Hello. I’m Suzanne Weinerman, Deputy Director of the Alumni Affairs Division, at the State Department. I want to thank all of our exchange alumni who participated in the 2015 Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund competition.
The State Department created the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund in 2011 to help alumni initiatives promote innovative solutions to global challenges.
We, the U.S. government, know we don’t have all the solutions to the world’s problems so we look to our partners—our alumni—to make a positive impact. As you know, the competition provides small grants to teams of exchange alumni to carry out public service projects that build on their exchange experience.
This year, we received more than 800 proposals. It was a strong competition and today, I’m pleased to announce we will support 48 projects, that will be led by alumni in 43 countries around the world.
We are excited to see our alumni’s ideas come to life. In Honduras, alumni will lead a robotics project which promotes the equal participation of boys and girls in science and engineering. In Jordan, alumni will launch SheCab, a taxi service with female drivers, which will provide women with safe transportation as well as new employment opportunities. And in India, alumni will develop a mobile news app in English and Tamil to empower members of marginalized communities through citizen journalism.
Those are just a few examples of the innovative service projects that State Department exchange alumni will champion in their communities. We look forward to hearing how these projects are developing around world.
Congratulations to this year’s winners! And thank you again for your participation in the 2015 competition! Best of luck!