Program Updates
BU, MIT and Cornell Cohorts Gather for Re-Entry Workshop
On Friday, April 7th, the cohorts of MIT, Cornell, and BU gathered at Endicott House in Dedham, Massachusetts for a full day of activities focused on Fellows' re-entry into their respective countries and cultures. Endicott House is a Normandy French-style chateau with 25 acres (100,000 square meters) of gardens, lawn, woods, and ponds that MIT owns and operates as a conference center.
In preparation for the event, the Fellows read an essay entitled "The Process of Re-Entry" by Gary Weaver, a professor at American University for over 45 years who presented several times on the topic of cross-cultural adjustment at the Program's Global Leadership Forum in Washington, DC.
The day began with a continental breakfast followed by welcome remarks by directors Bish Sanyal (MIT), Peter Gregory (Cornell), and Jack McCarthy (BU). Fellows and coordinators then divided into groups to discuss these questions:
- What have you learned about the U.S.?
- What have you learned from one another?
Following the discussions, Bish Sanyal and Peter Gregory led a debrief session in which representatives of each group summarized their groups' responses. The exchange was vibrant and informative, with Fellows sharing many candid insights and reflections in response to the above questions.
Jack McCarthy then led the Fellows outdoors for a round of the team-building game "Pipeline" as an exercise in leadership under uncertainty and complexity. Pipeline is a group cooperation and problem solving activity in which teams create a moving, free-standing "pipeline" by constructing a makeshift conduit as a metaphor for moving water from a remote well to a village or town in need. In this exercise, marbles are used as a proxy for precious water; Fellows must work collaboratively in diverse teams to move as much "water" as possible without contamination or spills from a starting line into a cup about 25 feet away. The challenge is that each participant has only one short length of pipe, and the marbles must be allowed to roll freely, which requires careful coordination, adept communication, and inclusive leadership—all of the skills that they will be exercising as global leaders upon their return home. It is always a dynamic and meaningful exercise with many leadership lessons!
After lunch, Associate Coordinators Nimfa de Leon and Louise Elving (MIT), Francine Jasper (Cornell), and Jelena Durkovich and Cyrus Konstantinakos (BU) led the Fellows in another round of discussions, this time focused on the topic of Re-Entry. The Fellows responded to these questions in their groups:
- How have you changed (if at all)?
- How do you think people back home will perceive how you've changed?
- With (1) and (2) in mind, what challenges do you foresee?
- What are you looking forward to?
In the ensuing debrief, Fellows again shared a wide range of insightful and moving reflections.
We were joined at this workshop by Dr. Yseult Freeney from Dublin City University in Ireland, a faculty colleague serving as a Visiting Fellow in the Organizational Behavior Department at the Questrom School of Business. Dr. Freeney is a scholar and expert on career transitions and was able to have many valuable conversations with Fellows at the workshop about their upcoming transitions for re-entry back home.
This workshop was useful to the Fellows in contemplating their own journey home—and it also served the coordinators who will again, soon, have to bid farewell to another wonderful cohort.
Fellows Headline Mayor’s Office-Sponsored Symposium on Women’s Financial Empowerment
On Thursday, March 16th, BU Humphrey Fellow Sevgim Çisel Çelik Keskin of Turkey, BU Fellow Pakaiphone Syphoxay of Laos, and MIT Fellow Heba Khalil of Egypt teamed up to present on "Women in the Workforce" at a Mayor's Office-sponsored symposium hosted by Boston City Hall.
The symposium kicked off a new exhibition entitled "Earned: Women in Business and Labor," which is co-sponsored by the Mayor's Offices of Women's Advancement and Arts & Culture. Additional support was provided by the Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program (WGS) at Boston University, Gender & International Development Initiatives of the Brandeis Women's Studies Research Center (GaIDI/WSRC), and the Boston Women's Heritage Trail.
The exhibition coincides with Women’s History Month in the United States and International Women’s Day on March 8th, which has a 2017 theme of “Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50:50 by 2030.” It will run until April 6th.
BU HHHP Assistant Director Cyrus Konstantinakos moderated the symposium. After his introductory remarks, BU College of Fine Arts Assistant Professor of Art & Photography Toni Pepe presented a brief introduction to a multi-modal literacy workshop that she and her colleague, CFA Assistant Professor of Art & Graphic Design Laura Grey ran for BU Fellows last fall, which had assisted them in their preparation of a presentation on women's economic empowerment that they delivered in Washington, DC at the Humphrey Program’s Global Leadership Forum.
