Holiday Greetings

The Humphrey Fellowship Program staff would like to wish all of all past fellows who are checking the blog and our new fellows who are traveling all over the world a wonderful holiday and a happy new year!

Pittsburgh, PA

A visit to the Penn State Center – Pittsburgh (http://pittsburgh.center.psu.edu/)
“Building a Stronger Pittsburgh Projects”; Energy, Green Roof Technologies,
Pittsburgh Green Innovators and more(http://pittsburgh.center.psu.edu/strategic-initiatives). We visited the University of Pittsburgh, met with faculty members, toured the Cathedral of Learning's Nationality Rooms(http://www.pitt.edu/~natrooms/)
The rooms were decorated for the holidays. On the way home, we stopped by Holiday Lights on the Lake in Altoona. With a dinner at Hoss's to debrief....this was the last site visit for the fall semester. Have a restful and safe break, The Program Staff wishes you all a very happy holiday and new year!

Global Leadership Forum, Arlington, VA

Will post photos soon......
This serves as a book mark until I load the photos....thanks for your patience!

Humphrey Presentations Begin October 19, 2011

Alejandra and Khyati were the first fellows to present their countries to community members, friends and faculty members of the Penn State community. Congratulations to both ladies - for a "job well done"!

Philadelphia, PA

After visiting the Sheppard School, we switched gears - and visited University of Pennsylvania. The Humphrey Fellows were hosted by Dr. Doug Lynch, Vice-Dean of the Graduate School of Education. He entertained questions and answers from the fellows .....a stark change from issues the Sheppard School was experiencing - the fellows were told UPENN did not need students, they had plenty of $$, they had lots of resources, they, they, I. I, We, We.......it was a very different meeting......with a tour around central campus and a quick visit to Starbucks, we left UPENN and headed to our hotel. After taking time to digest our day, we spent the next 30 hours enjoying the city - Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Constitution Center, Reading Terminal, South Street!
On the way home, a stop over in Lancaster to experience "Outlet" shopping! Oh, I forgot to mention - the weather was GREAT!

The Isaac Sheppard Elementary School - Oct 14, 2011

Dr. Otto welcomes the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellows to his school in West Philly. We visited the classrooms, shared Q & A with Dr. Otto, enjoyed a traditional Puerto Rican meal from the nieghborhood. We were most impressed with the children who were happy, fully immersed in their classroom activities in cheerfully decorated clean classrooms. Teachers, support staff and volunteers were so proud of their school - and we were speechless after we were informed a few weeks ago that the school will be closing at the end of the year. But, the school has been on the "chopping block" for eight years....according to Dr. Otto who was sent to the school eight years ago to help close the school. Let's hope they have many more years to close the school.

Information Sharing Session - October 12, 2011

On this night, we were happy to meet Amal's sons.....in fact, Amal, Zarudeen and Diana shared what was important to them and reflecting on their individual accomplishments since their arrival. Although there was lively conversations during the evening, a question was sent to all the fellows after the meeting from Khyati - about Happiness?? to be continued.....

DAY OF CARING, October 7, 2011

Stay tuned for photos from Day of Caring. The Humphrey Fellows and program staff spent the morning at SKILLS INC - a center that operates a day program for mentally challenged adults. We met wonderful residents who gave us all the opportunity to share the gift of time while making arts and crafts. The staff told us they were pleased with the interactions between the residents and the fellows. One example was Mouse who had not spoken for over two weeks - within an hour of making clay figures and puppets, he was talking freely and openly sharing conversation with several fellows. Posing for photos...and then there was Tom who shared his scrapbook with the fellows. Another resident who could not speak communicated non-verbally with the fellows....overall we were all touched and hope to return in the new year to spend more time with the residents of SKILLS. A staff member sent a message to us - after we left, Tom said, "I will miss them". It truly was a "Day of Caring"!

South Hills Business School - Sept 30, 2011

It will be hard to top this site visit - so far the BEST VISIT! Thank you to the Mazza's for hosting this visit.

Team Building at Tussey Mountain - Sept 30

Team building continues at Tussey Mountain....over one month ago...a very heavy rainstorm abruptly ended the activity. Finally the team resumes team buiding at the ropes course with Brynn and Bennett. Thanks to Diana for taking these very nice photos!

