This article was originally published on the US Embassy Malaysia website

 

On July 6, Cultural Affairs Officer (CAO) Nicholas Papp welcomed home 47 Malaysian alumni of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program after their six month exchange program in the United States. The workshop started with a video screening of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s June 16th remarks to a group of YES alumni in Washington DC. The speech highlighted the importance of the YES program, alumni engagement and giving back to the community.

 

Together with International Visitor Leadership program alumnus “Dash” Dhakshinamoorthy Balakrishnan, Papp engaged and invigorated the new alumni in a 90-minute workshop focused on alumni partnerships to give back to the community. The returnees were attending a three day debriefing program organized by AFS International Malaysia. Although a bit jetlagged from their long journey home, the alumni were fresh with ideas for future alumni projects and agreed on the importance of building and sustaining partnerships between the alumni of various USG sponsored exchange programs such as Fulbright and the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). In his message, “Dash” shared his exchange program experiences, having recently attended the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship as well as a three-week IVLP. He stressed the importance of making the most of their new-found knowledge and global mindset to help the disadvantaged in their communities.

 

After an overview on upcoming alumni projects, the alumni broke into groups to begin charting out their action plans for an exciting alumni project which will focus on engaging alumni in partnerships to implement a series of community development projects. These community development projects will focus on Leadership Skills Development, English Language Skills Development, Poverty Reduction, Environmental Issues and Global Climate Change, Poverty Reduction, and Social Entrepreneurship.

 

The Embassy’s new embassy Alumni Coordinator, Tryphena Mathius, will be involved in coordinating these project with the goal of networking and associating alumni of U.S. government sponsored exchange programs in Malaysia.

 

Related articles: YES Malaysia Alumni News