The Eisenhower Experience

Today was the first time my Fellowship really hit me.  I spent the entire day surrounded by people from throughout the United States and all over the world who are doing incredible things and and who are leveraging their Eisenhower Fellowships to do even more.

There is Tamiko Nakamura from Japan, striving to foster connections between the legal and scientific communities to create cross disciplinary legal education models; Noelle Lim from Malaysia, who besides being the host of the most popular English language radio show in her country, is working to provide access to the best schools in the U.S. and the U.K. for low-income Malaysian students; Ephey Malo from Nigeria, seeking to drive innovation in her country's energy sector to help create stability and opportunity; and Louella Pesquera of the Philippines, a prosecutor of government graft, looking to drive multi-national collaborations to enhance prosecutorial impact in corruption cases.

These are just some of the 32 Fellows gathered now in Philadelphia.  The discussions we had today have been amazing, and not just because they were about interesting things.  They demonstrated the dynamism of the people that Eisenhower Fellowships has put together for its 2015 programs, and I, much to my delight, have found new and gifted collaborators for the work I am trying to do.

In addition, with help from the EF staff (thanks, Natalie Barndt!) I will meet tomorrow with the ED of The Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians, an organization focusing on economic development and new immigrants.  Between my work at Casa de Salud and my involvement with the St. Louis Mosaic Project, I trust we will have a lot to discuss.