The alumni website is currently undergoing changes, and we hope to back up soon. In the meantime, if you’re an exchange alumni, check out exchangealumni.state.gov to connect with fellow alumni, join groups and events, search for job opportunities, and more! And check out eca.state.gov to find out more about our exchange program opportunities.
Alexa Porter wanted one last opportunity to gain cross-cultural experience before she graduated from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in May 2020. As a business administration student focusing on international business and strategy with a minor in public policy, Alexa was looking for a course that would advance these passions. Studying abroad had never been a good fit given her course schedules in previous semesters. Alexa was excited to find the Cross-Cultural Business course offered for the first time at the Ross School of Business. Cross-Cultural Business is part of the Business & Culture: A Virtual Practicum program (B&C), an action learning course on international business cultures that connects students from Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, and the U.S. This experiential course had a deep and lasting impact on Alexa even after she completed it and graduated — so much so that she still reflects on it today.
“I was interested in international business from the start and learning about other cultures, so it was a no-brainer to take a course like this,” Alexa said. “It gave me some useful insight into what it would be like to be involved with a global company and interact with clients from across the world.” Her view about culture has also evolved since completing the Business & Culture program. Alexa says that being able to virtually connect with faculty and students from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) throughout an entire semester to collaborate on assignments, including a final international consulting project, made the class a unique part of her degree program. “B&C definitely had an impact on my view about culture,” Alexa said. “Now, I’m more comfortable talking about culture. Not just talking or hearing about differences, but more so about acknowledging those differences and taking it a step further and trying to actually understand those differences.”
Several months after graduating, Alexa landed a job with Veeva Systems as an associate consultant and is now in her home state of New Jersey. Veeva Systems is a cloud-computing company focused on pharmaceutical and life sciences industry applications. Alexa credits B&C in helping her to thrive at Veeva, a global company where she now speaks and works with colleagues from around the world regularly and can effectively and confidently communicate with them regardless of background.
Alexa is more conscious about non-verbal communication because of her experience and is able to pick up on subtleties that might go over others’ heads. “B&C has prepared me well for my future,” Alexa said, “Regardless of where you are, you don’t just work with one culture. Here in the U.S., we’re a mixture of cultures and most people have to learn how to operate among those. Taking a class like B&C really prepares you for this — it puts you in the right mindset. It’s a great way to learn how to operate in a more globalized work environment and more internationally connected world.”
Alexa said she is more able to recognize and challenge her own cultural biases, something she sees as a great benefit to anyone. “A cross-cultural experience like this really pulls you out of your comfort zone. It was interesting to force myself not to think a certain way, consider how I operated, and make this a productive experience,” she said.
The Business & Culture program creates an opportunity for students to make more meaningful connections and transforms participants’ views about the importance of culture. As Alexa puts it, “it doesn’t matter what culture you’re from, you can make connections even with differences among you.”
Got 30 minutes? You’ve got a mentor! Join us for our next MentorTalks when we welcome Carla Dirlikov Canales, internationally renowned opera singer, entrepreneur, and U.S. State Department Arts Envoy on Tuesday, April 20th at 4:00pm EDT.
Carla has been a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities Turnaround Arts Program, was selected by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of its 100 Leading Global Thinkers and won the Medal of Excellence from the Sphinx Organization, which was presented to her at the Supreme Court by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In each case, she was the first opera singer ever to receive the honor.
As a singer, Carla has received worldwide acclaim and is best known for her portrayals of Bizet’s “Carmen” which she has performed close to 100 times in over a dozen countries. She has performed as a soloist at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and top international venues in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Carla has served as a U.S. State Department Arts Envoy since 2005.
In 2020, Carla’s envoy missions included creating new arts programs for the U.S. Embassies in Honduras, Peru, Montenegro, and Kazakhstan. Currently, she is a 2021 Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow at Harvard University, the youngest fellow in the history of the program to date.
