"The Global Leadership Forum (GLF): A Fellow's Perspective" by Claudemir dos Santos (Brazil)

Global Leadership Forum
From 21 to 25 October 2012

2012-2013 Humphrey Fellows Day 1 of the GLF

The Global Leadership Forum (GLF) was an event long awaited by Humphrey Fellows for many reasons, such as the opportunity to meet other fellows and make important professional contacts, receive important information about the program and issues and concerns of today.

After a two-hour train ride we arrived at our destination expected in Washington, DC. The Key Bridge Marriott Hotel was the scene of this memorable event, where we were welcomed by the staff of the Institute of International Education.

Fellows enjoyed a tour of Washington DC and visited many historical landmarks. MLK monument featured here.

More touring beautiful Washington D.C.

On the first day, we did a little tour through Washington, DC and took pictures with the whole group in front of the Grant Memorial near the Capitol. At night we had dinner and listened to the words of welcome from Judith S. Gibson, Director, Humphrey Fellowship Program Division Institute of International Education and Dr. John Sedlins, Chief of Humphrey Fellowships and Institutional Linkages Branch U.S. Department of State. We parted after the words of Dr. Allan J. Lichtman, Distinguished Professor of History at American University.

Judy Gibson addresses this year's Fellows, Director of the Institute for International Education

On Monday, in the morning we participated in a discussion to reach consensus on key issues and priorities of today. The Global Leadership Forum 2012 was designed to help Humphrey fellows to become strategic leaders with a vision and a plan to reach your goals. The activity Consensus Building gave us the opportunity to meet colleagues from other campuses and to work together on a fundamental leadership skill: building a consensus on difficult and contentious issues.

Fellows collaborating on the Copenhagen Consensus Building exercise.

In the afternoon had a talk with Shanta Nagendram, SkillFocus Director of Consulting, Humphrey Fellow, Tufts University: 1987 - 1988. The theme of the lecture SUCCESS! Shanta addressed skills, perspectives and knowledge they need to become an effective leader in the global 21st century. She shared her experiences of career and "lessons learned" to explore ways we can shape our own personal and professional future.

The Fellows and Assistant Coordinator at the State Dept Dinner. Great looking group!

At night we visited the beautiful and historic building of the U.S. State Department, and took pictures in Benjamin Franklin hall.

Fellows collaborate to solve problems facing our world.

In the morning of day 23, during breakfast, we met other fellows in the area of ​​drug prevention, treatment and education at Johns Hopkins University and also a Brazilian representative of the Pan American Health Organization, the UN body. Soon after we had a talk about leadership and public service with Lenneal Henderson, Professor of Government and Public Administration of William Donald Schaefer Center for Public Policy, University of Baltimore. Before lunch we also had a lecture given by a judge Yussef Auf Work and Family, Supreme Judicial Council's Court primary Giza, Humphrey Fellow, American University Washington College of Law: 2011 - 2012. He discussed how maximized their professional development activities during his year as Humphrey, utilizing effective networking techniques. He also discussed the strategies that he used to ensure a professional affiliation ideal for achieving your professional goals and individual.

VCU Fellows attended many activities, including this session on the resources available at NIDA
(National Institute on Drug Abuse)

Tuesday afternoon was marked with great opportunities for professional contacts. I (Claudemir) and Jezelle went to the Organization of American States (OAS) where we were very well received by Marya Hynes, Secretariat for Multidimensional Security from Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), Organization of American States. We talked a lot about the area of ​​research and data on the Americas prevalence and patterns of drug use. I had the opportunity to meet one of the National Anti-Drug Secretariat of Brazil, who at the time was attending a meeting in the building. Rosie had a meeting in the World Bank, Department of Education and Suzan met senior vice president of Substance Abuse, Mental Health and Criminal Justice Studies of the University of Chicago.

On Wednesday morning we visited public schools, High Schools in particular, in the Washington Metropolitan Area. In these visits we had the opportunity to share our experience as Humphrey Fellows and professionals and a bit of the culture of our countries. We also learned a bit about his plans and structure that school provides to help them achieve their goals.

In the afternoon we had a talk with Karen Meacham, Dean of Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy & Educational Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

SEVEN REVOLUTIONS
This initiative strives to do what organizations are increasingly less able to do - to consider the long term implications of global trends at work today. It maps seven key trends that will bring change to the year 2025 and offers a detailed outline of the major challenges that lie ahead. The seven "revolutionary" change areas are (1) population, (2) resource management, (3) Technology (4); flows of information and knowledge, (5) economic integration, (6) conflict, and ( 7) governance. Each of these revolutions embodies both the promise and peril, and it is up to each of us to determine the trajectory that these revolutionary forces will follow.