Following Professor Pepe's remarks, the Fellows presented on the following topics:
Women's Labour Force Participation and the Feminist Movement in Turkey
Sevgim Çisel Çelik Keskin
The Role of Space in Mediating Gender Equity
Heba Khalil
Women’s Economic Empowerment in Laos: Rural and Urban Dimensions
Pakaiphone Syphoxay
An audience of about 25 attendees included city officials, heads of local NGOs, staff and guests of the BU and MIT Humphrey Programs and the BU Women's Gender & Sexuality Studies Program, and students and staff of the Community College Initiative—another international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, which is hosted by Bunker Hill Community College (BU HHHP's Associate Campus Partner). This diverse group of stakeholders enjoyed a discussion following the Fellows' presentations, and conversations continued during the reception that followed in City Hall’s Scollay Square Gallery.
Questrom Hosts Second Financial Inclusion Symposium with Bunker Hill Community College
On Monday, March 13th, undergraduate Business and Management majors from Bunker Hill Community College, our Associate Campus Partner, visited BU for a joint symposium on the topic of Financial Inclusion. The Symposium was organized by BU HHHP Assistant Director Cyrus Konstantinakos and Program Manager Jelena Durkovic and was moderated by HHHP Director and Associate Professor Jack McCarthy.
The Associate Campus Partnership (ACP) was established in 2007 with the aim of promoting alliances between Humphrey host universities and colleges with student populations that may not have opportunities to interact with international visitors such as Humphrey Fellows. Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is a two-year community college that provides higher education and job training services to 14,000 students in the Boston area. The student population is nearly 70% minority and over 50% female; it is one of the most diverse colleges in the region.
In the past, BHCC and the BU HHHP have undertaken various joint initiatives such as essay contests and dramatic productions on personal financial planning, a photo-essay project with students of the Community College Initiative (another State Department-led exchange program that invites college graduates from selected countries to spend a year in the U.S., hosted by BHCC), and in 2015–2016, a first-ever research report of articles written by Humphrey Fellows and BHCC faculty on the topic of financial inclusion.
This year, we organized a special joint symposium in a round robin format in order to support robust participation among all the attendees and enable more intimate conversations than has ever been possible using traditional symposium formats. BHCC Business and Management majors in classes taught by BHCC Professor Wissal Nouchrif, and others who came to us through BHCC's Single Stop program led by Director Kathleen O'Neill, joined a handful of Questrom students and Humphrey Fellows in small group discussions that flowed across a wide range of topics—from from personal experiences to national, regional, and global issues and initiatives.
Financial inclusion is indeed a topic of paramount importance to both community college students and Humphrey Fellows at BU, who specialize in banking, finance, education, and public policy. The symposium was a great success, and it has become a signature event of our longstanding and close relationship with Bunker Hill Community College.
Third Global Leadership Symposium at Questrom School of Business
On Friday, March 3rd, the Fellows joined Professor Sandra Deacon’s undergraduate seminar on leadership, The Leadership Challenge, as surprise guests and examples of emerging global leaders in the third installment of the BU HHHP's Global Leadership Symposium at the Questrom School of Business. This symposium has become an integrated element of both the BU Humphrey Program Seminar and Professor Deacon's curriculum on the global dimensions of leadership in the modern world.
In the first half of the three-hour class, HHHP Director Jack McCarthy first delivered a lecture on Global Leadership in Action, concluding with the question, "If you had an opportunity to actually meet with a global leader, what sorts of questions would you ask?"
After a short break, the Fellows joined the class in a dramatic surprise and introduced themselves, their professional backgrounds, their goals for the Fellowship year, and their plans for the future. They then divided into small groups with Professor Deacon's students for a series of 10-15 minute rotating, small-group discussions. The students themselves have impressive backgrounds and talent in their own right, and there was a great deal of mutual learning during these intimate conversations.
At the end of the period, Professor McCarthy moderated a whole-class debrief in which many resonant lessons on global leadership emerged. Some of the students later told Professors Deacon and McCarthy that this was not only their best class session this semester but among the best of their entire undergraduate experience at Boston University.
This signature event enables Fellows and Questrom students to engage in important cross-cultural dialogue on the challenges and opportunities of global leadership in the modern world.
Former Bank of America SVP Al Petras Leads Session on Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) for Financial Institutions
On Friday, February 24th, Al Petras led a special session on Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery for financial institutions.
Business Continuity (BC) planning is the development of strategies used to recover from an interruption in business operations. Planning helps the organization's critical business processes to continue with minimal interruption or impact after any kind of event disrupts normal business activities. Establishing and maintaining sound BC practices is a requirement of both the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which regulates and reviews banks for BC compliance, and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC). Outside of the U.S. there are additional standards to follow including guidelines offered by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for the UK and those presented by other National Monetary Authority bodies such as the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Business Continuity Management Guidelines from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
This was a highly valued session to many of our Fellows, as BC/DR is an up-and-coming area for banks in many countries undergoing development. Al was recently instrumental in helping large banks in China to develop their BC/DR plans.
