2017-2018 HUMPHREY

CONNECTIONS
The Newsletter of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program at Boston University
 PROGRAM OVERVIEW
HUMPHREY CONNECTIONS

E stablished in 1978 in honor of the late Senator and Vice President who pio-
neered land-mark initiatives in support of human rights and global cooperation
such as the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and
Peace Corps, the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program invites experienced
professionals from designated countries undergoing development or political
transition to spend a year in the U.S. preparing to address several of the most
compelling development issues in the world today. It is a Fulbright activity,
primarily funded by Congress and administered by the Bureau of Educational
and Cultural Affairs at the Department of State, with administrative assistance
provided by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

Humphrey Fellows are selected based on their potential for leadership and their
commit-ment to public service in either the public or the private sector. Today’s
Humphrey Fellow alumni network comprises over 5,600 influential leaders
worldwide.

Cohorts of Fellows specializing in designated fields are hosted by universities

chosen for their academic excellence in those fields and for other support they
offer. Fellows pursue an intensive, semi-structured program focused on pro-
fessional advancement, collaboration with U.S.-based counterparts, leadership
development, and intercultural exchange.

Boston University is the only university to have continually hosted Humphrey

Fellows since the Program’s inception. In 2018, the BU-Humphrey alumni net-
work surpassed well-over 500 Fellows in over 120 countries.

The Questrom School of Business serves as the Humphrey Program’s home at

BU. This year, we have been honored to host nine Fellows specializing in banking
and finance, economic development, and English-language educational adminis-
tration, planning and public policy.

Dr. John (Jack) McCarthy Jelena Durkovic

Director Assistant Director

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Please click on the portraits below to read Fellows’ biographies:

Ziyad Abuo Habla Sergiu Bulbaș Collen Masunda

Israel Moldova Zimbabwe

Erika Nárez Melgoza Waqas Munir Thabsile Ntshalintshali

Mexico Pakistan eSwatini

Aziza Pulotova Alena Vachnová Milena Vučinić

Tajikistan Slovakia Montenegro
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Orientation 2017

In late August, the Fellows arrived at Boston University,

and began the orientation process. The first week of
the orientation program focused on familiarizing the
new cohort with BU’s Charles River Campus, health
and safety services and housing options. In the second
week, Fellows learned about academic study, research
and other opportunities for engagement at BU and in
the surrounding community.

The cohort enjoyed a retreat at BU’s Sargent Center

for Outdoor Education in Hancock, New Hampshire.
We enjoyed getting to know one another better, team
building, hiking, canoeing and campfires.

We appreciate Dr. Chris Roland for his outstanding

facilitation at this retreat and continued support of the
program.

2017 Dean’s Reception

Also in October, Kenneth W. Freeman, Dean of the
Questrom School of Business, welcomed the 2017-
2018 cohort at a reception attended by nearly forty
guests, including former directors of the Humphrey Fel-
lowship Program at BU, faculty advisors, host families
and other friends and affiliates of the program.

Following introductory remarks by Dean Freeman and

HHHP Director Jack McCarthy, each Fellow introduced
him or herself to the audience, and the reception fol-
lowed.

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Visits by In June 2018, Lorena Duenas (2007-2008/ El Sal-
vador) visited the Humphrey Fellowship office and
Former Humphrey Fellows shared her reflections of her time as a Fellow.

On August 28th, during the final portion of this year’s On Friday, April 6th, the Fellows had the opportunity
orientation, the Fellows met with 2004-2005 BU to meet for lunch with 2002- 2003 BU Humphrey
HHHP Alumnus Lishala Situmbeko (Zambia) and his Fellow from Nepal, Sujeev Shakya. Sujeev is a distin-
wife Hope. Lishala shared several reflections of his ex- guished global leader and is currently the CEO of Beed
perience as a Humphrey Fellow during his cohort year. Global management consulting firm. Sujeev met with
our Fellows to share reflections from his year at BU
On August 29th, we visited the Massachusetts Insti- and critically useful advice for this year’s Fellows as
tute of Technology to meet its newly arrived cohort of they come to the end of their Fellowship year.
Humphrey Fellows and their coordinators. The Fellows
discussed Hubert Humphrey, his legacy and what it
means to the Fellows as they contemplate the road
ahead. As the concluding event of our orientation
program, Distinguished Alumna Ashveena Gajeelee
(2012-2013/ Mauritius) met with this year’s cohort to
share her reflections on her experience as a Humphrey
Fellow at BU, and offered advice on how to get the
most out of their Fellowship year.

