Article by Emily Kane, intern with the U.S. Department of State's Office of Alumni Affairs.
A few weeks ago, we spoke with Sarah McLewin, an exchange alumna of the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) program, about her career path and how she leveraged Career Connections as a tool for success in her current role as a contractor at the U.S. Department of State. Throughout her professional career, Sarah’s driving theme has been rooted in “building mutual understanding.” Now, she helps “Americans see the world and the world see the United States.”
Sarah currently works as a Program Officer, where she covers all Fulbright programs in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Before she landed her current position, Sarah was an academic advisor in higher education and then shifted her focus to the nonprofit sector, working as a program director for teachers and high school students in global education.
While Sarah was an academic advisor at George Mason University, she attended an information session about Fulbright U.S. Student programs so that she would be better able to advise her students. During this event, she realized she was also eligible for the international exchange and decided to apply for the program. Several months later she accepted an opportunity to serve as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in Morocco. It was during her in-country Fulbright orientation that she met a State Department employee who is now one of her colleagues in the Fulbright program office.
Upon the completion of her Fulbright ETA in Morocco, Sarah became a U.S. ExchangeAlumni, joining a network of more than 500,000 U.S. citizens who have participated in an exchange program funded or sponsored by the U.S. government (USG). One of the U.S. ExchangeAlumni opportunities McLewin took advantage of was Career Connections. In 2019 she attended the seminar taking place in New York City, where she was able to create meaningful connections with others who had taken part in a variety of different USG-funded exchange programs.
For Sarah, Career Connections was an opportunity to broaden her ExchangeAlumni world. She mentioned how, when you’re involved in an exchange program “you’re very focused on your program and you’re very much in a Fulbright world or a Gilman world.” Career Connections provided her and other exchange participants the opportunity to “meet people who came from so many different programs” – and gave Sarah the chance to feel more engaged with the broader ExchangeAlumni network.
“Career Connections is where the ExchangeAlumni network really came to life,” she said.
Career Connections also allowed Sarah to meet like-minded people, many of whom were at similar stages in their professional career. The networking opportunities were not the only thing that stood out to her. She recalled a session offered with speaker Stephanie Zhong, who discussed storytelling branding. Zhong encouraged all the attendees to “see [their] value and embrace what makes [them] unique.” The overall message of finding your own professional path is something that has stuck with Sarah over the years –demonstrating the lasting impact of Career Connections sessions and its core messages.
Now whenever she’s asked by people if they should attend a Career Connections event, Sarah immediately replies, Yes! As she notes, the seminars give like-minded professionals the opportunity to meet and engage with one another.
Interested in participating in a Career Connections seminar near you? Use Sarah’s tips:
● Think about your career objective. Identify a specific career goal to maximize your networking opportunities.
● Preparation is key: Have your elevator speech ready and use the event to practice describing your background and career objectives.
● Be helpful: When you meet other exchange alumni, offer to connect them to organizations or key contacts. Helping other exchange alumni pursue their career goals builds the strength and comradery of the network.
The Career Connections professional development seminars began in 2019 to bring together U.S. ExchangeAlumni with leaders in business, government, civil society, and other diverse fields, and to help alumni leverage their international exchange experiences, highlight their skills, and build their networks. Career Connections is run by the Office of Alumni Affairs in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State and implemented by Global Ties U.S.
Noella Luka, 2019 Professional Fellowship Program ExchangeAlumni, mental health advocate, and award-winning documentary filmmaker, joined MentorTalks to talk about her personal mental health journey, how she’s working to destigmatize mental health treatment in Kenya, and to share her tips on supporting family and friends living with mental illness.
According to a landmark report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2022, one in eight people live with a mental health condition. In Kenya, an estimated three million people live with intellectual and mental disabilities, according to United Nations figures. At the same time, mentally disabled people – often poor – receive little support from the government and often face widespread stigma.
In her documentary, What’s Eating My Mind, Noella traces her personal journey with mental health, from being first diagnosed with bipolar disorder, to helping to bring awareness to and break down the stigma around mental health across the region.
In this episode, Noella takes us through her experiences and how she has helped herself and her family better cope with her lifelong challenge. She also talks about how to help yourself if you’re dealing with mental illness, as well as how she’s working with stakeholders in the community to destigmatize this “invisible illness” and better support those coping with a mental health challenge.
“In looking at mental health from the African perspective, we tie mental illness to African traditional norms,” she says.