Fellows Enjoy Dual Leadership Development and Mindfulness Workshop
On Monday, February 13th, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Director of the Humphrey Fellowship Program Dr. Jack McCarthy first led Fellows through a dynamic seventh session on leadership development, and then he was joined by longtime colleague Eliza Lay Ryan, a graduate student and faculty member in BU’s College of Fine Arts. Ms. Ryan is also Head of Acting for the New York Film Academy at Harvard University. She led a stimulating and provocative professional development workshop on what she has branded as "Supermindfulness."
Broadly defined, supermindfulness is a combination of mindfulness and flexibility; it blends science, mindfulness studies, and the tools actors use to stand in other people's shoes for greater agility, creativity, communication, ease and efficiency in work, school, and life.
Ms. Ryan led the Fellows through a variety of simple exercises to underscore the perspectives and communication strategies that supermindfulness aims to cultivate. In one activity, for example, the Fellows paired up, one Fellow started walking, and the other Fellow followed closely behind, mimicking the lead Fellow's pace and walking style. The simple but important point of the exercise was to underscore that, by adjusting oneself to others in terms of pacing and other characteristics, one can better synchronize with others. In terms of communication, trying to adjust oneself to the other's pace and style of speaking can make a significant difference in improving the quality of communication and bringing about positive outcomes. As Ryan explains:
"The physical, mental, and emotional aspects of the self relate in a kind of feedback loop. If you furrow your brow and think "life is good" you'll notice that you are at odds with yourself. If you crinkle your eyes and raise the sides of your mouth, you'll notice that you feel the emotion of happiness. In this way we can give ourselves the experience of different ways of being; ways of being we might not usually have ready access to. When we don't have ready access to a way of being, we can't use it in a situation where it might be helpful to us. Our creativity, therefore, is limited. One way can we increase our experiencing is through other people. If I move the muscles of my body to walk like you, then I can feel like you."
Host Families Host Festive Winter Gathering
On Saturday, February 11th, host family Chris and Wilson Lowry kindly hosted the entire cohort, coordinators, and other host families in their Watertown home for an afternoon of socializing, games, catching up, and some delicious pot luck food that the host families kindly prepared.
Phyllis Doig, the coordinator of the BU HHHP host family network this year, organized the event. We were also pleased and honored to see Doris Kellom, the past host family coordinator, and former BU HHHP Director Dr. Ksenya Khinchuk and her husband Gregory, Sevgim Çisel Çelik Keskin and Latu Sera Kaukilakeba's spouses, and Beatriz Gonzalez's brother.
It was a warm and fun time to be together and enjoy a break from everyone's busy spring term schedules.
Fellows Visit Fidelity Investments
On Monday, February 6th, we enjoyed a dynamic and engaging site visit to the Boston headquarters of Fidelity Investments, the fourth largest mutual fund and financial services group in the world. Fidelity Investments manages a large family of mutual funds and provides fund distribution and investment advice services, discount brokerage services, retirement services, wealth management, securities execution and clearance, and a number of other services.
We were kindly hosted by Bill Hodgetts, Vice President of Enterprise Coaching and Assessment in the Enterprise Talent Group and a longtime friend and colleague of Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Director of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program Dr. Jack McCarthy.
Mr. Hodgetts and several of his colleagues took us through a variety of activities including presentations and discussions that gave the Fellows a close look at Fidelity's global operations, its storied history, and some of its priorities and challenges looking forward.
2017 Professional and Cultural Visit to New York City
From Sunday, January 29th to Tuesday, January 31st, we completed a three-day odyssey of diverse professional and cultural site visits across New York City. Our agenda was full of meetings at some of the most iconic and influential banking and finance institutions, educational initiatives designed to break the cycles of poverty and gender inequality—both in NYC and abroad, and an array of memorable cultural experiences.
Download our NYC 2017 brochure with the full agenda here! A summary of our activities follows:
On Sunday morning we departed from Boston on our private bus, enjoyed a short lunch break on the highway, and arrived in the late afternoon at the New York Historical Society for a short film on NYC history and a guided tour of two new exhibits on Muhammad Ali. Founded in 1804, NYHS is the city’s oldest museum. It holds over 1.6 million works of art including iconic genre and history paintings, sculpture, and American folk art. Muhammad Ali was the world heavyweight boxing champion in 1964 and twice during the 1970s. After retiring, he focused on philanthropy and earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.