In October, Rachel Tal of Israel (2006-2007) returned

to the BU campus to share her experiences as a
Humphrey Fellow and engaged the current Fellows
in discussion about the opportunities that lie ahead—
both during the Fellowship year and following its
conclusion.

On Monday, October 16th, 2010–2011 HHHP Min-

nesota Alumna Agnes Igoye of Uganda met with the
2017–2018 cohort for lunch and a discussion about
the Humphrey Program and how to navigate it.
During the 2016–2017 academic year, Agnes was a
Mason Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government
at Harvard University.

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Friends and Host Family Event
On Saturday, October 21st, the Fellows gathered for a
Friends and Family Welcome event at the George Sher-
man Student Union. We held this gathering to welcome
Fellows’ dependents and celebrate birthdays occurring
this fall. Fellows from MIT, Cornell University and Syra-
cuse University were also invited to join the fun.

Class Visit with Sandra Deacon

On Friday, March October 20th, the Fellows joined
Professor Sandra Deacon’s undergraduate seminar
on leadership, The Leadership Challenge, as surprise
guests and examples of emerging global leaders in the
fourth installment of the BU HHHP’s Global Leadership
Symposium at the Questrom School of Business. This
symposium has become an integrated element of both
the BU Humphrey Program Seminar and Professor Dea-
con’s curriculum on the global dimensions of leadership
in the modern world.

2018 Annual Chili Party

On October 22nd, the Lowry family again opened their
home to Fellows, coordinators, and host families for
what has become an annual tradition for the Humphrey
Fellowship Program at BU—the autumn chili party.
Fellows and coordinators brought their family mem-
bers. With over thirty people in attendance, it was a full
house and a wonderful oppourtunity to the Fellows to
get to know their host families.

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The Global Leadership Forum
At this year’s Global Leadership Forum (GLF) in Wash-
ington, DC, all fourteen cohorts of Fellows from across
the country presented on the theme of “Our Shared
Global Future.” The BU cohort prepared a presentation
focused on leadership, meta-competencies and soft
skills entitled “Investing in an Inclusive Global Society,”
which was delivered by Waqas Munir of Pakistan. At
the end of the presentation, Waqas was joined by his
colleagues Alena Vachnová of Slovakia, Aziza Pulotova
of Tajikistan, and Ziyad Abuo Habla of Israel.

On Tuesday night, October 31st, Deputy Secretary of

State John J. Sullivan hosted a grand reception for the
Fellows in the Benjamin Franklin Room at the Depart-
ment of State. IIE President and CEO Allan Goodman
also addressed the Fellows.

At the GLF, we were also very pleased to see Ms. Beat-

riz Gonzalez, a 2016–2017 BU Fellow who was working
at the U.S. Department of Transportation as an exten-
sion of her Professional Affiliation during the Fellow-
ship year.

Fellows Meet with the

National Peace Corps
On November 3rd, the Fellows enjoyed an informa-
tive meeting with National Peace Corps Association
President Glenn Blumhorst at NPCA headquarters in
Washington, DC. The cohort enjoyed learning about
support that NPCA can provide in terms of connecting
them to members with whom their interests overlap.

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Cultural Excursion to
Old Sturbridge Village
On November 18th, the Fellows, members of their
families, and Coordinators gathered with a few host
family members for a daylong excursion to Old Stur-
bridge Village, a living museum that re-creates life in
rural New England from the 1790s to the 1830s.