“But these are things that have been perpetuated from generation to generation, and we need to adopt other ways in which to deal with mental wellness.”
Tune in now to hear from Noella!
Speaker Bio
Noella Luka is a Nairobi-based, award-winning documentary filmmaker, mental health advocate, and exchange alumna of the Professional Fellows Program on Inclusive Disability Employment (PFP-IDE). Her work has been screened in Africa, Europe, and North America. She has produced films about mental health, disability, and climate change and led a PFP-IDE project about mental health storytelling in Kenya. She is the Team Lead of Mental Voices Africa, a mental health support group that empowers people with mental illnesses to share their stories. This sparked her current project, “What’s Eating My Mind” - a personal film that captures the lived realities of mental illness within Kenyan families. The project is a co-production between LBX Africa and STEPS, and is available on the BBC Africa YouTubePage.
MentorTalks Video
What does it take to go from teaching middle school to leading digital efforts for the Artemis missions at NASA? And how can others access similar opportunities in the federal government?
In honor of Space Diplomacy Week, Thalia Patrinos - a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) ExchangeAlumni and Communications Strategist contractor at NASA headquarters - joined us on MentorTalks to discuss using art, science, and space to connect with millions of people.
While on her Fulbright ETA, Thalia taught English to students in Gqeberha, South Africa. It was this experience, along with her time subsequently teaching math and science in middle school in Philadelphia, she says, that helped her succeed in her current career.
Thalia has been able to apply these skills in her role as a contractor at NASA, creating digital messaging for a global audience. “We tell ourselves that we have to explain it at an eighth grade level – because a lot of people don't have a background in science or math,” Thalia explains.
In landing a job with the federal government, Thalia also shared why contracting can be a great way to get your foot in the door. “If you aren't finding any civil servant positions, look for the contractor positions – there are a lot of different opportunities available,” she says.
Thalia’s experience is a true testament of this – in her current role as a contractor, she leads numerous digital campaigns at NASA, including overseeing the Faces of NASA photo series and co-leading audio strategy for the agency.
Interested in exploring the overlap between science and art, how NASA connects with audiences, getting a job in the federal government, and learning a fun fact or two about South Africa?
Watch this episode above or on Facebook @InternationalExchangeAlumni!
When war broke out in Ukraine, refugees flooded into Romania. Exchange Alumni Theresa Carrington recognized that the refugees especially needed help in the city of Făgăraș. Using a Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund (CDAF) grant, Theresa and fellow Exchange Alumni Stefan Cibian crafted a series of workshops to empower Ukrainian refugees and Romanians alike with entrepreneurship skills such as networking, community outreach, and commercial partnerships.
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| U.S. Speakers Program Exchange Alumni and CEO Theresa Carrington shares her expertise in a presentation during her CDAF project in Făgăraș, Romania. Photo by Sergiu Mihailescu. |
“We want to provide a safe space for Romanians and Ukrainians to have a conversation about their hopes and their dreams,” says Theresa.
Theresa, who went to Togo with the U.S. Speakers Program and is the founder and CEO of Ten by Three, specializes in social entrepreneurship. She partnered with BridgeUSA Secondary School Exchange Alumni Dr. Stefan Cibian, whom she met in a Global Diplomacy Lab, with the goal to equip the many qualified and talented Ukrainian refugees with the skills and spark needed to start a successful business, while empowering social enterprises and non-profits across the region.
Theresa reflects that the workshops were a transformative experience for not only the Ukrainian participants, but also for her. She often offers workshops at the State Department on social enterprise and what she calls “entrepreneurial DNA.” In Romania, “there was magic in the air,” as translators supported by the CDAF broke down language barriers and the “silos” Romanians and Ukrainians of Făgăraș live in to form cross-cultural partnerships.
The entrepreneurial ecosystem
There is a grin on Theresa’s face as she recalls the enthusiasm with which one participant’s idea of bringing Ukrainian beer to Romania was received.
“I guess that’s the next huge thing in Romania,” she laughs.
But bringing new products to be produced in the Romanian market wasn’t the only win of the workshops. Theresa also ended up teaching a member of the Romanian Roma community to sign their name on their products, giving them ownership of their crafts. While the Roma artisans’ inability to write their names was once a running joke among local nonprofits, one of the participants from a local non-profit admitted she'd never joke about that stereotype again, recognizing that they had an opportunity to empower those in the community.