What would you like to learn about arts advocacy? The power of the arts? Or, being an opera singer and entrepreneur? Post your questions on the Facebook Event page for this episode or use #MentorTalks when posting your questions on social media, and we’ll see you online!
Carla Dirlikov Canales brings global experience bridging cultures through performing arts. She is an internationally renowned mezzo-soprano opera singer, best known for her portrayals of Bizet’s “Carmen,” which she has performed nearly 100 times in more than 12 countries.
A social advocate and cultural entrepreneur, Carla is the founder of The Canales Project, an arts advocacy organization that uses performance and music to address issues and promote conversation about cultural exchange and identity worldwide. She served as co-creator, CEO, and artistic director of programming for the Culture Summit, a forum held in Abu Dhabi to convene arts and policy leaders from around the world on issues of cultural diplomacy and is also a long-time arts envoy for the U.S. Department of State.
Carla is currently at Harvard University serving as a 2021 Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow, the youngest fellow in the history of the program to date.
This month, more than 50 exchange program alumni from 12 countries throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States joined veteran TechCamp trainers and other leading international experts for a virtual seminar to combat disinformation and increase media literacy. The first-ever Alumni Thematic International Exchange Seminar (TIES) TechCamp Reconnect provided opportunities for international exchange alumni to strengthen their knowledge and skills in media literacy surrounding democratic governance, transparency, elections, anti-corruption, and post-COVID-19 disinformation. This was the first time exchange alumni from the U.S. joined a TechCamp program, as well as the first time TechCamp alumni participated in an ECA Exchange Alumni program.
Participants received training, mentorship, and support to build their technical and subject matter capabilities and networked with leading professionals in their fields across the Americas. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs designed the seminar with experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace´s ¨PeaceTechLab” and the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), with logistical and management support from World Learning. Facilitators and trainers included leaders from Reuters, Gallup, PBS, Twitter, and Facebook. Participants also showcased relevant projects inspired by their previous exchange programs and TechCamps via panel discussions and a virtual poster show.
Following the event, participants were invited to apply for small grant awards to put their newly-acquired skills into practice and build sustaining relationships with other participants. Follow #ExchangeAlumni #AlumniTIES and #TechCampGlobal on social media to learn more.
Before applying to Between the Lines, Mohammed El Wahabi had never heard of an exchange program. "It was my first time knowing about exchange programs, and I was so surprised that such things existed!" Mohammed participated in the 2015 Between the Lines Program: Peace and the Writing Experience, administered by the International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa through a grant from the Cultural Programs Division of the U.S. Department of State. A year later, he became the founder and executive director of the Olive Writers, a writing program for Moroccan youth in his home city, Casablanca.
The mission of the Olive Writers is embodied in its name. Alongside the symbol of the olive tree as a tree of peace, "Olive Writers" is a pun for "All of writers," symbolizing the inclusivity of the program. The abbreviation of the Olive Writers, TOW, symbolizes the program's mission to tow Moroccan writers towards a better future, better life and better Morocco. The alumni of the program are called Towers, because they embrace the values of the Olive Writers (creativity, tolerance, equality, diversity, compassion, empathy, and courage) and take them beyond the confines of the program as leaders in their communities.
Mohammed's inspiration to start the Olive Writers program began before Mohammed was accepted into the Between the Lines program, when he met the other applicants at the AMIDEAST Center in Rabat during the application process: "That was very surprising because I never thought I would meet such young Moroccans, the same age as me, who loved the same things I did. When I met them, it was such a beautiful experience connecting and just knowing that I belonged to a rather big community within the same country." Mohammed and the other applicants quickly became friends and although Mohammed was the only one accepted into the Between the Lines program, their initial meeting planted the roots of a literary community that Mohammed would go forward to grow through the Olive Writers.
