Washington Fellowship 2014

Wednesday marked precisely five weeks and three days since the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders at the University of Delaware (UD) began. Looking back, I cannot help but marvel at the powerful, insightful, and transformative journey it has been. It has spanned from the rural precincts of Sithobela, Swaziland, my home, to the corridors of the American embassy in Swaziland, to the heart of state power at Lozitha Palace—where, for the first time in my thirty-three years of life, I came face to face with His Majesty, King Mswati III and got to tell him directly of my concerns about human rights in the country—to meetings with key political leaders in the “First State,” including Governor Jack Markell, Senator Chris Coons, and Congressman John Carney, Jr. The connections and alliances built with these people and our different instructors, as well as the YALI fellows, are invaluably important for my work and the cause for human rights, democratization, and the advancement of freedom in Swaziland and the southern African region. The fellowship has opened so many avenues and expanded my understanding of America, global politics, and the state of affairs in other Sub-Saharan countries participating at UD.

Swaziland YALI Fellows, together with Ambassador Makila James, meet with King Mswati III at Lozitha Palace before departure for the United States.

Powerful meetings:

Governor Jack Markell

Senator Chris Coons

Congressman John Carney, Jr.

The Wednesday session on project monitoring and evaluation was extremely instructive, engaging, and hands-on. Fellows were taken through the fundamental concepts underpinning program evaluation. This was defined as “the systematic assessment of the operation and/or the outcomes of a program or policy, compared to a set of explict or implicit standards, as a means of contributing to the improvement of the program or policy.” Emphasis was placed on the need for explict program standards for clarity of the desired task and how to attain the same. Three steps were outlined introducing us to the logic model, evaluation requirements, and methodology for program evaluation—with practical hands-on assignments throughout. The tools of monitoring programs with the view of “improving” their efficacy were dexteriously presented. The session was extremely informative, and it surely has expanded the knowledge chest of the fellows. The key lesson was that programs are not always perfect and that participation in constructing, implementing, and monitoring and evaluating them is cetral to their success. The new, yet simple, concepts and tabular instruments for this purpose will, indeed, positively contribute to the work of all of us going forward, and I am pretty sure I am speaking on behalf of my colleagues in this regard. It was a great session!

Hard at work: Ijeoma Idika-Chima, Fikiri Nzoyisenga, and Varshil Jasgray going through in-class assignments.

Giving lessons: Dr. Joan Buttran—an extremely experienced educator

UD fellows with UD President Patrick T. Harker—Africa’s hope!

As the work examining civic leadership continues for the YALI fellows at the University of Delaware, we are doing all we can for us to get better and not to be bitter. As leaders, we should always be ready to make the difference in this indifferent world for Africa.

The morning session on Tuesday started with a presentation entitled “Your Leadership Journey,” which was given by Kathy Corbitt, director of employee development and well-being at UD’s Human Resources Office, and Dr. Michelle Parent, associate professor and interim chair for the Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences. The speakers displayed how effective collaborative leadership is a transition that is very challenging for most people. Becoming a leader is a career change that has a lot of complexity—managing human dynamics can become uncomfortable with ambiguity—so letting go of direct control of a job you have so much affection for becomes a huge thing and building a network of people can be a big responsibility for both new and old leaders. The session looked at the transitions of a leader from been a “doer” to becoming the person leading at team. Additionally, we looked at the transition and importance the new role can play in a leader’s life. The session also looked at leadership differences, which offered many insights and inspirations.

The afternoon session was led by the same presenters, and the topic was “Communicating For Leadership Success.” In this session, the personal and practical needs of successful leadership were examined. Our presenters stressed that personal needs are the needs of every staff member that they bring into the office space, that practical needs are the basic needs of the office, and that these things are expected to be adequately addressed for the organization to meet its objectives. These facts showed that leaders should be open-minded, seek for clarity on anything they do not understand, develop and be open to new ideas, involve all in finding a way to reach agreements on new ideas, and finally, close sessions with an agreement. If these processes are carefully practiced, you can develop staff esteem, empathize with staff members, improve staff involvement, share the opinion of every staff member, and support each other as the team work’s to achieve better results. The use of a “discussion planner” was discussed, and its benefits were clearly showcased, as the approach a leader used will help resolve any challenges in an organization. The “Situation, Task, Action and Result” (STAR) model is one of the leading feedback processes that can be used to get the timely, balanced, and specific feedback needed for efficiency in an organization.