Following a guided tour, we enjoyed a festive Thanks-

giving feast on the premises, which included hard-
carved turkey, mashed potatoes, butternut squash,
vegetables, salad, cranberry sauce, rice pudding, and
apple pie. Everyone then broke into small groups to
stroll around the village, ride on a horse-drawn car-
riage, and observe various activities taking place inside
the buildings.

Cultural Excursion to the Isabella

Gardner Museum
On December 4th, we enjoyed a brisk walk over to
the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for a docent-led
tour. The Gardner Museum houses an art collection
of global importance. Taking it all in was a wonderful
way to close our fall semester and look forward to the
second half of our Fellowship Year together.

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2017 Massachusetts Conference
for Women
On December 6th and 7th, Janet Ferone, a former
administrator of the Boston Public Schools and Bos-
ton-area chapter president of the National Organiza-
tion for Women, arranged for two BU Humphrey Fel-
lows—Alena Vachnová of Slovakia and Milena Vučinić
of Montenegro, to join the 2017 Massachusetts Confer-
ence for Women. She, Alena and Milena had a fabulous
time together, which included attending presentations
by Meryl Streep, Viola Davis and Gloria Steinem!

A Christmas Eve Celebration

On December 24th, Al Petras, a BU HHHP semi-
nar speaker, host family member, BU alumnus and
former Senior Vice President of Bank of America
hosted several Fellows, their families and friends,
and Former Assistant Director Cyrus Konstantinakos
and his family for a special Christmas Eve dinner at
his home in Milton, Massachusetts.

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Bunker Hill Community College

On Monday, February 12, the Fellows traveled to Bun-

ker Hill Community College, a partner of the BU Hum-
phrey Program under the Associate Campus Partnership
– an initiative launched by the U.S. Department of State
in 2007 with the aim of extending the international
perspectives of the Humphrey Program to a broader
range of U.S. higher educational institutions and lo-
cal communities. There, they spoke with Dr. Kathleen
O’Neal, the Director of Single Stop USA at BHCC, to
learn about how the program has helped shape the
Boston community, and discuss ways the Fellows could
promote similar activity in their home countries.

The Fellows and coordinators then joined Assistant

Professor Tendai Nyakurimwa, Associate Professor Wis-
sal Nouchrif and their finance and business students
to discuss topics regarding financial literacy, financial
inclusion, and entrepreneurship. Fellows gave advice
to students who had questions regarding proposed
business models, finding the funding for their entrepre-
neurial goals, and the best methods for investing in the
stock market.

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Global Development Policy Center
On February 27th, three of our Fellows (Milena
Vučinić, Collen Masunda, and Sergiu Bulbaș) were
invited to present at the Global Development Policy
Center (GDP) at Boston University. The presentation
topic was central bank diplomacy and actions intended
to prevent and mitigate financial crises. The event was
moderated by Kevin Gallagher, Professor of Global De-
velopment Policy and Director of the GDP Center.

Fellows Meet Former

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon
On February 28th, our Fellows had the honor of
hearing 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations
Ban Ki-moon speak at the inaugural ceremony for the
Global Development Policy Center (GDP Center) at
the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. After
the empowering speech our Fellows had the honor of
speaking with the secretary-general and were humbled
by Ban’s graciousness and innate ability to motivate
others.

As a global leader, Secretary-General Ban embodies the “Global citizens identify

values fostered by the Humphrey Fellowship Program. themselves not as a citizen of a
In his keynote, Secretary-General Ban discussed the
most pressing and immediate challenges in internation- particular country but as a citizen
al development. In his address, Ban mentions that glob- of the world.”
al poverty has dropped, but inequality and divisiveness
continues to grow between nations. He encouraged the
audience to adopt a global mindset in their work noting
“global citizens identify themselves not as a citizen of a
particular country but as a citizen of the world.”

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Annual Trip to the Big Apple! equality. UN Women has a special tie to this year’s
cohort as one of our fellows, Thabsile Princess Nt-
shalintshali, is currently completing her professional
From March 25h – March 27th, the BU Humphrey affiliation at the organization.
Fellows and coordinators travelled to New York City
for our annual Professional and Cultural Trip as part
of the program’s field seminars and professional site
visits.
To kick off the week, we began with a tour of the New
York Historical Society and Museum on our way into
the city.