He came home from the program with the realization that "we are allowed to dream, and those dreams can come true." Mohammed was especially fascinated by the ability of programs like Between the Lines to bring so many different people together through a common passion: "It was interesting to me to see that being literature lovers, readers and creative writers was the main thing that brought us together despite all our differences." This realization inspired Mohammed's plan for the Olive Writers as well: "In Morocco, we exist asvery different subcultures within the same country. We come from different places, we have different ethnicities, and we also speak different languages including Darija, Amazigh, French and Spani sh ... When we are writers, and we love literature, and when we write, it becomes, somehow, a new identity for all of us that's better and deeper and much more interesting than our small differences and labels."
Participating in the Between the Lines program opened his eyes to the empowering impact of such programs on youth: "I got to see first hand to what extent nurturing environments can help bridge people together- how we became friends very quickly and how the program is designed with the literature, creative writing, activities, and tours. I loved that! But at the same time, I felt sad that we don't have such things in Morocco."
During the Between the Lines program, Mohammed asked Egyptian writer and Between the Lines chaperone at the time, Nesma Gewili, "Why don't we have such programs in Morocco and the Arab world in general?" She said it was sad that they have to travel so far to experience these things.
"I said, 'you know what... I'll do the same thing in Morocco and invite you.' Maybe she thought it was just something an 18-year-old would say out of excitement, but two years later I sent her an official invitation," Mohammed said. Nesma taught at the first Olive Writers summer camp in Casablanca during 2017.
Mohammed credits the alumni resources and exchange alumni network provided by the US Embassy in Morocco for inspiring him to bring the idea of the Olive Writers to reality. The alumni reintegration seminar and resources pushed him to build on what he learned, create impact in his local community, and network with alumni. He credits Loubna Arrach, the alumni coordinator at the US Embassy in Morocco, for her role in "connecting us, inspiring us, and letting us know what is available for us."
Mohammed also thanks the American Language Center Casablanca, which has housed the Olive Writers camps since its inaugural session in 2017. The American Language Center Casablanca has provided the Olive Writers with venue, funding, network and all forms of support. "I am very grateful to Richard Martin, the director at the American Language Center Casablanca, who has offered so much to the Olive Writers. His mentorship to me personally and his unflagging support to the Olive Writers made a huge difference," said Mohammed.
The Olive Writers was created with the mission to "empower writers at all levels by connecting them and providing them with opportunities for personal and professional development. We do this through workshops, camps, competitions, and introducing them to international networks of writers. Our main focus is building community around creative writing, encouraging reading in Moroccan societies, and liberating writers to advocate for the issues that matter to them."
Mohammed saw the Olive Writers as a way to give a voice to young Moroccans in under-resourced and disenfranchised communities by providing a nurturing space to express their ideas, especially young girls. He created the Olive Writers to be a safe space for all Moroccan youth, especially those who are marginalized, to connect with others despite their differences. He expressed that "when we connect young writers to established writers, to established artists, and to people who have done so much in the art field, they become more open to the idea of living creatively. That sort of spirit and mindset helps them succeed in any career, even if they don't follow through with creative writing, and reinstills in them the idea that creativity comes in so many forms and can shape their lives in ways they never would have foreseen otherwise."
Cultural exchange programs like Between the Lines create a domino effect of empowerment that reaches far beyond alumni themselves. While Between the Lines inspired Mohammed to start the Olive Writers, the Olive Writers has also inspired Moroccan creatives to start their own initiatives within Morocco: "I'm so happy to see that lately, a lot of initiatives were created inspired by the Olive Writers. There is a whole community behind it that is doing other initiatives encouraging literary programming and creative writing." The Olive Writers laid the foundation for building community and dynamic exchange around literature in Casablanca. In fact, a few people Mohammed had met while applying to the Between the Lines program, who didn't get in, applied to and participated in the Olive Writers program years later.