As we finished Tuesday’s lecture series, I concluded that we all, as leaders of our various organizations, need to be guided by these words: “Winners don’t quit, and quitters don’t win.” Therefore, as we are in the process of influencing others towards a positive change, we should always keep this simple rule in mind: It’s about you, and it’s not about you.

It is difficult to believe that we have already accumulated five weeks at UD. This Monday, 21July, marks the entrance into our last week at the University of Delaware. The day started a little bit late due to the long weekend we had, which ranged from an African diaspora reception on Saturday to our internal cultural cooking event on Sunday.

In the morning session, we formulated two questions as a group for the Presidential town hall meeting next week in Washington, DC. The two agreed-upon questions for President Obama were around race issues in America, particularly the lessons the US should teach Africa, and peace and security, two challenges to sustainable development in most of our countries.

Additionally, as a group, we reviewed and offered feedback on the Washington Fellowship program, focusing on what should be improved for the next UD YALI generation. Most of the feedback in this regard was on how better academic sessions could be provided. To name a few ideas, it was suggested that civic leadership is broad, and it needs to be broken down in small groups according to the fellows’ areas of interest rather than having all the fellows undergo numerous general lectures together. Although interesting, some of the academic sessions were more relevant than others. Again, it was wished that Friday site visits be divided according to fellows’ areas of expertise as well. Finally, we suggested that, if academic sessions were workshops, this would help the learning process. So many other great points were raised and noted. In the conclusion to this discussion, it was mentioned that fellows also needed an opportunity to hear from the organizing team on how well they were perceived as participants.

Afterwards, we were again granted the privilege to meet a US politician, namely John Carney, the US Congressional representative to Delaware. Representative Carney took a while to explain how he got involved in politics, what were some of his challenges and achievements, the way he engages youth in his developmental activities, etc. He also raised an important issue about the economy of Africa decreasing because of its resources being taken outside the continent for processing. Given the fact that the meeting was short and not all of us got to ask questions, the concern was how possible and applicable this is since the majority of the developed world’s utilized natural resources come from Africa. The following questions were on our minds: Why is it now that the USA is thinking of the self-reliance of Africa? Wouldn’t one think it is a tactic to gain the support of African leaders against China, a country that seems to be dominating the continent in our day?

Approaching the end of our stay at UD, we look forward to a challenging but productive week. Hope we end as well as we started!

Can you believe that we only have eight days left until we leave UD, its friendly environment, and its friendly staff? When I received an email from the US Embassy in my country regarding the WFYAL program, I cannot describe the excitement I felt. A couple of days after receiving the email from the embassy about my selection, I started to count down how many months, weeks, days, and even hours were left until I came to the USA. Sometimes, I even wish I could jump back in time to some of those long days early on when we all met here at UD. It is going quickly because our days are so full of fun and learning new and wonderful things. Friday was just such a day.

On Friday, 18 July 2014, the fellows divided into two groups and some of us visited a non-government organization called the Center for Community Justice in Milford, DE, while the other group attended an academic session.

On campus, the morning session presenter was Monica Taylor, who spoke about board and volunteer management of non-profits. The presenter seemed very knowledgeable of the topic. Questions from most fellows present in this session revealed that many on the board of directors of non-profits are either inactive (they’re just there in name only and do not want to dirty their hands by addressing challenges) or, if active, they tend to be overbearing in the organizational activities, putting themselves where they are not needed. Taylor addressed these challenges mostly by sharing her experience in this field, mentioning what were her successes, and giving tips on how to make the directors work more effectively by giving them particular job descriptions. It is not everyday that one will hear UD fellows say that the session was too short. It is evidence to prove that Friday morning was very productive!

The other group visited the Center for Community Justice in Milford, DE. We arrived at the Center at 10:12 a.m. and started with a presentation by Debi Zistl, who is in charge of mediation. The organization provides a wide range of mental health and social services. The Center for Community Justice is a place where conflict is resolved and reconciliation takes place. Some of the services that the Center provides are conflict resolution classes, shoplifter alternatives, and developmental disability assistance.