September 28th, 2011

The College of Education Fall Meeting - Dean Monk introduces new faculty and staff during a college-wide meeting held each fall. The Humphrey Fellows have the opportunity to introduce themselves to the audience during this event.
Before this event, Humphrey Fellow Denise Neddermeyer from Brazil was the guest speaker for the monthly African Studies brown bag.

Late September Photos

Some more memories of late September......Can you believe it is almost mid- November??

Dean Monk's Welcome Dinner

Dean Monk welcomes the Humphrey Fellows each year with a reception followed by a dinner held for faculty mentors, senior administrators, and program staff. This year, Cody Jameson, Program Manager from Institute of International Education attended during his official site visit to Penn State.

September 28th, 2011

Humphrey Fellow, Denise Neddermeyer participated in the African Studies Brown Bag;
Topic: Internationalization of Higher Education in Brazil and Government Policies Toward Building Collaboration with African Countries. At 2:30, the fellows attended the College of Education Fall Meeting held be Dean Monk. After a brief reception, the fellows were formally introduced to the college along with new staff and faculty. An event that everyone looks forward to each year.

Penn State Thai Festival, September 25, 2011

Thai Night 2011: Welcome to the Land of Smiles
by Ms. Diyaporn Wisamitanan
To understand different culture, visiting a country event might be a short cut to get a glimpse of the country. The Thai Night 2011: A Walk Through Thai Temple Fair, which was held from 6.30 – 9 pm on Sunday 25 September 2011 became huge success. 200 tickets were sold out and there were still some people who would like to join, but couldn’t get tickets.
Successfully, I sold 19 tickets for Humphrey fellows & family, coordinator, host family, my English language partner and roommates.
In this event, guests would get a chance to eat Thai recipes and iced tea with milk ( my favorite drink back home), watch traditional performances, get a small token from Thailand, learn how to make paper fish and traditional flag, and see Thai products exhibition.
All Thai students wore traditional costumes to serve food. I looked for a chance to wear my Thai outfits so this was a good time. Back home, we Thais rarely wear Thai outfits; we wear them for special events, for example, wedding days, big ceremony and performance. That’s all. I found that nowadays many countries has encountered this problem; wearing traditional costume is becoming out-of-fashion even the government has promoted civil officers to wear it in a workplace and in school.
I felt like I was in Thailand, eating Thai food, wearing Thai costumes, seeing Thai dance, working harmoniously with other Thai students.
Surprisingly, there are only about 80 students in Penn State University, fewer than Chinese, Korean, Indian, but the Thai Night proved that we Thai were as united and strong as other communities.

Talat & Jane were touched knowing that 6 Humphrey fellows joined the event so I did a paper interview why they joined and what did they feel about the event. Reading their feedbacks, I was thrilled to know that they all were curious to learn about Thai culture and they really had a good time in the event. Being Humphrey fellow from Thailand, some friends would like to know more about me. Some said they felt like they were in Thailand where people were friendly and smiley and food’s very yummy.



Vanhkham, Laos: I would like to know how the Thai Night will look like and curiously to know what are the shows that will be performed in the event. That was very fantastic event. It was very well organized and well prepared. It is showing the strong organization of Thai Student Association, event they are not more than 100 people comparing to Chinese, Korean and Indian students in Penn State. But they have done wonderful job in order to present Thai's culture and traditional.

Diana, Poland: I primarily decided to attend the Thai Night event because I consider you my friend and would like to know more about the culture of your country. This was also the main reason I volunteered to help as well as because it was a good opportunity to meet other Thai students, do something for your community and because I know I could count on you if I needed help to prepare my national event and in any other case.

Khyati, India: The event was excellent and the arrangement was good. I like the way we served on the table by Thai people. The exhibition of Thai items was also good. However during program I felt that It would be good if they include some Thai manners and disciplines instead of only traditional dance. The girls in traditional dress were looking very pretty. My daughter didn't want to come out from that event. I came to know about Thai event from you. I was excited to see Thailand. Even after belong to Asia, I have never been to Thailand. I thought this might be a good idea to get some insights about Thailand and Thai culture. So me and my husband with our little angel joined Thai night.