The Olive Writers has now grown to connect young writers from across Morocco through its flagship summer camp and regional workshops. In August, the Olive Writers partnered with AMP Global Youth for a special edition of the Global Scholars program, funded by the Stevens Institute. The program brought 50 youth from across the US and Morocco together to connect and discuss youth-led initiatives amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
We were thrilled to have Nina Jankowicz, Disinformation Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., join us on MentorTalks on Wednesday, March 24th to discuss strengthening democracy and defeating disinformation. In addition Nina also shared tips for young professionals looking to advance their careers, including how to overcome imposter syndrome and why it’s never too late to change course.
As a former Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellow, Nina discussed how her exchange helped inform her career path and specifically how her time abroad enabled a deeper understanding of a reality facing us all when it comes to the war on information. By delving into this topic in Ukraine during her program, Nina saw first-hand the harmful effect it can have on society. Looking at the present day, she cited January 6, 2021 as another example of the harmful effects of disinformation.
Reflecting on her exchange experience, Nina noted the fellowship was one of the most important experiences of her life. While offering a closer look into how disinformation can be used to sway and influence people, her exchange also helped to pave the way for mutual trust and understanding between the U.S. and Ukraine. By working with colleagues on the ground committed to the same cause, she formed connections with other like-minded media literary activists whom she is still in touch with.
Nina also offered advice for young professionals, including tips for combatting imposter syndrome. While we are all on our own paths, Nina reminded the audience that “you are exactly where you’re meant to be.” She specifically notes that women often tend to undervalue their expertise and they would be better served dispensing of that mindset.
Another tip she offered was that it’s never too late to pursue your career - and you never know where your career will lead you. She said she often tells her mentees that if they can identify what they are passionate about in each job they have, they can end up in a place where they’re doing fulfilling work. “We can’t plan everything out, and it’s okay to not know – as long as we’re following our passions and careers,” she says.
Did you miss the live event? Watch it above, or visit @internationalexchangealumni on Facebook and tune in to hear how Nina is shaping the discourse on media literacy and disinformation.
About Nina Jankowicz
Nina Jankowicz studies the intersection of democracy and technology in Central and Eastern Europe. She is the author of How To Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict (Bloomsbury/IBTauris). Nina has advised the Ukrainian government on strategic communications under the auspices of a Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellowship. Her writing has been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and others. She is a frequent television and radio commentator on disinformation and Russian and Eastern European affairs.
Prior to her Fulbright grant in Ukraine, Ms. Jankowicz managed democracy assistance programs to Russia and Belarus at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. She received her MA in Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, and her BA from Bryn Mawr College.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and the Office of Global Women’s Issues hosted the 15th annual International Women of Courage (IWOC) Ceremony on March 8, 2020, featuring remarks from First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. Each year, the U.S. Department of State honors women from around the world who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in acting to improve the lives of others. The IWOC award brings international attention and shines a light on women who have put their personal safety, and often their lives, at risk to improve their communities and inspire fellow citizens.
This year, 21 women received the IWOC award, including three women who are exchange alumni! You can learn more about this amazing group of women on ECA’s IWOC site.
In honor of Women’s History Month in March, and the U.S. Department of State’s annual International Women of Courage Award, we want to know: Who is your woman of courage? She could be a piano teacher, a mentor, family member or friend who took a stand and inspires you to reach higher.
From now through March 31st, join the celebration by sharing a photo or video of the woman who inspires you on social media and let us know why you admire her (tag her if you can). Be sure to include the hashtags #WomenofCourage and #ExchangeAlumni, and tag @ECAatState and @StateDept. Submissions will also be shared on the WomenofCourage.State.Gov website.
Video Guidance:
As exchange alumni, you have achieved a lot – and this campaign is an opportunity to celebrate you and all the remarkable women in our lives. We hope you can be a part of it!
In 30 seconds or less, please state who your woman of courage is and why
Record in horizontal/landscape mode, and in a clean and quiet space so that there aren’t distracting images or sounds in the background
Use #WomenOfCourage and #ExchangeAlumni in the text of the post
Example post: In honor of @StateDept’s #IWOC2021 awards ceremony, I’d like to tell you about my woman of courage ________.
