Item Posted: August 21, 2009

Korea Fellow Meets North Korea Leader

Jiyi Chung, '06, Korea, recently met with North Korea leader Kim Jong-Il. Chung, who is head of corporate planning for Hyundai Ubiquitous & Information Technology Co. Ltd., attended with the Hyundai Group chairwoman and several others. In the photo at left, Chung is seated on the right. Kim Jong-Il is seated in the center. Photo credit of North Korean Central News Agency-Newsis.

Click here to read the full story.

Item Posted: August 21, 2009

UAE Fellow Named Minister of Justice

Dr. Hadef Joann Al-Dhahiri, '94, United Arab Emirates, has been named Minister of Justice in a recent cabinet reshuffle. Dr. Al-Dhahiri was previously a vice chancellor at United Arab Emirates University.

Item Posted: August 14, 2009

Palestine Fellow Organizes First National Entrepreneurship Conference

Hazem Kawasmi, '05, Palestine, chair of the Young Entrepreneurs Palestine (YEP), recently organized the First National Entrepreneurship Conference under the patronage and participation of the Palestinian Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad.

The conference was attended by the Minister of Labor Dr. Ahmed Majdalani, the Minister of Justice Dr. Ali Khashan, former Ministers Mazen Sinnokrot and Kamal Hassouneh, high level representatives from civil society organizations, private sector, and educational institutes, in addition to national and international experts on socio-economic development.

In the opening address, Kawasmi stressed the need to re-examine educational and training systems and adding a new dimension to them to stimulate the interest of students and trainees to a new option of having their own businesses as an equal alternative or substitute to paid jobs.

Kawasmi said: "It became very important to highlight the subject of entrepreneurship and project's development among young entrepreneurs, due to its direct impact on economic growth, development, and promoting a diversity of economic competition."

In addition to that, Kawasmi pointed out that the percentage of the fresh graduates that start their own business didn’t exceed 14.2%, since the youth prefer looking for paid jobs instead. Furthermore the percentage of the female participation is only 6%, while a majority of those entrepreneurs (males and females) don't have high school certifications (Tawjihi). He clarified that YEP has many programs with public and private high education institutes that encourage empowering university students to start up their own businesses after graduation. He considered that finding the right financial resources are the main obstacles those entrepreneurs face.

The findings of the conference will be presented in a separate workshop that will be conducted after Ramadan in October. These finding will be presented to key PA officials, private sector organizations and international organizations working in Palestine.

Item Posted: August 11, 2009

USA Fellow on Colbert Report

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, '97, USA, who represents the 1st District of Maine, was interviewed on "The Colbert Report," a satirical late night "news" show on Comedy Central that airs on weeknights after the "Daily Show with John Stewart. You can watch the interview here.

Pingree traveled to Eastern Europe on her fellowship in 1997. She was elected to the United States Congress in 2008, marking the first time a woman was elected to Congress from Maine's 1st District.

Item Posted: August 10, 2009

India Fellow Organizing Habitat Summit

Sanjeev Sanyal, '07, India, is organizing the first Urban Habitat Summit, a three-day event that will develop a vision and blueprint for sustainable urbanization in India. The Summit will be held September 24-26 at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi and will focus on the key parameters that urban habitats ought to deliver on: liveability, competitiveness and environmental sustainability.

Sanyal is founder and managing trustee of the Sustainable Planet Institute. He was a part of EF's first-ever Common Interest Program in 2007, which focused on the challenges of urbanization.

Item Posted: August 10, 2009

Brazil Fellow's Documentary to Premiere on PBS World

A documentary by Simone Duarte, '96, Brazil, will premiere on PBS World on August 23 as part of the station's Global Voices series.

"Sergio Vieira de Mello: En Route to Baghdad" is a portrait of the peacekeeping career of former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello, whose death in a 2003 Baghdad bombing attack became a tragic metaphor for the effort to bring stability to Iraq.

Duarte is a filmmaker/director/producer, as well as communications manager at Jason Associates in Portugal.

Item Posted: July 31, 2009

Fellows Meet in Paraguay

Antonio Battro, '86, Argentina, recently visited Martin Burt, '94, Paraguay, at his office in Paraguay. According to Burt, "We made plans to work together in his One Laptop Per Child program and our Microfinance Programs. We had a great time remembering our Eisenhower Fellowship days."

Burt is executive director of Fundacion Paraguaya and executive director of Teach a Man to Fish. Battro is chief education officer of the One Laptop Per Child program at Battro & Denham.

Left to right: Martin Burt and Antonio Battro.

Item Posted: July 21, 2009

Two Argentina Fellows Win Elections

Laura Alonso, '08, Argentina, (left) was recently elected to the National House of Representatives. She was previously executive director of Poder Ciudadano (Citizen Power), a government watchdog organization.

Esteban Bullrich, '06, Argentina, (right) was reelected as a national representative. Read about him here.