On Sunday evening, we checked into the New Yorker Hotel and then walked to Times Square for dinner and live music at Havana Central. The New Yorker is a Jazz Age-era hotel that has hosted luminaries such as John F. Kennedy, Muhammad Ali, Fidel Castro—and many BU Humphrey Fellows over several years! Havana Central is a restaurant designed on the theme of Havana in the 1950s. As we dined, we enjoyed the music of the YeraSon Orchestra, which combines old-school Cuban music with a modern New York twist.
On Monday, we visited these organizations:
- Bank of New York Mellon, a multinational banking and financial services corporation with nearly US$400 billion in total assets. Its predecessor, the The Bank of New York, was the oldest banking corporation in the U.S. and the 20th oldest bank in the world, having been established in 1784 by Alexander Hamilton. We met with senior executives for an overview and discussion followed by a brief tour of the trading floor.
- UN Women—the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, which was created in 2010 to become the global champion for gender equality. Several members of the Policy and Programme divisions met with us to discuss a wide range of initiatives. particularly those in the areas of economic development and political participation.
- New York Stock Exchange, the world’s largest stock exchange, with the market capitalization of its listed companies at approximately US$20 trillion. The average daily trading value is about US$170 billion. We met with education and outreach executives, trader Kenneth Polcari, and with Listings and Capital Markets Team specialists Linda Woodward, Shannon Rochford, and Vidya Nallasivan on the iconic trading floor, where we also witnessed the closing bell.
- University Club, a private social club the origins of which date back to 1861. Vicki Brooks is a former banker, trader, and senior executive at JP Morgan, and a longtime colleague of HHHP Director Jack McCarthy. She was among the first women on Wall Street, and she was instrumental in developing and leading leadership development at JP Morgan, one of the world’s largest investment banks.
On Tuesday, we visited these organizations:
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the largest and most influential of all twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks in the U.S. Executives from the International Affairs & Strategy and Education & Outreach divisions met with us, and then Heather Daly, Director of Operations for Education & Outreach, took us on a brief tour of the NY Fed's gold vault, the largest depository of gold reserve in the world (7,000 tons), located five stories below street level.
- Young Women's Leadership Network, a network of public schools for girls in NYC with affiliates in six states. Its concept is to provide economically disadvantaged girls with a high-quality college preparatory education modeled on the finest private schools. It is one of the most nationally recognized initiatives that empower girls to break the cycle of poverty through education. We met with Acting Executive Director John Roure, Managing Director of Girls’ Education Laura Rebell Gross, administrators, teachers and students at the YWLN school in Astoria, visited classrooms, and learned about the YWLN approach and some of its proudest achievements.
Our cohort at the Young Women's Leadership School of Astoria - Institute of International Education (IIE), Higher Education Readiness (HER) Program, an initiative that provides high school-aged girls in underserved communities a pathway to university. It is a new project currently being piloted in Ethiopia. IIE is one of the world's largest and most experienced international education and training organizations; it also administers the HHHP and other Fulbright programs. We met with Evgenia Valuy, Data Analyst at the Center for Academic Mobility Research and Impact, who provided a monitoring & evaluation-based overview of the HER Program.
We concluded our 2017 NYC trip with a visit to Fraunces Tavern, a national historic landmark, museum, and restaurant that is said to be the oldest surviving building in New York City. In revolutionary history, this location served as a headquarters for General George Washington, a venue for peace negotiations with the British and then, after the Republic was established, housing for federal offices.
In all, it was an action-packed trip full of valuable professional and cultural exchange. Several Fellows are now planning to return to NYC for followup visits to some of the organizations that hosted us.
Former President Carter Acknowledges 35th Anniversary Book
We have been honored to receive an accolade from Former President Jimmy Carter for A Spirit of Participation: Celebrating 35 Years of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program at Boston University.
Combining rare historical documents, photos and original artwork, this book showcases several of Hubert Humphrey's greatest achievements alongside written reflections on the BU Program by over 150 alumni and supporters dating back to the early 1980s. It is the largest catalogue of reflections on the Humphrey Fellowship Program ever produced.
We recently posted a digital version of the book on our website.
To everyone who contributed to this book, thanks for your spirit of participation!
Please check out the online version and share it with others; we hope to raise awareness of Hubert Humphrey's life and work and the impact of this unique international exchange program.
A Spirit of Participation was edited by Assistant Director Cyrus Segawa Konstantinakos. Former BU HHHP Director Dr. Ksenya Khinchuk and Anne L. Howard Tristani, the niece of Hubert Humphrey, served as Editorial Advisors. Peace Corps, Food for Peace, Minnesota Historical Society, the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, and the Institute of International Education contributed information, documents and images. Several BU student interns assisted with production, and their reflections are also featured in the book.