The discourse during our visit was mostly about the mediation process, the challenges during mediation, and the benefits of mediation. The Center for Community Justice mediates tenant issues and family issues.  The key point from the discussion was the importance of confidentiality, listening skills, and giving people a safe place where they can talk to each other. The Center engages in mediation only when the two parties believe that they have a problem that needs to be solved and does not receive referrals from people outside the conflict. The fellows asked different questions about confidentiality issues, mechanisms of insuring confidentiality, and skills and qualifications required for mediation.

Whether on campus or at the Center for Community Justice, the fellows had a great day!

I woke up Thursday morning thinking “Oh! Another site trip and a double whammy at that!” not because I don’t like them, but maybe I woke up on the wrong side of the bed—or was it those ribs I ate the night before?—I am definitely not starting this well. 😉

I am Ndifreke (Freky) Andrew-Essien, part of a group of twenty-five who are the YALI Washington fellows living and working at the University of Delaware. We come from the beautiful continent of Africa. Welcome to my day of blogging!

Now that I have your attention… Thursday 17 July was a bit different from our usual activities in that we had two site visits scheduled for the same day in the city of Wilmington, DE. One was at the Delaware Center for Justice (DCJ), and the second was at the Henrietta Johnson Medical Center. Both meetings had similar formats in which representatives of the organizations discussed their activities, and fellows engaged them on that note, making the sessions interactive.

At the Delaware Center for Justice, we had three representatives speak on different aspects of programming of the organization. Joanna Champney, the executive director, gave us an overview of the organization, and key phrases like “Fresh Starts” and “Transformations” were established as the fulcrum upon which the organization turned. Isaac Dun spoke about the “Student Warriors Against Guns” (SWAG) program that DCJ is just starting, and Sharonda Evertt spoke on the truancy reduction program. Finally, Kirstin Cornell, the advocacy coordinator, spoke on some of the policy reforms via “Stand Up for What’s Right and Just” (SURJ) a grassroots episode through which DCJ has successfully advocated for, among others, the “Ban the Box Legislation-HB167” and “Repealing the Death Penalty-SB19.”

Reflections by the fellows were on an array of views and perspectives, but heavy on the minds and tongues of many—even mine—were that some of the policies of the state and federal government had roles in the vices experienced by the communities. Furthermore, they posed limitations upon lasting solutions or preventative measures as they seemed to even stifle the possibilities of successful interventions. In fact, to some fellows some policies seemed to be the root cause of the main issues and problems. Hot topics ranged from the death penalty to gun rights in the US, but most shocking was that truancy from school was a crime!

In the afternoon, the visit to the Henrietta Johnson Medical Center was informative about services provided by the community health center. Interesting to me was the target communities’ failure to utilize primary health care facilities and the preference of emergency response centers by individuals. When compared with community attitudes to primary healthcare (where available), we (Nigeria and most African countries) also experience a lack of active participation. The solution also cut across the need on both continents to continue to inform and educate the community.

The site visit to the Henrietta Johnson Medical Center ended on an exciting note with details of the South Bridge Community Festival on Saturday 19 July, which includes a free breakfast for the community from 8-10 a.m. and tours of the facility, carnival activities, interactions, and more food from 12-4 p.m. We look forward to it! Now, that should be an exciting day to blog about!

Countdown to Washington: nine days!!! “Oh, how time flies!”

The emerging of new businesses, like not-for-profit organizations and companies, is a not a new phenomena. Despite their increase, not all of these ventures are performing well. On 16 July, Dr. Patrick T. Harker, the President of the University of Delaware, shared his experiences with leadership in the business and civic sectors with the Washington fellows. During his leadership journey, he realized that “you’re a leader only if people are following you.” While many people have titles like CEO, president, and coordinator, not all of them are leaders. Harker stated, “You may have power of forcing people to follow you. They may pretend to follow, but they don’t really mean it.” We are leaders. Are our followers really meaning it?

President Harker instructed us to “lead from the middle.” What he referred to was the idea of building the team and not pretending to be too smart “You can’t know everything,” he told us. He then continued, saying, “so be humble, and let someone else take the lead for things you don’t know.” Being a leader is all about collaborating and complimenting each other. The power of teamwork can increase the sense of ownership and investment for staff and boost the performance of our social ventures.

“Make no decision before its time. But when it’s time, make it” was another piece of advice from the administrator. Every decision taken by a civic leader has direct impact on their ventures. As Dr. Harker put it, “Get the team behind you so that they can say, ‘It’s our decision.’ How often do you engage your team in decision-making? Some leaders believe the boss is always right and, if he/she’s wrong, refer to rule number one.” This is ineffective leadership.