On Sunday evening, we checked into the New Yorker

Hotel, a historic art-deco landmark which has hosted
previous guests such as John F. Kennedy, Muhammad
Ali, Nikola Tesla and Fidel Castro. After a bit of down
time, we walked to Times Square for dinner and live
music at Havana Central, a 1950’s style Cuban restau-
rant.

On Day 2, we began the morning with a fantastic

meeting at S&P Global. We then continued to the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then stopped by
the UN Financing for Development Office, where Se-
nior Economic Affairs Officer Oliver Schwank spoke to
us about their global policy work. In the evening, we
met with Vicki Brooks, an executive coach for senior
leaders, a former banker, trader, and senior execu-
tive at JP Morgan—and longtime colleague of HHHP
Director Jack McCarthy— who hosted us for dinner at
the University Club of New York.

We spent our third day with the Young Women’s Lead-

ership Network of Astoria, and then travelled back
into the city from Astoria to the Robert F. Kennedy
Center for Justice and Human Rights. We concluded
the day with a visit to UN Women – which was creat-
ed in 2010 to become the global champion for gender

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A New Place to Call Home
After many wonderful years of calling 704 Common-
wealth our home, the Humphrey Fellowship Program
has officially moved our offices to Bay State Road. We
have a beautiful, newly renovated office space in one of
the iconic BU brownstones. Our conference room over-
looks the Charles River and there are many workspaces
for Fellows and Coordinators to utilize.

The new office is conveniently across the street from

the Questrom School of Business. Bay State Road is
home to many other University institutions, including
the GDP Cener whom many of our Fellows work with
regularly. We look forward to continuing to collaborate
with these offices.

We moved over Spring Break and it was a seamless

experience thanks to many individuals and groups who
helped us moved. It was truly a University-wide effort,
from the Dean’s Office to IT services, we are very grate-
ful for all the support we received during this transition.

On Saturday May 5th, we hosted our annual “Hum-

phrey Program Friends & Family Closing Celebration”.
The gathering included a catered lunch and was at-
tended by Fellows and their families, HHH Staff, and
our wonderful host families. The event also acted as an
open house for our beautiful new offices on Bay State
Road. It was a bittersweet event, and gave our cohort a
chance to reflect and celebrate the end of their fellow-
ship year before our annual Commencement ceremony.

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A Day at the Giving Factory
On Friday, March 16th, the Fellows and coordinators
volunteered to sort donated clothing at the Cradles
to Crayons Giving Factory. Cradles to Crayons gathers
donated clothes and toys and distributes them to fam-
ilies in need around the Boston community.
During the volunteer shift, the Fellows got a hands-on
look at the incredible work done by Cradles to Crayons
in order to prepare donations for distribution. In coop-
eration with the other volunteers, we managed to sort
enough donations to give to over 800 children!

Symposium Retreat at MIT

On Friday April 13th, the Fellows attended and par-
ticipated in a day-long Symposium Retreat at MIT. The
focus of the Symposium was on the challenges and
opportunities for their post-fellowship re-entry process
and brought together Humphrey Fellows and staff from
BU, MIT and Cornell University.
Professor Jack McCarty then led the group in an exper-
imental exercise titled Learning Under Uncertainty and
Complexity

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2017-2018 Commencement have been eradicated, wars have ended, and progress
continues to be made toward bettering the lives of
people around the globe. He then acknowledged the
accomplishments the
Fellows have made “Individually, we may
during their Fellow- not be able to change
ship year. As they
return to their home the world, but if each
countries as Hum- of us makes a small
phrey alumni, Mr.
Loftis encouraged effort, the effects are
them to continue going to be quite
striving to directly
On Monday, May 7th, Questrom School of Business touch the lives of profound.”
Dean Kenneth W. Freeman and the HHHP administra- ordinary people.
tive team welcomed faculty advisors, professional af-
filiates, host families, and other friends of the Program
to the Questrom School of Business in celebration of
the 2017–2018 Fellows’ successful completion of the
Fellowship year at BU.