At a time of heightened concern over systemic racism and violence in the U.S., an inspiring series of events exuding cultural acceptance and peace culminated in the release of the song, “We Are One” during Black History Month.
The "We Are One" video captures an original song created and recorded in Namibia (Southwest Africa) featuring a collaboration of American and Namibian artists, along with photos/footage taken during the U.S. State Department's Arts Envoy Cultural Exchange tour of "The Myrna Clayton Experience" for the U.S. Embassy in Namibia. The song features five languages: Oshiwambo, American-English, Otjiherero, Khoe-Khoe Gowab, and Afrikaans.
The “We Are One” release is timed to coincide with the U.S. State Department’s spotlight of “Cultural Ambassador” Myrna Clayton and her band (“The Myrna Clayton Experience”) through its Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). The highly acclaimed American touring group from Atlanta with “America’s Songbird” Myrna Clayton helped to foster the recording opportunity, and became a pivotal musical performing impetus for the song’s recording in Namibia.
“It was a thrill for us to record with area-based professionals in Namibia,” acknowledges Myrna. “It is an experience we will never forget. I want to give a special thank you to Geniene Veii at the U.S. Embassy in Namibia. Without her help, I don't know if we would be able to have completed this very unique project. Geniene and her team were able to accomplish in a few weeks getting all four languages that were sung in ‘We Are One’ translated. This became a serious challenge for us because no one person knew the others’ languages.”
The message conveyed through the hybrid of Namibian-American music and lyrics is that we are all one people sharing this world together -- that we all enjoy the same things: smiling - dancing - playing (i.e., sharing our collective gifts/talents). And, since we are more alike than we are different, the music encourages, let’s live together in peace.
“We Are One” also conveys a core value of ECA’s mission: "To increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchange that assist in the development of peaceful relations."
“It has been an honor for me and for the members of ‘The Myrna Clayton Experience’ to perform in exchanging cultures as Americans around the world, through the U.S. State Department,” Myrna explains further. “Many of these audiences have had little exposure to attending live performances of American music by Americans, in their country.
“Yet, it is a whole other joy to experience, as we did in Namibia -- a collaborative, performing and recording session with our fellow musicians/singers, within their country. They brought another cultural expression to the recording, yet one with so many tones and rhythms that spoke to our collective souls.
“It is a richness that simply cannot be fully expressed in words. We pray that those who listen to this recording of ‘We Are One’ will get some sense of the joy and spirit of oneness that we felt while we were making this song together with our brothers and sisters of Namibia. It felt like the beginning of a true global connection.”
For more information about Myna Clayton, her band “The Myrna Clayton Experience”, and Myrna’s nonprofit work, visit: www.myrnaclayton.com and www.SHOWAbility.org.
The research of one #ExchangeAlumni could change the future of space travel.
Graham Shunk, a high school senior from North Carolina and exchange alumnus of the National Security Languages Initiative for Youth (NLSI-Y) program, is currently a finalist for NASA’s Grow Beyond Earth competition and has designed one of 5 winning prototypes of dense-agriculture systems for sustainably growing food in microgravity.
Graham has spent the past few years researching one of the most pressing questions in developing space travel to Mars: how do you protect astronauts from exposure to the Van Allen belts? These two swaths of intense radiation held around Earth by its magnetic field pose a life-threatening problem for astronauts engaging in extended space exploration.
Graham’s research began with Higher Orbits, an organization run by former astronaut trainer Michelle Lucas. Graham and his team proposed a project researching the shielding potential of fungal melanin to radiation, which was ultimately selected to be launched and tested aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Graham then began the difficult task of independently analyzing the raw data collected from the ISS, until he reached out to Stanford Postdoc research fellow Nils Averesch with a project collaboration proposal, which Nils accepted. “Most of the things I have been able to do have stemmed from an email,” Graham shared, adding, “It's a matter of seeking out your own opportunities and having the confidence and wherewithal to follow through.”