For additional information about the Seven Revolutions, visit http://csis.org/program/seven-revolutions.

Dinner at the GLF. Suzan Ben-Ezra (Israel) is seated at the table joined by Judy Gibson.

Claudemir dancing the night away!

The closing party occurred on Wednesday night. On the top floor we had a very pleasant evening with great music, dancing and fun. It was very interesting to see such a diverse group dancing each in their own style.

Driver's license

In October I got my driver's license! Now, I can go and explore Richmond area!

It's official! I am a licensed driver in the U.S.!

"Richmond We Reach!" by Jezelle Charles 2012-2013 HHH Fellow (Trinidad and Tobago)

*NOTE:  READ USING YOUR BEST TRINIDADIAN ACCENT ;-)

August

Richmond we reach!!!!!!!! We number seven and we are anxious but even more than that……..excited about the next ten months of our professional lives! What a great group!!!!!!!!!!!!! An opthamologist, a psychiatrist, not one but two social workers, a police officer, a teacher and a toxicologist. Nice mix 'ent?!?!!!!

Most of us got here on August 7^th and spent two weeks with Crystal, who by the way should be the campaign person for the energizer battery, in a hectic orientation program aimed in getting us settled in and equipped with the basic needs to live in a foreign country with habits and customs different from our own cultures.

Week 1

We shopped!!!!!!!, turned generic apartments into homes, opened bank accounts, learnt the transportation system, got our office spaces and VCU ID’s, shopped some more, toured the campus and yes people we………………activated our gym memberships ……… I guess Fitness should be one of our personal goals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cary Street Gym Facilities

Fellows being given a tour of the Cary Street Gym

Will We Ever Climb This Wall??????

The highlight of that week...a welcome pool party!!! We got to put faces with names we have only seen on paper and met the who's who of the VCU Humphrey Fellowship Program.

Poolside at our Welcome Bar B Que

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was our first taste of Richmond culture.

Waterfall at VMFA

Week 2

Ok so we had more orientation sessions covering the expectations of Humphrey fellows, academic courses, meetings with individual advisors, everything we need to know about remaining healthy and the assistance that can be provided by the GEO office.

We visited the State Capitol and learnt the history of the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Now honestly, I’m not a history buff but that tour guide was so passionate and his delivery was so great even I learnt something.

On our tour of the Virginia State Capitol just steps away from our offices

For the rest of August we got deeper into our professional activities aided by field visits to institutions with the aim to increase our knowledge base and make professional connections.

The General Assembly

Visiting the General Assembly

Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery Alliance (SAARA) Center - Virginia’s only statewide Recovery Community Organization

Field Trip at the SAARA Center

Virginia State University

This University is meant to be our collaborative institution.  This collaboration gives us an opportunity for us to pass on our knowledge to other graduate students, expose them about our individual countries, traditions, customs, culture and language.

Initial meeting at VSU

Dr. Mary Loos and Fellows discussing our collaboration this year

As I write there is so much we did in such a short space of time, wow!!!! So we did have some fun as well it wasn’t ALL WORK!!!!! 

D best way to do this is a Picture Gallery!!!!!!

Let's se we………………Danced – ‘Balia Baila’

Leslie, took us dancing people!!!!!!!!!! Boy did we have fun. Thanks Leslie

Suzan and Bola cutting a rug

Leslie and Kouame stayed in step

Cruised the Richmond Canal...............................................................................

Had a TRINI LIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

"Cause we Trinis like we belly and show love with food"

Trini Lime!

D bartender (togo) and D cook from Trinidad and Tobago!!!

Suzan enjoying the Trini feast

Rosie enjoying the Trini Lime, in the style of Mynmar!

D bellyful Fellows!

SEPTEMBER

So when you hear Pony Pasture what do you think?????? Check it out………….No Ponies, horses or anything of the sort, at least not any more.  Now it’s just the most gorgeous view of the James River and an opportunity to just get in a tire and relax in the water.

Marcel, Bola and Kouame at Pony Pasture!

Diane at the James River with us

The beautiful James River

Sunset Hills Vineyard -- Wine anyone?!?!?!?!

Our group with the Winemaker himself; a VCU alumnus!

Some of us enjoyed a 'tasting'!

Maymont Park - It was a gorgeous day!!!!!!!!

The Duck Pond at Maymont Park

Friends strolling in the park

There is always time for a photo op!

...and another.

...and another! :-)

The mansion at Maymont Park

And finally, "Happy Birthday to you (pretend we singing) to Aunty Diane!!!" Randy helped us make sure it was a surprise. It was a nice way to end the very busy and eventful first two months here in Richmond, VA.