The 2017–2018 Class Speakers were Alena Vachnová

(Slovakia) and Collen Masunda (Zimbabwe) who
delivered a wonderful speech on behalf of the cohort.
Their speech reflected on their professional achieve-
ments throughout the year, and the sense of commu-
nity they felt as a cohort. They acknowledged the long
road each of them still have ahead as they continue to
define their personal goals and integrate back into the
workforce in their home countries.

Our Keynote Speaker for the evening was Robert

Loftis, former US Ambassador to Lesotho and Direc-
tor of Graduate Studies at the BU Pardee School of
Global Studies. Mr. Loftis delivered a speech about
the challenging times we live in, but reminded the
audience of how far we have come. Since the incep-
tion of the Humphrey Fellowship Program, diseases

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Sergiu Bulbaș countries but the program gave us multiple platforms
to share experiences and knowledge. Now that we are
almost at the end of the Humphrey Program, we know
that our knowledge is applicable to many countries.
And we have one common enemy: poverty - too many
are struggling for the most basic human needs.
Moldova Eradicating poverty in all its forms remains
one of the greatest challenges facing our countries. A
new system of directing the resources of taxpayers’
contributions directly to the needy is needed.
The existing FinTech solutions are already able to
support this and the resources a of all development
institutions could be sufficient to fight poverty, just an
appropriate mechanism is necessary. We should not
accept that the modern world is unable to find less
than one percent of the world annual GDP to solve
global poverty.
After 23 years of work experience I was given
a unique opportunity to move to Boston, a hub of
higher education institutions and knowledge – I
“I dedicated my became a student
again at Boston
Humphrey year University. I
to finding the best dedicated my
Humphrey
model of a financial year to finding the
institution which best model of a
financial institution
would be able to which would be
support my country’s able to support
my country’s
economic growth and economic growth
population wellbeing.” and population
wellbeing. It was a
year to reflect on my past and review what I am going
to do next.
We applied to the Humphrey Fellowship
Program based on the situations in our home

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Waqas Munir As I write this, I am reminded of a quote
by Viktor Frankl, a psychotherapist and Holocaust
survivor on his ideas of success: “Success, like
happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue – and it
only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s
personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.”
Pakistan On a personal level, the fellowship year
allowed me to keep a “While each Fellow
good work-life balance
which I had struggled may have varying
with earlier in my career. goals, we all share
As a family we spent
quality time by travelling one fundamental
and exploring United dedication to make
States and made long
lasting relationships. this world a better
As I plan to return to place.”
my home country, I
The Humphrey Fellowship is about discovering feel I have developed stronger bond with my wife
yourself. The fellowship year allows you to reflect and children for which I owe a big thank you to the
upon your core strength and how you can use it to program.
bring about a positive change both in the society
where you live and the world at large. The opportunity
to work and socialize with Fellows with wide ranging
personalities is probably the greatest strength of the
program. While each Fellow may have varying goals,
we all share one fundamental dedication to make this
world a better place.
The fellowship year is well designed for mid-
career professionals. After spending about a decade in
financial services industry, the fellowship provided the
platform to leverage on my expertise by publishing
a working paper which aims to address one of the
key challenges faced by multi-lateral development in
furthering their development mission. I can say with
confidence that the fellowship has enabled me to
clarify my goals and provided a roadmap to achieve
these goals. I aim to remain connected with Fellows
and support one another into the future.

