Welcome to Eisenhower Fellows

Fellows Give Feedback!

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Earlier this year, I had sent out an email asking each of the fellows some questions, to reflect if the fellowship had helped them professionally or personally. I have taken the liberty to put together a few of the responses and am posting them here so you can read their responses and assess for yourself what the impact has been. While the Fellowship is a long-term association to a progressive cause, this is a very short-term insight into their lives!

What was the biggest achievement(s) since your return from the Fellowship

Gunvor Kronman: I survived and actually won a few very tough battles in the Public Radio and TV Board, resulting in the sanctity of minority channels. This is a fight that will continue. I have successfully started the re-orientation of my center. Strategy processes are going well, and of course, I managed to reconnected with a number of old friends.

Farith Rithauddeen: I managed to learn to delegate responsibilities and coach my new team to allow them to learn and resolve issues in their own way. I also brought Babson College’s leading entrepreneurship university to Malaysia in order to collaborate with UNITAR, a private university here in Malaysia.

Roberto Guerrero: I was able to start a fund raising program for our law school shortly after my return. We launched it in October and in less than two months we have raised half of the targeted amount. I also implemented many of the management tools I learned for a law firm which helped 2007 become one of our best years in sales, revenues and internal organization.

Emine Kaya: Sharing my experiences of the Fellowship with my collegues from both the Dutch Ministry and the European Commission. The lectures I gave will be published in an article , dealing with the topic on linking integration-immigration issues with experiences from the EU-USA.

Everybody has to deal with diversity, not only societies, but also multinationals. Can the models of the profit and private sector be compared and if yes, what are the results? The private sector has already established, as a vision and a mission, that diversity leads to creativity which leads to inspiring working environments, innovative products and outputs.

On a societal level, diversity is dealt within the historical, judicial and cultural framework of a particular country. There can be discrepancies in national policy approaches (for example racist, multi-cultural, liberal etc) however pressing demographic and economic challenges are urging factors to re-design new answers to issues of integration and immigration in this global society.

Susie Perera: I faced the biggest challenge in my life up to now when I got back from the USA. Two months after I came back I was taken off my post as the Project Director of the WB funded project on HIV/AIDS Prevention which I assumed only in January 2007. I had to remain in the same project as the Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist, which I was before becoming the Project Director. All this was done through the influence of people ( so called professionals) who were jealous and not really performing, who had felt threatened by my position. These people even went on to hurt me emotionally and create a hostile work environment, through a series of hate e mail virtually amounting to ‘sexual harassment through words!’

Did you manage to start work with any company or individual you met during your fellowship? Give names or details?

Gunvor Kronman:Yes - I have initiated and prepared a Young Leaders Dialogue Program for Nordic and American leaders that will take place in March 2008 in my center. Some of the most interesting people I met during my Eisenhower Fellowship will participate in the event and come to Finland.

I joined the American-Swedish Women’s Chamber of commerce and linked up with them the mentoring program for young female leaders which I started in August 2007.

Farith Rithauddeen: Yes. With more of a coaching role at SKALI (his own company), I can now focus on international market expansion and also new ventures to fuel growth for the company.

Roberto Guerrero: I worked for Aramark Corporation (a contact from one EF trustee); I was referred to a client of a Chicago law firm I met with; I have been invited to speak at a conference in Hamburg next April by the International Association of Law Schools; I executed a cooperation agreement with NYU Law School, a major law school of the USA.

Emine Kaya: No, but stayed in contact with contact persons I met with.

Susie Perera: I made many contacts in the USA, some of them I have explored further to get technical assistance to the project I work in. I was looking forward to the visit of Senator Hillman Frazer to Sri Lanka after he visited India. Unfortunately, he could not make it, that time due to time constraints. However, I am sure he will next time.

Has life changed for you at all since your return?

Gunvor Kronman:Yes. I have been a LOT busier, however alongside I also try to remember and respect family values more. I hope to be doing a little less traveling!

Farith Rithauddeen: To teach entrepreneurship, assist to get Malaysian trustees for EF and more alliances for teaching entrepreneurship in middle schools.

Roberto Guerrero: No so far, except that I have much more work now!!!

Emine Kaya: Life changed in that matter, that no matter where you are, with one press on the button, you’re able to connect with your Eisenhower friends. To level with curious, smart, street wise and experienced people on so different topics and sectors, still gives me funny memories and anecdotes to share on a daily basis. Also when something happens in one of the countries of the fellows, I always check the news and ask if they’re okay.

Susie Perera: To some extent, I feel that the leadership exposure and courage instilled in me through the fellowship and the experiences I had gathered from my fellow mates at EF helped me to face this challenge in a positive way and not take any rash decision. As a government employee I am not in a position to run away or get out of this office, nor do I think I am a coward to do, so, I now support the person who succeeded me , a seventy year old professor who has taught me physiology at Medical School!

As I said before, at the closing presentations of the EF, my impression about NGOs have changed. Although we cannot compare the NGOs in SL to the scale of operation in the USA, I now look at the NGOs in a different way, more positively to get the best out of them for my work. In fact I was able to make some changes in the Project, NGOs working with Drug users.

I think there was a negative impact on WB attitude towards extending the HIV prevention Project and keeping the funds in Sri Lanka, when I was stripped off the post as Project Director. It was not my doing but I still feel that I can convince to change this attitude if I am given a chance ( not as Project Director) but merely through showing results.

I have always been optimistic, so I will try and try for the sake of my country, but if it doesn’t happen it is not my failure, I will move on.

What’s one goal you will try and accomplish in 2008?

Gunvor Kronman: To find out what I want to do when I get older!

Roberto Guerrero: To finalize the fund raising program greater huge success; To be able to meet some fellows again; To integrate with the Chilean EF fellows to actively participate from this end in the selection of new fellows and other activities

Emine Kaya: I am working on publishing an article, exchanging best practices and becoming a coach for under-privileged children.

Susie Perera: My goal for 2008 is to initiate a mechanism where I am involved in capacity building of the Health Sector. I hope to set this up as a private venture.

What does it mean (if anything) to be an Eisenhower Fellow?

Gunvor Kronman: To be part of a fantastic group that gives me energy and joy

Farith Rithauddeen: It is a prestigious fellowship – the number of networks I have accumulated through my fellowship will assist in my personal and professional growth.

Roberto Guerrero: Being a fellow is a great experience and responsibility.

Emine Kaya: To be able to connect with the world by speaking with your friends.

Susie Perera: I think the EF experience made me realize that I can do it. Also, there are many ways of doing this.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Gunvor Kronman: Miss you all!

Susie Perera: More than anything, sometimes when I am frustrated at work I can always think beyond and be happy that I can at any time write to any of you and feel that I am not really alone. I hope I don’t sound miserable, because I am not, I am proud of myself for having got around this terrible feeling, but ended up with an analysis of self and change management that is going to take me forward.

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