The Professional Fellows Program is pleased to announce the four spring 2018 Alumni Impact Award recipients selected in recognition of the impact they are making on their communities after participating in the Professional Fellows Program.

Ian Knight, a senior at Hellgate High School in Missoula, Montana, is the grand prize winner of the U.S. Department of State’s Citizen Diplomacy Challenge. Ian submitted the photo “Unity,” which features him at prayer in a mosque in rural Thailand.

An Alumni TIES small grant results in this project, Building Soil and Community: An Educational Composting Pilot, aimed to reduce the production of greenhouse gases while restoring the nutrient cycle by making composting more readily available to the citizens of Lynchburg.

Applications are now open for the 2018 Professional Fellows Program Alumni Impact Award. This competition is only open to alumni of the Professional Fellows Program, and winners will be recognized at the Professional Fellows Congresses in Washington, D.C. Apply before the deadline on February 19, 2018.

From Egypt to Hawaii, Chicago to Brazil, these Professional Fellows are demonstrating the transformative power of exchanges on individuals and society, and inspiring others with their continued work. Congratulations to the 2017 Professional Fellows Alumni Impact Award winners!

A common theme throughout Ama Diaka’s work as a spoken word poet is the challenge of being a female professional artist.