In July of 2020, after a year and a half of simulations examining the shielding capabilities of fungal melanin against different forms of radiation, the team published a preprint of their work. Russian National Television reached out soon after with interest in their project and its use of radioactive fungus from Chernobyl. With his knowledge of Russian, Graham took the lead and held an interview with them about the team’s research. Graham answered most of the interview questions in Russian, despite only having a handful of years of independent and classroom study under his belt. Graham attributes some of his success in communicating in Russian to NSLI-Y, saying that since the program, he noticed that his “language skills improved vastly” and that he could “speak with a better flow.”
Looking to the future, Graham hopes to someday utilize his Russian language skills to collaborate with Slavic engineers and astronauts involved in ISS projects. He acknowledged the role his NSLI-Y Russian experience has played in shaping his career trajectory, saying, “I think it really legitimized my ability to communicate with people around the world with something I’m passionate about, made me appreciate just how global the science community is, and made me think hard about working in Russia as an engineer with their space program.”
A handful of opportunities can lead to newfound insight into our perspectives and actions. One of those experiences was the Alumni TIES seminar I attended in November 2019, as an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Program, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. This seminar afforded me the chance to connect and interact with journalists, videographers, and media entrepreneurs from across South and Central Asia and inspired me to want to redefine digital media for women’s security, empowerment, and skill acquisition. After the seminar, I was awarded an Alumni TIES small grant from the U.S. Department of State. Through this grant, I developed the “Women Hackathon and Women Summit: Finding Technology Solutions to Solve Women Security Issues.” The project aimed to find effective solutions through technology for the issues faced by women in the digital era and organized a three-day summit with speakers and mentors from the media industry, start-ups, and government. A one-day Hackathon followed the summit in order for summit participants from start-ups to suggest solutions for women’s critical issues with the aid of technology.
Project plans materialized quickly with stakeholders in January and February and we set a date in late May 2020 to implement the three-day, “She Power Women Summit” and the one-day Hackathon in Kochi, a Southern port city in India in late May 2020. However, in March 2020, the novel Coronavirus spread all over the world. Along with other nations, India headed into a national lockdown. Project execution and the necessary readiness to gear up for the summit and hackathon came to a temporary standstill. All the preparation and logistical planning halted. We canceled the hotel bookings for the summit and the speakers’ travel. With the realization that the public health and safety restrictions were now the new normal, I connected with the U.S. Department of State and World Learning teams to receive guidance on the next steps. With their help, my team was able to successfully convert this in-person program to a virtual one, connecting the summit’s attendees with speakers and participating organizations.
From December 16–18, 2020, the “She Power Women Summit” took place virtually, and participants took part in substantive discussions with women leaders, digital experts, policymakers, and technocrats on how media and technology have historically led to online violence, internet harassment, exploitation, and compromised security for women in South India. Following the summit, a mentoring session and pitch competition was organized for all the attendees, led by the founders of the Kerala Startup Mission, the nodal agency of the Government of Kerala. The winners and first and second runners-up were awarded additional opportunities and support to incubate their ideas with other professionals and organizations. After the mentoring and pitch session, the virtual She Power Hackathon was held on December 20. The Kerala Startup Mission worked with us to organize the hackathon, and the officials of the organization, Startup India stood as the judges. In the search for new technology-based innovations that uplift Indian women, approximately 100 start-ups and enterprises focused on women’s issues, such as security, hygiene, re-skilling, etc., took part in the hackathon and developed various ideas, products, and prototypes.