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Thabsile Princess Ntshalintshali in Americans was revealed through my involvement
in community activities in Boston and Atlanta, and
this proved to be the most valuable aspects of social
contribution.
I strategically undertook a community college
program in Orlando. And yes, I had a chance to swing
by the Disney World “where dreams come true”. Isn’t
eSwatini that cool?
(formerly Swaziland)
My professional affiliation with UN Women
provided me with learning about the best practices on
gender equality and women empowerment through
the South-South and Triangular Cooperation.
Clearly, my Humphrey year has been busy and
full of events that ten months has flown as a flash of
light! Surely, all that is good never lasts long. Through
the Fellowship, a seed has been planted in me, and
it is now up to me to make it grow. Swaziland is now
waiting for me to make a “Humphrey” difference to
Congratulations, Thabsile! Seeing these two my society. Thank you to the great American people,
words in the email from the US Embassy in Swaziland and long live the Humphrey Fellowship program!
in 2017 made me cry with “Through the
tears of joy. This was like a
dream come true because
Fellowship, a seed
as a young Swazi woman, has been planted
it has always been my in me, and it is now
ambition to live and study
in the United States, and up to me to make
to realize “the American it grow.”
dream”.
My experiences as a 2017-2018 Humphrey
Fellow at Boston University could be best described
as a unique and intense process of advanced learning,
skills development, self-actualization and clean fun.
I learnt that Americans have a rich culture,
and I was impressed by the interest that my host
family, Gail and Matt Kramer yearned to learn about
Swaziland. I am forever indebted for their generosity
and enthusiasm to continue to serve the program
and to learn from others. The spirit of volunteerism

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Alena Vachnová
Slovakia
My Humphrey Fellowship year in Boston was
for me a year of reflection, empowerment and diver-
sity. It gave me not only excellent opportunities to
grow academically and professionally in the field of
nonprofit development and human services develop-
ment, but also allowed me to experience American
society and culture from much closer perspective. I
have very much enjoyed diversity, which I found to be
the “leitmotif” of this year – diversity of HHH Fellows
cohort at Boston University as well as other campus-
es (whom we met during the GLF and Enhancement
Seminars), diversity of other students and profession-
als I have met and worked with, diversity of the host
families, communities and the society as a whole.
Although living in such diverse environment
was challenging in the beginning (being from very
homogenous country compared to the US), it quickly
became one of my favorite experiences. Visiting var-
ious US cities, nonprofit and for-profit organizations,
schools, conferences, seminars,
communities, churches, learning more about the his-
21
tory of social justice movement, intentionally expe-
riencing diversity in everyday life has brought up the
question of social justice in our societies. Working in
the field of human services brings you daily exposure
to excluded communities and individuals. Spending
time with them, meeting them where they are, listen-
ing
to them, this all has played its role in the process of
my personal growth before and after my arrival to US.
I spent time learning about programs estab-
lished in Boston and around US to improve the very
complex situation of homelessness. I spent time with
doctors, nurses, case managers, development manag-
ers, CEO and Board members and volunteers, who all
serve homeless persons and families. I learned about
the reasons they serve people on peripheries, and the
resources which help them to continue to serve. They
shared stories those who try every day to survive on
the street. All of these experiences have had a strong
influence on my perception of the needs of our societ-
ies.
Closely observing the challenges the United
States is currently facing gave me a great opportunity
to see more clearly the challenges my country is cur-
rently facing. I would like to apply what I’ve learned to
my everyday life – we have to be fully engaged in this
world to understand our societies and to share our
lives with other people. But the only thing we often
need to see things more clearly and to make good de-
cisions, is some distance and time to reflect on what
we want to understand.
“Spending time with them, meeting
them where they are, listening to
them, this all has played its role in
the process of my personal growth
before and after my arrival to US.”
The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program at Boston University
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Milena Vučinić the opening of BU’s new Global Development Policy
(GDP) Center. When asked what advice he would give
us, he said we should always be aware of ourselves,
always stand with two legs on the ground and be
realistic. That was really inspiring and is deeply rooted
in my mind. I will remember with great pleasure that
Montenegro we had the opportunity to meet President Jimmy
Carter in Atlanta.
This has been year of exceptional opportunities
to learn about culture in the United States, to
expand knowledge, to develop skills, to create new
connections and friendships with people from more
than 100 countries from the world. This is a year of
lifelong influence, making all Fellows into global
citizens and inspiring us to give our best in order to
solve various issues in their countries and beyond.
The amazing people in the Humphrey office,
together with our advisors and host families, made
Being a Humphrey fellow is a matter of honor us feel at home. My son used to remind me how
and excellence. I feel privileged
and proud of being given the
“This is a year of lifelong time flies by in US. This amazing
year has finished too quickly – but
opportunity to be the part of influence, making all has left a tremendous influence
the Humphrey legacy. It is an
exceptional experience and I am
Fellows into global on my personal and professional
frameworks.
deeply thankful to our professors citizens and inspiring us to
who transferred their knowledge
to us. I will always remember
give our best in order to
Boston University and beautiful solve various issues in their
City of Boston. I am very happy
that I have been surrounded by
countries and beyond.”
people from different continents.
Wherever I am, I will always keep in mind the
meta-competencies of leadership that our mentor and
professor Dr. Jack McCarthy emphasized during our
weekly seminars at Boston University: Adaptability
(open to change) plus Identity (self-awareness) equals
Learning How to
Learn. I had an honor of hearing Former secretary-
general of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon speak at