Birthday Presentation to Aunty Diane!

Our card, signed by the group of course.

A token of our appreciation

Together in Bloom - Spring Semester in Full Swing by Tin Moe Aung [Myanmar]

"For the First time in the history of mankind, one generation literally has the power to destroy the past, the present and the future, the power to bring time to an end." -- Hubert H. Humphrey

 

 

After a tender silver snow, Richmond woke up with beautiful and colorful flowers together with gold sunshine. Pretty spring started around the middle of March, almost all flowers were trying to bloom and it looks like the flowers are in competition. As the flowers were trying to look for new environment, all Fellows are also trying to do affiliations and enthusiastically wait for affiliation sites to approve our proposals in the Humphrey program.  Some of us became more and more active working on our affiliations becoming more involved every day.

Last trip to Maryland

The Fellows at Baltimore Inner Harbor

Beautiful sites at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD.

A trip to The Baltimore Inner Harbor was the last field trip for our Fellows. It was also one of the most exciting and happy trips. We all went together in the rain; including our Coordinators Dr. Mary Loos and our Assistant Coordinator, Crystal looked like a smart captain and the trip was full of fun. We were chatting, singing and kidding each other the whole trip.  Funny and exciting 4-D cinema, clever dolphin shows, beautiful inner harbor of Baltimore, amazing under water animals and a wonderful  show from the aquarium, were distinct events that we Fellows will never forget.

Prevention Specialist Training

Mike Olson, Facilitator of the week-long Prevention Specialist Training

That's me, Moe, participating in the Prevention Specialist Training.

Fellows attended the Prevention Specialist Training from March 19^th to the 23^rd and this training was very good. We were given a lot of tools to help us create a new project. Aizhan, Pedro, Natalia and I had a great time in this training. Michael Olsen, our trainer could explain very well  how to implement our prevention program and experiences. Sharing information and having discussion with trainees was very helpful  in helping the Fellows to understand the ideas. We had special chance to discuss specifically about substance abuse prevention, prevention research, cultural competency and inclusion, prevention planning, evaluation and using human development in prevention from this training. The Group Project presentation was also exciting for all of us as every Fellow had a chance to participate in different group. We created a nice presentation in cooperation with other trainees. Mike taught these tools of prevention to all trainees by using all his energy for the whole week. Dr. Olson also described the brain effect very well.

Grant-writing

The Grant-writing training was arranged at the end of March. Laurie J.Rogers was easily able to explain and share a lot of information about grant writing procedure and resources.  Every Fellow has a specific intention to change something in their respective field in their own countries. So it was a special training and very supportive to our individual program plans which will help us to implement our projects by receiving information and providing tools for the future.  We were instructed that we can share our points of view from different aspects to create funding and also understand how to write clear and successful grant proposal.

Faculty Panel Presentations and Informal Social Session

Our Coordinator Dr. Randy Koch introducing us before our presentations.

Rogers Kasirye (Uganda) making his presentation to the Epi faculty members.

That's me making my presentation to the faculty.

Our colleague, Aizhan Zhumasheva of Kazakhstan also presented.

My friend Natalia Estoyanoff of Uruguay presenting as well.

On March 27 the Humphrey Fellows participated in a panel presentation and informal social session with VCU's Epidemiology faculty. After our Coordinator, J. Randy Koch introduced us to everyone, Natalia Estoyanoff, Roger Kasiirye, Aizhangul Zhumasheva and myself made presentations about our countries' substance abuse issues and it was also great time to share and learn from several points of view.

Motivational Interview Training

Lori Keyser Marcus and Tom Moore facilitating our MI training.

March 29th was one of the wonderful days because we were trained in Motivational Interviewing by Dr. Lori Keyser-Marcus and Dr. Thomas Moore.  The training gave so many helpful ideas for building good substance abuse service programs in our own countries. The Motivational Interviewing training was an excellent evidence-based practice that we were able to learn and implement.

Admin meeting

VCU's Humphrey program always arranges administrative meetings nearly every Wednesday. This is also good time to share information and we get a chance to plan our schedule.  Sometimes we eat! March, like the spring, was filled with colorful and useful activities which can help to complete the future hopes of each Humphrey Fellow for their own countries.

Poster Preparation

On 27th March, we were also given very exciting to do poster presentation by Stephanie Hart, the Business Manager for the Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, for the upcoming NIDA International Forum and CPDD in Palm Springs, CA coming up in mid-June, just as we end our program. She helped us a lot so that each poster will be the best it can.

MARCH was filled with tools and resources and items we will use to continue to pursue our dreams of serving our communities so for me MARCH stands for Material Awakening for Respective Countries' Hope.