Tatjana, Slovenia: Because I always want to know about different cultures of the people I meet. As you are my classmate and also my roommate both are Thai I like to know more about your traditions. I was really amazed about the organization and about everything that was presented. You're really doing an excellent job in representing your country to all of us! I was very impressed

Denise, Brazil: Because I want to know more about Thai culture and also because I was invited by an enthusiastic Thai friends. The event was beyond my expectation. The girls were beautifully dressed with Thai costumes. Everyone’s very kind, smiley and attentive. The show was well-prepared. The presenter was extremely natural and charming. It was a great event for Sunday evening. Enjoyed very much.

Alex, Mexico: I WANTED TO SHARE SOME TIME WITH MY HOST FAMILY AND LEARN ABOUT SOME OF THE THAI CULTURE AS WELL. THE PROGRAM WAS INTERESTING: FOOD, DANCE AND CRAFTS. EVEN IF I HAD INFORMATION ABOUT THAILAND BECAUSE A FRIEND WAS LIVING THERE, I WANTED TO KNOW PEOPLE THAT IS ANOTHER WAY TO KNOW PART OF THE COUNTRY. THE EVENT EXCEED ALL MY EXPECTATIONS: MY HOST FAMILY WAS SUPER HAPPY! WE HAD A GREAT NIGHT OF FUN, LAUGHS, GOOD FOOD AND WE MET NICE PEOPLE.

Thanks all friends for your support. Also, special thanks to Diana, from Poland, who volunteered to help me decorate the hall and serve Thai food.

President's Tailgate 2011

The Fellows attend President Spanier's tailgate beginning at 9 AM with a special bus ride to the Penn Stater for a wonderful kickoff celebration to the football game. Because of the threat of rain, the tailgate was moved from the President residence to the Penn Stater. The fellows loved the entertainment which included Penn State's marching band and theatre group performance. President Spanier introduced the fellows to the audience. Dean Monk and his wife Pamela also attended the event with the fellows. Each year they take time to help explain the "rules of the game". After a group photo, off to the President's suite to watch the game - Penn State vs. Eastern Michigan. And more food, and more importantly sunshine!!! It was Humphrey Luck! PSU 34 Eastern Michigan 3

IESA - International Education Student Association Fall Meeting

- The Fellows are introduced to the group during the meeting. They also had a chance to network with students in CI ED as well as faculty members attending. Faculty invited fellows to attend their class as credit, audit or sit in.
David Baker is faculty head of CI ED this year.

Thoughts after attending 9/11 Effects and its Legacy on U.S. immigration Laws.

Presented by Penn State Law on September 16, 2011

Syria – Many important and deep lessons can be learned from September 11. The question is, “Who has learned the lesson?!!”
India – Great opportunity to understand different consequences take place after 9/11 especially those which changed the life of many people
Croatia – It’s great to see there are still some people who care about others!
Brazil – All we need is more education, education and education!
Poland – An important lesson not only on the subject matter of the conference enriched with the testimonies not to be forgotten, but also on how to approach a controversial and sensitive subject in an appropriate way. A very well organized event deserving broader audience and publicity.
Laos – It was a great chance to know how the U.S. government especially immigration and national security responded on their security check toward Arabs and South Asians.
Slovenia – This was one of those events that makes you think about how important it is for individuals to try to make a difference.
Sierra Leone – The world is not at peace, much has to be done to restore everlasting peace!
Thailand – If there’re more participants from the U.S., that would be great for International students to learn from them; How they felt and how 9/11 affected them.
Sri Lanka – Security a nation lies in its love towards other nations. Not in strict rules and laws.

The First Information Sharing Session(ISS)

Information Sharing Session (ISS) was held Sept. 14 at Weston Commons. Thanks to Tatjana, Khyati and Amal for preparing a meal to share. Rashid Turay and Alejandra Santoyo were the first fellows to share their experiences since arriving on September 8th at Penn State. In his unique way, Rashid told the group stories as though we were sitting in his village back in Sierra Leone. Alejandra sent many useful links for fellows to use throughout the year. She is very happy with her professional activities as well as her personal activites that include watching documentaries at the local theatre and attending drawing classes. It was a wonderful evening!