Theresa, of course, is an avid supporter of the CDAF grant and all that it can do. She says anyone thinking about applying for one who wants to change their local community or region should go for it.
“We believe we ignited something there,” she says. “We left behind the tiny seeds of an entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
Those interested in learning more about the Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund can follow our stories about the grant opportunity that awards up to $10,000 for teams of U.S. government-sponsored exchange program alumni. Grants are awarded for public service projects that utilize the skills, knowledge, and networks exchange alumni gained through their exchange experiences and are awarded yearly.
When war broke out in Ukraine, refugees flooded into Romania. ExchangeAlumni Theresa Carrington recognized that the refugees especially needed help in the city of Făgăraș. Using a Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund (CDAF) grant, Theresa and fellow ExchangeAlumni Stefan Cibian crafted a series of workshops to empower Ukrainian refugees and Romanians alike with entrepreneurship skills such as networking, community outreach, and commercial partnerships.
“We want to provide a safe space for Romanians and Ukrainians to have a conversation about their hopes and their dreams,” says Theresa.
Theresa, who went to Togo with the U.S. Speakers Program and is the founder and CEO of Ten by Three, specializes in social entrepreneurship. She partnered with BridgeUSA Secondary School ExchangeAlumni Dr. Stefan Cibian, whom she met in a Global Diplomacy Lab, with the goal to equip the many qualified and talented Ukrainian refugees with the skills and spark needed to start a successful business, while empowering social enterprises and non-profits across the region.
Theresa reflects that the workshops were a transformative experience for not only the Ukrainian participants, but also for her. She often offers workshops at the State Department on social enterprise and what she calls “entrepreneurial DNA.” In Romania, “there was magic in the air,” as translators supported by the CDAF broke down language barriers and the “silos” Romanians and Ukrainians of Făgăraș live in to form cross-cultural partnerships.
The entrepreneurial ecosystem
There is a grin on Theresa’s face as she recalls the enthusiasm with which one participant’s idea of bringing Ukrainian beer to Romania was received.
“I guess that’s the next huge thing in Romania,” she laughs.
But bringing new products to be produced in the Romanian market wasn’t the only win of the workshops. Theresa also ended up teaching a member of the Romanian Roma community to sign their name on their products, giving them ownership of their crafts. While the Roma artisans’ inability to write their names was once a running joke among local nonprofits, one of the participants from a local non-profit admitted she'd never joke about that stereotype again, recognizing that they had an opportunity to empower those in the community.
Theresa, of course, is an avid supporter of the CDAF grant and all that it can do. She says anyone thinking about applying for one who wants to change their local community or region should go for it.
“We believe we ignited something there,” she says. “We left behind the tiny seeds of an entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
Those interested in learning more about the Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund can follow our stories about the grant opportunity that awards up to $10,000 for teams of U.S. government-sponsored exchange program alumni. Grants are awarded for public service projects that utilize the skills, knowledge, and networks exchange alumni gained through their exchange experiences and are awarded yearly.
In the middle of her presentation, Helena Bartošová clicks on a video in which two blond toddlers no more than three years old are rocking out to a bassoon and clarinet quartet in front of a church altar.
“Some of them are like little veelas,” she says, laughing, her eyes crinkling with joy, referencing the fairy creature from Slavic folklore that has the power to entrance through their dancing.
Helena, an Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) ExchangeAlumni and a Czech language teacher, was in the middle of a series of concerts and events to help Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic. She came up with the idea for Filharmoniště - which is a neologism in Czech that is an amalgamation of Philharmonic and Playground in Czech (Filharmonie+hřiště), in 2018 when she and her co-founder, Vanda Kofroňová, a fellow AWE ExchangeAlumni, television editor, and reporter, were walking around Prague with their newborns in strollers and realized they were missing an aspect of their lives.
“We had little babies and we really needed the cultural events we had earlier,” Helena says. “We figured out that in Britain and Germany it’s quite common to have classical music concerts for babies, from zero up to two, three years [old], and parents, and we wanted it, too. So we said, ‘Okay, let’s bring it to the Czech Republic.’”
Helena adds that when she had been at the hospital, she had met someone from the National Theater Orchestra, which helped bring the first concert into fruition.