All of the hackathon winners and runners-up were presented with prize money and incubation mentoring support from the Kerala Startup Mission. “Star in Me,” a women career advancement platform, headquartered at Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, won first prize; “Karma,” a start-up that presented reusable sanitary napkin solutions for women, won first runner-up; “Eco Rich Technologies,” a start-up that creates smart napkin incinerator solutions won second runner-up; and “Pinkpal,” a group of female students from Fisat Engineering College who created a security system for women, won an honorable mention from the judges.
As a media professional and entrepreneur, I can confidently say that we were able to successfully organize a massive campaign and hackathon to find solutions to the issues faced by Indian women in the digital space, especially at a time when many parts of the world are grappling with technological disruptions and consequences during the quarantine. Despite the issues that arose with national restrictions because of the pandemic, my team and I were able to navigate these problems with strong monitoring and evaluation plan and work plan. Additionally, to ensure that attendance at the “She Power” events remained high, I created a website, www.shepower.in, and engaged social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc. to ensure that the “She Power” message reached tens of thousands of people in South India. “She Power” has truly proven itself as an innovative program that has shed light on the expansive, ground-breaking work to empower women in digital spaces across the nation.
What does it take to be a leader? And how do you lead 7,000 people when they are scattered across the country?
Brown University Student Body President and exchange alumnus Jason Carroll joined us on MentorTalks February 23, 2021 to talk about how he ended up running to be the first Black male student body president at Brown, the challenges of being a leader in pandemic times, how he is building a more inclusive campus, and the impact of his exchange experience. Jason also offered advice for making it through pandemic times, adjusting to a new culture, and how he adjusted to a new culture that was the opposite of his natural personality.
Before doing an exchange program, Jason recalls that he was really shy. “I didn’t really put myself out there,” he told us. “As a black student at a predominantly white school and also as a gay student at any school... I didn’t feel free to be myself.”
Then he went to Dakar, Senegal through the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Abroad (YES Program). “Once I did YES Abroad, I spent a year in Senegal, that’s really when I feel like I became an adult. And when I got back, and when I got to college, I told myself, ‘I’m going to do everything I can. I spent four years in high school not really doing that much, I want to be as involved as possible, and also give back and help people.’”
That led Jason to get involved in student government and run to be Brown University’s first-ever Black male student body president. Being president has taught Jason a lot about how Brown and other schools, like Harvard, are having an impact on students, as well as policies worldwide, such as creating a need-blind admissions process.
As Brown’s first-ever Black male student body president, Jason is working to build a community that is inclusive of all students. At a time when our country finds itself at a crossroads between the global pandemic and race relations, Jason hopes to ensure every voice of the 7,000 students he represents is heard on campus – addressing issues including housing conditions, racial justice, and general student life.
One way he and his council have done this is by ensuring access to all opportunities the university has to offer. With many students no longer living on campus amidst the pandemic, Jason aims to connect students – who now span across multiple time zones and regions – with the same academic and professional opportunities. By hosting a virtual job fair last semester, for example, and by lowering the barrier for access to mental health resources, Jason has worked to ensure campus resources are adaptive for the moment.
Reflecting on his YES Abroad experience, Jason said that it was there that he “was exposed to ways that were different. “It was through being in a new place that I was able to find myself, and to see, one, just just how beautiful the world is, to be in a Black country, and secondly, to be able to interact with the folks from the Department of State and the embassy who are creating these inter-cultural interactions and shaping the way we interact with the world.”
While his exchange experience helped to shape his academic and professional path, Jason also reflects he couldn’t have done it on his own. “One thing I try to remember is how far it’s taken to get to where I am, but also that I haven’t done this alone – that there’s a community of people who are here and who have supported me.”
Jason Carroll went to Senegal on the YES Abroad program in 2015-2016 and lived in the city of Dakar. Since going abroad, he has remained close with his host family - and has even hosted his Senegalese siblings at his home in Washington, DC. Jason is currently a senior studying international politics at Brown University. He hopes to go into law after graduation.
Graham Shunk, a high school senior from North Carolina and exchange alumnus of the 