Volunteer as a "Food Runner" by Nok

I've no idea what a food runner was until yesterday morning. Umm... perhaps I may start from the beginning of the story.
4 Humphrey fellows namely Diana, One, Alex & I joined the Friday Fellowship Dinner & Program which run by the International Ministries for a couple of time, and all of us felt grateful that we shouldn't just join the free dinner & Eng. lessons which's only benefit us, but we should pay it back, not in a kind of money, but energy.
So, when Bill, the head of the org. asked for volunteers to sell food at the Beaver Stadium in the campus, we undoubtedly grab a chance to sign up!
That's why on Saturday 3 September 2011, we got up very early in the morning to meet up at 8.30 am. to walk from the west campus to the east campus. So far from the end of the corner to the other end of the corner. It took 30 mins to walk ! and anot her 15 mins to look! for our EF snack concesssion.
Oh! there are nearly 30 volunteer students signed up for this event: The Football Match between Penn State U. & Indiana U.
Bill briefed what we'd to do and assigned each responsibility. Most of us were new and never worked in a concession before.
I'd like to do an easy task like scooping popcorn, putting ice in a large-size cup & car mug, but all of Humphrey fellows ended up with being a food runner.
What's the food runner? It was the first time I heard this word in my life.
Oh! At last, after Bill's explanation (again), I realized that a cashier would take orders and informed the food runner to grap ordered food for him.
American students were assigned as cashiers since they're very good at catching words and familiar with American food vocab.
Back to the food runner, in a short time, we'd to learn how each food was called
- "C" on a box meaned chicken hamburger
- plain box meaned just hamburger. If a customer ordered cheese hamburger, we needed to put 1 piece of cheese in it.
- several types of soft drinks ( Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mtn. Dew, Fruit Punch).
- Bratwurst or Brat ( Sometimes I was confused when customers shortened it just Brat.)
- soft Preszel
- different types of candy.
The American Football started at 12.05 pm., but our work started from 10.30 am. when audience ! entered the ! stadium. It's very hectic & demanding as there're more details like:
- Customers ordered hotdog,but we run out of it. and they needed to wait while hotdog makers busily did it.
- Some customers didn't want a warm bottled water and what we left was just warm one. Bottled water's sold out very quick as the weather's very hot.
- Some'd like to pay by debit card/credit card, but we accepted just cash.
- The concession's walk way's narrow so we'd to sqeeze and sometimes we bumped into each other.
- Cheese was overflew from a machine.
Within 3 hrs., we sold almost every thing we'd and I might say it's a success as we still had fun while we work.
All volunteers were allowed to eat whatever we liked, but to me, I ate just popcorn & Pepsi. From my observation, American food come in a big quantity / amount so I was afraid that I couldn't finish them up and I'd waste food.
The motto for today: put myself into other people's shoes to learn how they ( food runners/ waiters) feel. Next time when I'm in a restaurant, I won't complain when I get food quite slow or wrong food.
---------------------------------
Enjoy Labor Day Holiday!
Nok

Baseball & Ice Cream

The Humphrey Fellows were invited to Spikes Baseball by the College of Education. Dean Monk and Pamela met the fellows at the game.....photos will be posted soon! Each fellow received two tickets in order to invite a guest of their choice. Among their guests were host family members, classmates, roommates, Fulbright scholars and Bill and Barb Saxton. After almost two weeks of classes, the fellow took advantage to this wonderful opportunity to attend one of America's favorite summer time sports. Fellows also enjoyed another favorite summer time activity - eating ice cream! The College of Education held a "ice cream social" to welcome new students. Held in front of Chambers Bldg - the Dean welcomed all students to the College! These events are welcomed after a rare earthquake and a hurricane!

Orientation Week 1

A Beautiful Day at Penn State

2011 Year End Video

This is a wonderful snapshot of the 2010-2011 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship year.
Thanks to Jacqueline, Romina, Olga, Ilangalibalele "Edward", Mateo, Renata, Venkatesh, Anne-Marie, Srifani, Amany, Armend, Karma and Weiguo "Micah" for the memories. Our best to you as you travel back home. Please stay in touch!
With Best Regards,
Leila, Talat and Jane

Photos from PA's

A few photos sent by Anne-Marie, Srifani, Mateo and Romina from their professional affiliations. Will be happy to add more as they come in.....