“Always give the credit” and “always take the blame” were two more maxims President Harker offered us. A true leader is someone who praises and acknowledges the performance of others. Referring to the statement of Dr. Harker, namely “I can’t make all the decision for 4,000 people, why should I take all the credits?” I wonder how we as civic leaders feel about giving credit to our coworkers and staff members for the work they’ve done. It’s not all about how much you pay, but also how you treat your subordinates.

 According to Dr. Harker, it is important to “take the pain early.” He continued, “Be it a big or a small organization, things will happen that are out of your control. Some leaders always try to cover problems their organization is facing. Unfortunately, bad things will be discovered one day.” This statement told us that we aren’t perfect, and whenever we make mistakes, we should accept the truth and not pretend to be 100% right.

Finally, UD’s president encouraged us to remember, “Leadership isn’t about today. It’s about creating a vision for tomorrow.” While many leaders try to be very specific and detail everything in a minute strategic plan, Harker believes in having “big picture and milestones.” He encouraged us to have big goals and work for them, even if sometimes it seems like we’re “making it up as we go along.”

As a social entrepreneur, I woke up elated Tuesday morning and looked forward to begin the session with Professor Titus Awokuse. The focus was on the macroeconomic conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa, economic growth, development, and the role of social entrepreneurship as a micro solution to sustainable growth. Some Fellows argued that the value of economic growth in a nation should not be measured by the GDP at the macro level without taking into account the activities at the micro level.

Professor Awokuse pointed out that economic growth does not guarantee economic development in African countries with inadequate income distribution in various sectors. However, structural transformation of the economy from an agrarian to a manufacturing industrialized economy, stronger global linkages via International trade & FDI, good governance, and provision of physical and institutional/organizational infrastructure are drivers for sustainable growth and development.

Awokuse also stated that “social enterprise combines the creation of economic value with a social mission.” This was an interesting aspect. We discovered that social entrepreneurships are grassroots level choices and actions by individuals seeking to make a difference in the lives of others and help to lead change in the society. For example, training companies, various projects for the homeless, child and out-of-school schemes, and so on.

Characteristics of social entrepreneurs include creativity, entrepreneurial, ethical and agenda-setting, and the professor further emphasized that social entrepreneurs develop innovative and effective solutions to social problems, develop and generate outside support and resources for business ideas, pioneer ideas and proposals that makes major difference when implemented, and have traits of transparency, social integrity and financial accountability.

Social enterprises are business-orientated with social goals and social ownership. The primary aim of social enterprise is not making money, but the achievement of its economic and social objectives. Many fellows had lots of questions on the classification of social entrepreneurs.

We also had a role play on the elevator pitch exercise; the exercise was a one-minute introduction of ourselves and the work we do to a potential donor in an elevator. I think it was useful in terms of creating short speeches that contained relevant information about our social work.

In the afternoon, some fellows paid a visit to Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha, a council member of the City of Wilmington that gave a talk on the challenges faced by the people of Wilmington and how he uses arts to empower young people and uplift the community. The issue of identity about being African American was also raised by people that we visited because they believe their roots are in Africa.

Monday was the first day in the fifth week of YALI here at UD. It is interesting how time flies and in a week or two, many of us will be back in our respective countries, full of new experiences–from cross-cultural to academics.

During our morning session, Prof. Leland Ware engaged us all in conversation about the trajectory path of the civil rights movement, particularly the black liberation struggle against racism, inequalities, and social injustice in the US. His presentation, which was titled “Civil Rights Law & Public Policy,”  looked at citizen participation in the 1960s, and this spurred the US Constitution 14th amendment, which obligated the State to “treat all as Equal.” The Civil Right Movement, Prof. Ware reiterated,  mended platforms for the emergence of other political interest groups. Nonetheless, much is still to be achieved in terms of attainment of equality and social justice for all.

During the afternoon session, we had a conversation with Nekita Nesmith, the director of development for UD’s College of Arts and Sciences, on skills training on “Development and Fundraising”. Our conversation can be found here in the video below:

“Development and Fundraising”

One of the unique components of the Washington Fellowship is the opportunity for fellows to be involved in community service as part of the curriculum. While this has not been possible at the University of Delaware, the fellows are receiving a feel of community service in the US through sight visits to several non-profit organizations throughout their tenure at the institution. Accordingly, the fellows visited two non-profit organizations Friday morning to learn about their services and the communities that they serve. Nineteen fellows visited Wilmington Renaissance Corporation (WRC) in Wilmington, DE, while the other six fellows visited the Center for Community Justice (CCJ) in Milford, DE.