Item Posted: July 21, 2009

Egypt Fellow Named Dean of AUC School of Business

Professor Sherif Kamel, '05, Egypt, was named dean of the recently-established School of Business at the American University in Cairo (AUC). The school is the first of its kind in Egypt and the Middle East. The new School of Business will consist of three departments: accounting, economics and management, which is the only program of its kind in Egypt and one of only 85 business schools outside the United States accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International.

Kamel received his BA and MBA from AUC and his PhD at the London School of Economics. He joined AUC in 2001 as an assistant professor of management information systems. In 2002, he was appointed director of AUC's Management Center. In 2005, he was appointed a member of the Board of Trustees of the Information Technology Institute.

In 2006, Kamel was appointed a member of the Board of Trustees of the Sadat Academy for Management Sciences; from 2004 to 2009, he was the chairman of the Chevening Association in Egypt. He is a founding member of the Internet Society of Egypt. Prior to joining AUC and since 1987, Kamel worked for the Cabinet of Egypt Information and Decision Support Centre.

Item Posted: July 20, 2009

Fellow Joins Board of One World 2011

Nezir Kirdar, '57, has joined the Board of Directors of One World 2011, which is based on the model of the Goodwill Games that took place in the Pacific Northwest between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1990. The Goodwill Games successfully brought together thousands of citizens from the then-Soviet Union and the United States in what many international leaders and the people involved believe played a major role in the end of the Cold War.

The first One World 2011 has been scheduled for the month of September, 2011 in Seattle 10 years after the events of September 11, 2001 and 20 years after the end of the Cold War. The event will continue at a site in the Middle East in September, 2013 and in various locations every two years into the future.

Kirdar was recently the recipient of the Eisenhower Fellowships 2009 Distinguished Alumnus Award. He lives in Istanbul.

Item Posted: July 20, 2009

Brazil Fellow Appointed Director of Museum of Life

Luisa Medeiros Massarani, '08, Brazil, was recently named director of Museum of Life, an interactive science museum which is one of the largest in Brazil and Latin America. A space of integration between science, culture and society, the Museum of Life aims to inform and educate in science, health and technology in a creative and entertaining manner, through permanent exhibits, interactive activities, multimedia, theater, video and labs. Massarani was previously head of the Nucelus of Studies on Science Communication at the Museum.

Item Posted: July 15, 2009

Indonesia Fellow Appointed by ADP to Chair Panel

Rusdian Lubis, '90, Indonesia, was appointed by the Asian Development Bank in Manila as chair of the Compliance Review Panel, a body that helps address the concerns of people affected by ADB-assisted projects.

Lubis was the director and senior advisor of PT ERM Indonesia prior to his ADB appointment. He has retired from PT Freeport Gold and Copper Mining in 2008 as executive vice president/director. Prior to his private sector, he was senior environmental specialist at the World Bank Washington, DC.

He has chaired Dana Mitra Lingkungan (Environmental Funds) since 2008, and in 1986, founded Yayasan Waetasi, a nongovernment organization involved in coastal conservation work in Sulawesi, Indonesia. He has more than 30 years of experience in environmental management. He graduated from Bogor Agricultural University in Indonesia, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Agricultural and Resources Economics from Oregon State University in the United States.

Item Posted: July 15, 2009

Paraguay Fellow Publishes New Book

Martin Burt, '94, Paraguay, recently published La Escuela Agricola Autosuficiente (The Self-Sufficient Agricultural School). The book focuses on Fundacion Paraguaya, a non-profit social enterprise in Paraguay of which Burt is CEO and chairman, and its takeover of a near-bankrupt agricultural high school for the children of the rural poor. In the five years that followed, San Francisco Agricultural High School turned down government subsidies, took up organic farming, admitted girl students for the first time, achieved financial self-sufficiency, saw its graduates become rural entrepreneurs and developed an innovative, high-quality model of education that pays for itself , which is now being replicated in 50 countries around the world.

Burt is also executive director of Teach a Man to Fish, an international network of schools and educational programs committed to sustainable approaches to tackling rural poverty.

The book is available for purchase on Amazon.com.

Start Planning for EF Day 2009

EF Day 2009 is approaching. October 14, the anniversary of the founding of Eisenhower Fellowships and the birthday of President Eisenhower, will once again be celebrated as Eisenhower Day of Fellowship worldwide. The festivities, programs, and alumni chapters that were launched to inaugurate EF Day in 2008 demonstrated a tremendous spirit and unity of purpose among Fellows. We look to build on the number of Fellows participating and the awareness of EF as a global institution making an impact in international dialogue, understanding and collaboration.

To view suggestions for 2009 and a few highlights from 2008, click here.

Join the Eisenhower Fellowships Social Networking Groups

If you are on Facebook, please join the Eisenhower Fellowships Group. To find the group, type "Eisenhower Fellowships" in the search box in the top right-hand corner of your Facebook page, and request to join the group. You can also become a fan of Eisenhower Fellowships on Facebook.

Please also join the EF NING Community to read Fellow blogs, post photos, and connect with your fellow Fellows.

Finally, you can follow EF on Twitter. Please add us to your list of followings if you use Twitter!

Click here to read Fellow News from June 2009; or click here to read news from prior months.