabilities of young female students who leave school in the town of Ile-Ife through ICT empowerment. A total of 50 students who show potential for leadership will be trained in mobile apps devel-opment with an emphasis on apps that address immediate environment challenges/needs. In addition, the students will go through entrepreneurial training and role modeling.

Temitope also accepted an offer to be a member of the Steering Committee that is a result of the first African Academic Network on Internet Policy Collaboration, co-hosted by Google and the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP). Additionally, he recently was featured in an article about data protection and security in Nigeria’s Guardian newspa-per.

Pierre El Haddad (Lebanon, 2016-2017) announces that his NGO, SEPT (Save Energy Plant Trees), was recently awarded a grant from MEPI (Middle East Partnership Initiative) through the U.S. Embassy Local Grants Program. Terraces, hand built by ancient Lebanese, carry cultural, economic and environmental values. GREAT (Greening the Ancient Terraces) is a one-year project aiming to restore some of these terraces in three different locations, using native tree species and agro-forestry techniques. It will engage local citizens in project activities and in the process, create jobs and economic development from the produce provided by these trees. Pierre recently appeared on various television programs (TL and Mariam TV) to discuss upcoming SEPT initiatives including the GREAT project.

He also continues his corporate sustainability advocacy in partnership with three Lebanese universities involving university students advocat-ing CSR and sustainable jobs. Another upcoming project is entitled Lebanese Organization Grouping, creating a network of multidisciplinary Lebanese NGOs that will share resources and improve effi-ciency. It includes an academic dimension through action research to ultimately provide answers to the fragmentation of civil society in Lebanon.

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2014-2015 Alumni Update: Laura Dittel Laura Dittel (Slovak Republic, 2014-2015) was been nominated and elected as the first Slovak candidate to the steering committee during the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Civil Society Conference and 9th Civil Society Forum Annual Assembly, which was convened in Es-tonia in October. The event attracted over 300 attendees, speakers and guests from EaP countries as well as the EU member countries. During the Annual Assembly, new Steering Committee members were elected by the delegates with a mandate from civil society of the EaP countries and EU member states to serve as the governing board of the Forum during a one-year term. Laura will also serve as the EU coordinator in Working Group 2, dealing with economic integration and convergence with EU policies.

As Director/CEO of the Carpathian Foundation, she met Prince Edward on the occasion of the Carpathian Foundation supporting the extension of the Duke of Edinburgh International Award to Eastern Slovakia. Prince Edward serves on its board and visited Slovakia to officially transfer the award to 50 young people who successfully participated in the program. U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia Adam Sterling also with representatives of the Carpathian Foundation during his visit to Eastern Slovakia. He was interested in the foundation’s work in the field of Roma integration and education.

2014-2015 Alumni Update: Mirjakhon Turdiev Mirjakhon Turdiev (Uzbekistan, 2014-2015) completed his Executive Master of Public Administration last spring and began work on his Ph.D. in Disability Studies at the School of Education at Syracuse University this fall. He commented that Syracuse is one of the few campuses in the U.S. that offer topnotch graduate programs on disability owing to the rich pool of scholars, faculty, professional researchers as well as think tanks on dis-ability. He currently has a Graduate Assistantship at the Taishoff Center of Syracuse University which enables his international disability rights advo-cacy work with the United Nations’ division on disability. As is his tradition, Mirjakhon celebrated International Day of Persons with Disabilities at the U.N. on December 1, along with high-level international disability rights advocates. This year he was representing the Taishoff Center.

Daily Orange’s (DO) Thanksgiving edition featured Mirjakhon’s experi-ence and his own plans for the holiday. He also attended Syracuse University’s International Thanksgiving Dinner and was fortunate to sit next to Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud and his wife, Dr. Ruth Chen. During the dinner, Mirjakhon shared his SU and US experience with them, including learnings, challenges, opportunities and engagements for broadening internationalization of SU. The newly-founded Central Asia and the Caucasus (CAC) Research Group at Maxwell School was an example of his involvement. As a result, Mirjakhon was invited to join the new Syracuse University Internationalization Council.

This broad experience at Syracuse and as a Humphrey Fellow has been transformative in many ways and as a result, is able to be an am-bassador for the program, the University and his field of study. He states that he’s building on the academic knowledge of disability law and professional networks gained and established during his Humphrey Fellowship, which in turn is also allowing him to assist disability NGOs in Uzbekistan in the development of new national law and programs on disability.

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