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Photo Courtesy: Miroslav Lepeška
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Five years later, Filharmoniště, which sits somewhere between a social enterprise and an arts non-profit, has regular seasons of concerts for parents and children, in part thanks to the even bigger kickstart in 2021 of the arrival of the AWE program in the Czech Republic. Helena says she gained a lot of confidence from AWE, but the three-month course provided at the U.S. Embassy in Prague also taught her how to build up a network to support businesses and gave her an even larger built-in network from other AWE alumni, the AWE mentors, and now the broader ExchangeAlumni network. It also helped that Filharmoniště won the top prize at the end of the program.
“It really kicked us,” Helena says. “We were thinking, let’s stop, don’t think about it. This first prize said okay, it’s really worth working on it more, pushing on it more, to spread it in the world, to spread it in the media. We thought that it’s worth doing it.”
But that wasn’t the only prize that Helena and Vanda won. Their work also garnered an Embassy Alumni Rapid Response grant to help Ukrainian women and children now in the Czech Republic following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, February 24, 2021. Filharmoniště’s response has been a series of free concerts with language workshops for Ukrainians and networking between Ukrainian and Czech parents to help with integration, all in partnership with the Czech NGOs Diakonie and Center for Integration of Foreigners.
Helena knows that the refugees are mainly focused on survival, but she wanted to give them something special, something “extraordinary,” just as has been the mission all along for her organization.
“We really wanted our event to have the opportunity to relax a little bit, to have something extraordinary and to be able to afford it,” she says. “‘Cause they are not thinking of classical music or anything. Because they need to survive. Just help them more in those things that they really need and they need to be integrated in the Czech Republic. And keep going and help them. Our ambition is that they can stay after the concert and they can chat, meet. They can have a little network.”
They’ve hosted three Ukrainian aid events so far this year.
Parents come with blankets, snacks, and drinks. The children lay around, dance, sing, and sometimes get to touch the instruments, making the concerts very unlike any normally associated with classical music.
These moments of joy and culture bring together Czech and Ukrainian families, little breaks in the day where Helena says music can give energy outside of normal routines. The events may be casual in appearance, but overall, Helena works to make the concerts extraordinary occasions.
Brian Rashid has two big pieces of advice: find work you love and stay true to yourself. On the latest MentorTalks episode, Rashid - a brand storyteller, messaging expert, international speaker, and Fulbright Specialist ExchangeAlumni - joined the show to discuss his professional journey and offer career advice.
In 2020, Brian visited Uruguay with the intention of staying for a month. A week before his flight back to the United States, the airport closed, leaving Brian “stuck” there for the rest of the year. It was during this time that Brian crafted a “Love Letter to Uruguay,” thanking the country for what he had witnessed and received while there. But, little did he know the letter would go viral – it was picked up by many major media outlets, including CNN en Español.
The success of his letter served as a springboard for Brian’s launch of his own multimedia platform, “Love Letters to the World and Its Keepers,” which combines short emotive films and long-form love letters to highlight everyday people and places that make the world so special.
Without love for his work, Brian said, he wouldn’t have gotten as far as he has. “Just trust that if you’re doing the work, that will set you up for success, and you will be able to find some sort of niche for yourself,” he said.
Watch Brian’s interview to get more of his career tips and find out how he’s made the leap to a career that is a labor of love.
Speaker Bio
Brian Rashid is the CEO of Brian Rashid Global, a modern-day branding, marketing, and
communications company. He services clients like Intel, Credit Karma, Remax, KPMG, the European Union, United Nations, Salesforce.com, the National Dry Cleaning Association, and more. He has advised more than 100 startup companies to help them raise hundreds of millions of dollars of investment funds. He also advises CEOs, small business owners, and cultural influencers.
Nationally and internationally, Brian is a highly sought-after public speaker, where he presents the future of personal branding, mastering modern-day marketing, and how to turn your passion into a profit. Brian has delivered two TEDx talks and has a Youtube and Facebook vlog Show, BTV, that gives an up-close and personal look to life as a CEO. His videos have been viewed millions of times.
Brian writes "Love Letters to the World and Its Keepers," several of which have gone viral, including his most recent letter called "One American's Unexpected Love Letter to Uruguay During a Global Pandemic," and "Why Everyone Should Live in New York City." In 2021, Brian turned these love letters into a digital storytelling platform that uses short emotive films and long-form love letters to shine light on everyday people and places making the world a better and a beautiful place to be. He recently completed, “Love Letters to New York City, Season 1.”
Calling all U.S. citizen alumni of U.S. government exchange programs! Was your exchange a life-changing experience? Do you want to share your international exchange experience with others in the United States?