Founded in 1993, WRC (http://www.bigideaswilmington.com/WRC) generates ideas geared toward the development of downtown Wilmington into a more creative and economically vibrant community and convenes relevant stakeholders to transform these ideas into sustainable development projects. This has resulted in the community undertaking several development projects that have radically changed the landscape of this part of the city, as well as the people who live in it. These projects include the refurbishment of dilapidated unoccupied businesses and residential apartments, the creation of shared spaces, the establishment of an art college, and the hosting of art performances in the city. The organization is also working on more projects like this for implementation in the future.

Beyond just hearing about what Wilmington Renaissance Corporation does and the communities that the organization serves, the fellows also had a chance to see part of the developments in downtown Wilmington. The fellows and engagement leaders by themselves walked along one of the major roads in downtown Wilmington where they shopped and ate lunch before returning to the university campus for the afternoon session.

The Center for Community Justice (http://peoplesplace2.com/programs-services/center-for-community-justice/) provides mediation services to resolve conflicts for individuals and organizations as an alternative mechanism to the court system. This is a cheaper and more effective way of resolving conflict for the parties involved as proved by the high success rate in most cases.

After returning from the site visits, all the fellows convened at Memorial Hall for a debriefing session, which was led by the fellowship’s academic director, Professor Gretchen Bauer. During the session, fellows shared what they had learned during the site visits and commented on some of the academic sessions and site visits that they had during the past few weeks. Following this, Professor Bauer and the engagement leaders gave the fellows some announcements in relation to the visit to Rehoboth Beach on Saturday and some of the future academic sessions.

The last item on Friday’s program was an ice cream social. The ice cream that was served at the social was made using fresh milk from the university’s own dairy farm. UD’s agricultural college was responsible for production and operates an ice cream shop, UDairy Creamery (http://ag.udel.edu/creamery/), on campus. In addition to offering tasty ice cream from the university, the social also created a platform for fellows to interact with participants of the university’s other summer programs. This marked the end of the official business of the day.

“#America” is a slogan in our classroom, on the road, wherever we find ourselves. I know many people will ask me why “#America,” so I will try to explain. “#America” designates the uniqueness of American things, cultures, practices, etc. that we encounter here and our responses to them. Daily and continuously, the Washington Fellowship program at the University of Delaware continues to empower the young people participating as YALI fellows. For these young African leaders, “#America” means many things. Sometimes, it means a peculiarly American rhythm or mindset, the American way of life, the strengths and even the weakness of the American people in the United States. This slogan is used to talk about America, to refer to some things particular about America that we can’t find in Africa. It expresses the uniqueness of our experience here as Africans working and learning in the US.

Days pass quickly, and we are getting ready to enter into the last weeks of this program, an intense and profitable experience beneficial for our daily work. Every day spent at the University of Delaware is a new day and new opportunity, and we are learning new things, meeting new people, and acquiring new experiences. This time together demonstrates the spirit of creativity, understanding, and collaboration between young African leaders. “We are very happy to be together, to learn from each other, and to share experiences,” Drogba, one of the young leaders at the University of Delaware, told me. “This is really important work we are doing here,” he continued, “and our relationships with each other are essential for success once we are back home. We have connections now around Africa and between Africa and America.”

Our third week at the University of Delaware offered a plethora of opportunities for us to learn and grow. Through the presentations and experiences exchanged between young leaders, we continue to expand our capabilities and change the way we see things. Many of our colleagues back home wonder if we will copy the entire American culture or part of this culture that can actually bring about change in our own communities. I liked a statement of one of our professors, who encouraged us to learn many things from the American people that can help bring about change in our countries. According to this speaker, Americans believe in constant experimentation. Constantly, they’re looking for new things. Americans are pragmatic, work hard, and don’t sleep a lot. Although we should refrain from adopting American practices en masse, there is a lot to be learned here. For me, this program is really an opportunity, not only for us as young African leaders, but also for thousands of young people in our countries and all over Africa who will benefit from what we learn. We have new ideas for projects and activities to be realized when we return home, and I am sure that the WFYAL experience will really contribute to changes in our respective communities.