Certificate Ceremony

Congratulations to the class of 2010-2011 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellows.............

Penns Cave & Bald Eagle State Park - on a beautiful spring day!

The fellows and program staff spent a day together before the fellows depart for professional affiliations. We left "Happy Valley" and headed for Penns Cave located in "Nittany Valley" and after lunch on the Mt. Nittany Mt we drove to the Bald Eagle State Park located in the "Bald Eagle Valley".....and it was a glorious day with warm sunshine! Thanks to the fellows for the idea!

HRDC program

Human Resource Development Center programs are held throughout the program year for all the fellows to attend. These photos are the last program event held on "project management". The group also attended Management Institute where they met other faculty and staff from across the campus.

MIT & Boston University

Spring Semester trip to HHH programs at MIT and Boston University for a site visit. Fellows Mateo, Amany, Renata, Armend, Romina and Anne-Marie traveled by MEGAbus to Boston. While in Boston, the fellows also visited Boston College and Harvard.

Information Sharing Session (ISS)

Talat Azhar hosted Information Sharing Sessions(ISS) this year. During the sessions, a few fellows volunteered to talk about their professional development activities in a informal setting while sharing food with each other during both fall and spring semester. This session was led by Venkatesh Kumar and Edward Dhlamini.

2011 Mid February

A nice memory of sunshine and ice!!!

PSU Fellows and International Affairs Students

Tineke Cunning hosted the HHH fellows and a group of students from PSU College of International Affairs. The fellows that were able to attend enjoyed the topics and shared different points of views during the 2 hours meeting.

Winter Host Family Potluck hosted by HHH Program Host Family Coordinator Susan Steinberg

Outreach - Park Forest Middle School Presentations

Two groups of fellows visited Park Forest Middle School - during a two and a half hour marathon, fellows did 4 - 20 minute presentations with 10-15 minute q & a from 6th graders. Overall, the fellows saw over 200 students. Well done fellows!

Snow Fun at Jane's

Snow Fun at Jane Reese's house - while some fellows could not come, we took advantage of a warm day and lots of snow.....on February 16th. In the past, some fellows had injuries to take home however this group took home lots of soup!

Global Connections 50th Gala

This organization's on-going mission is to bring together people of diverse national origins to foster intercultural understanding, to promote awareness of our roles as citizens in the wider global community, and to create goodwill. The Humphrey program is proud to celebrate 50 years at this wonderful event. Thanks to Global Connections for providing the opportunity.

R.U.L.E. Leadership Program

Mateto, Edward, Renata and Romina participated on the Pennsylvania Rural-Urban Leadership Program RULE XIII on January 22,2011 in a panel related to the experience of leadership in our countries and in our personal life. Thanks Renata, Mateo, Romina and Edward!

Cote d'Ivoire Global Connections Luncheon

Anne-Marie volunteered to shop, prepare and cook traditional Ivorian Coast dishes for the monthly Global Connections Luncheon for January. Thank you to Anne-Marie!! Mateo will be the host for next month.

Bowling

To celebrate Leila, Srifani, Kumar and Jacqueline's birthday, the group voted to go bowling. For many, this was the first time! Rumors are they are planning another trip soon!

Welcome Back - 2011 Spring Semester
To jump start the semester, Leila invited all the fellows to meet at the Nittany Lion Inn for lunch. During the lunch, fellows shared their new years resolution with each other. Fellows and program staff also took time to share their holiday activities.

2010 Hubert H Humphrey Fellows during GLF

 

IIE sent the group photo from GLF yesterday - This is the largest class of fellows consisting of 218 from 93 countries!
Congratulations for being part of history.

Breakfast with Dean Monk and Faculty Mentors

Spring semester begins January 10th - with the high temperature of 23 degrees and snow flurries in the forecast, it does not seem like spring. Since the blog has taken a break, please take time to reflect on the last activities the group had together before departing for the break.