Hope Fellowship Program
Friday, June 3rd 2011
The Public Diplomacy Council was recently engaged with the Hope Fellowship Program, funded by USAID and administered by the National Albanian American Council (NAAC) to strengthen the role of women in policy and decision-making in the Balkans. It brings emerging women leaders from the region to the U.S. for six weeks of leadership training, presentations, and interaction with U.S. professional counterparts. The primary objective of each Hope Fellow is to develop a project to be implemented upon return to Kosovo.
For several weeks in April and May, NAAC and USAID brought a group of eleven women leaders from Kosovo to Washington, D.C. as participants of the Hope Fellowship Program. The Public Diplomacy Council had the pleasure of interacting and engaging with the most recent group of fellows on several occasions, both in informal as well as formal settings.
First of all, the PDC was asked by NAAC to function as a mentor for British Council Executive Director Arjeta Emra, who is working on establishing institutions in Washington and Brussels that will promote Kosovo's public diplomacy efforts. Intermedia, headed by PDC board member and former President Robert Coonrod, agreed to provide work space for Arjeta on the Council's behalf, so she could work out of Intermedia’s office while being mentored by the PDC. As her mentor, we arranged several meetings with Council members for Arjeta as well as some of the other fellows to discuss their projects and get some feedback on their ideas.
The Council also had the opportunity to meet and interact with other fellows, including a briefing by four of the fellows at our last general membership meeting on the challenges Kosovo is currently facing. The fellows raised the lack of recognition by five EU member countries that prohibits Kosovo to apply for EU membership. Council members said after the meeting that they appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the young European country and the challenges facing its government and its civil society.
As a part of the formal program, the Council held three training sessions with the fellows, conducted by several council members, some of whom have diplomatic background, some of whom come from academia. In late April, a small group of the Hope Fellows met at the Voice of America where they got the chance to interact with the Internet and New Media Coordinator at the Eurasia Division Alen Mlatisuma, the Chief of the Albanian Service Arben Xhixho, the Chief of the Serbian Service Zoran Zic, as well as Senior Diplomatic Correspondent and Former Director of News Andre DeNesnera. PDC board member Alan Heil facilitated this training session. In two other training sessions in mid May, the fellows met with eight council members who shared with them their experiences as U.S. diplomats and public diplomacy scholars, and, among other things, discussed public diplomacy tools, audience outreach, and Kosovo’s nation branding. The eight instructors were Council members Amb. Linda Jewell, Dr. Amy Zalman, Dr. Rhonda Zaharna, Amb. William Rugh, and Amb. Tony Quainton, as well as Board members Kathy Brion and John Trattner, and Council president Bud Jacobs.
On May 19, only a few days before the Hope Fellows left the U.S. for Kosovo, Bud Jacobs, Bob Heath, Alan Heil and I had the honor to attend the graduation ceremony on Capitol Hill, celebrating the Hope Fellows' successful completion of the program. At the event, the Council's mentoree Arjeta Emra spoke on behalf of the Hope Fellow group and movingly recalled the years of tragedy and bloodshed in their home country only a decade ago. At the same time, she spoke about what it meant for her generation and Kosovo's society in general to have moved on to where the country is now and that today's conditions allow for young leaders like this impressive group of eleven women to play key roles in Kosovo's society.
Working with the Hope Fellows and NAAC during the fellows' stay in Washington has truly been a wonderful experience for the Council and for me personally, and we hope to hear from the Fellows in the future to learn about the progress of their individual projects. With young, committed, and impressive leaders like this group of eleven women, Kosovo certainly has every reason to be hopeful about its future as it strives to establish its place within Europe and the world.
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Lisa Heyn
Lisa Heyn graduated from the University of Bonn (Germany) with a Master's degree in Regional Sciences North America, Public Law, and Scandinavian Studies in July 2010.
From August 2010 until July 2011, she interned with the Public Diplomacy Council and the Alliance for International Educational & Cultural Exchange.
Growing up in Germany, Lisa got the chance to gain quite a but of international experience:
...click authors name for more infoAuthor: Lisa Heyn
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A great step towards women
A great step towards women empowerment. The best thing that I noticed here is the training provided to the candidates unlike that I have seen in many other countries. Some just appoint the women leaders without the appropriate skills just to demonstrate the women can do any job... Good luck, keep up the good work say I do and take your guests on your honeymoon cruise
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