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 ALUMNI NEWS
HUMPHREY CONNECTIONS

2016-2017 BU Humphrey Fellow

Pakai Syphoxay (Laos)
Since graduating from her Humphrey Fellowship year
in 2017, Pakai Syphoxay has been promoted to the
Deputy Head of the Graduate Division of the Faculty of
Economics and Business Administration at the National
University of Laos. She was also invited by the YSEALI
Women’s Leadership Academy to be the representative
of the education sector for a panel discussion held at
the U.S. Embassy in Vientiane, Laos.

2006-2007 BU Humphrey Fellow

Rachel Tal (Israel)
In 2016, Rachel Tal (Israel) was a presenter at the
Comparative and International Education Society’s
conference in Mexico City. She and fellow Humphrey
alumni met with the Executive Director of the U.S.-
Mexico Commission for Educational and Cultural
Exchange, and the Fulbright-Garcia Robles.

2015-2016 BU Humphrey Fellow Habibullah Pathan (Pakistan)

On April 17th, 2018 Dr. Habibullah Pathan’s interview on language’s role in socio-economic development
was published by the Daily Times. You can view the article here. During his time as part of the BU Humphrey
Fellowship’s 2015-2016 cohort, Dr. Pathan studied Landuage Education project management, research
supervision and TEFL teacher education.

23 The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program at Boston University

 ALUMNI NEWS
HUMPHREY CONNECTIONS

2002-2003 BU Humphrey Fellow

Tra H. Le (Vietnam)
Tra Le recently became Acting Chairman of the Board
of Directors for the Hochiminh Stock Exchange (HOSE).
He spent his Humphrey Fellowship year studying
Strategic and Financial Management, and participated
in professional affiliations at the U.S. Stock Exchange
and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

2001-2002 BU Humphrey Fellow

Sujeev Shakya (Nepal)
Sujeev Shakya, who came to visit our cohort this year,
also published a book titled Arthat Arthatantra, which
covers three main aspects of the Nepali economy to
inform the general audience about Nepal’s economic
history, as well as current financial trends. It has been
noticed by many news outlets as an easy to digest
book about the Nepali economy.

In an article written on May 26th, 2018, The

Kathmandu Post wrote that Shakya’s new book “is a
pleasure reading, where the author also encourages
readers to be cautiously upbeat about future
prospects.”

You can read the article written by Kathmandu Post

here and myRepublica’s article here.

Congratulations to Sujeev Shakya for his success.

24 The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program at Boston University

 CONTACT US
HUMPHREY CONNECTIONS

ADMINISTRATION
Dr. Jack McCarthy, Director
jackmc@bu.edu
Jelena Durkovic, Assistant Director
durkovic@bu.edu
Madelaine Dean, Graduate Assistant
hhh@bu.edu

CONTACT US
Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program
Boston University Questrom School of Business
143 Bay State Road, 4th Floor
Boston, MA 02215
P: 617-353-9677
E: bu.edu/webmail
Web: bu.edu/hhh
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