A record number of Elliott School women were honored this school year as recipients of Freeman Foundation awards and will travel over the summer to Asia for much-coveted internships with nonprofits, think tanks, and businesses.
The Freeman Foundation awards are named after the Freeman family, which has long helped fund students’ international travel in an effort to promote cross-cultural understanding between Asia and the United States.
Twenty-four Elliott School students were selected for this year’s awards — 19 of whom were female students, a record-breaking number for the Elliott School.
Students will set off to destinations in East and Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, China, Laos, Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Timor-Leste. As interns, they will work on projects to eliminate sex trafficking, to alleviate poverty and to increase the quality of life and conditions for women and girls in communities in Asian nations.
These Elliott School women are doing their part to change the face of global affairs in a positive way and to change the world. Take a look at some of the organizations that they will work at below:
Agile Development Group
Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern
Empreza Di’ak NGO
International Organization for Migration in Lao PDR
Karen Women’s Organization
Mercy Corps
Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security (MIPS)
Myanmar Mobile Education Project
Plan International Philippines
SHE Investments
Sinomedia, LTD
Sisterhood Alliance
The Asia Foundation
UN Women
U.S. Embassy Seoul
Women’s Education for Advancement and Empowerment (WEAVE)
For 12 Elliott M.A. students, spring break brought a special opportunity: a journey to Manhattan for the second annual New York City Career Trek. In Manhattan, they met with industry professionals at coveted employers to gain insight into opportunities in the Big Apple.
“This trip is really interesting and a good way to explore various career opportunities,” said one student.
Among the sites where students met with potential employers were The Century Foundation, the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs, Eurasia Group, IIE, and Acquis Consulting. They heard about the organizations’ roles in the international affairs sphere and learned of updates on current work they are accomplishing. Many employers had advice for the students on how to make the most of their studies and leverage their resumes and experience to launch ideal careers.
The group also toured the United Nations and a chance to peek into the “Women in Power” press conference being held in the iconic U.N. General Assembly. Viewing incredible relics of history such as the original Nobel Peace Prize and a statue that survived the Nagasaki atomic bomb, the Elliott School students were inspired to join the ranks of the international leaders who walked the very same halls.
In addition to the tours and employer site visits, students were able to enjoy a reception in Times Square with Elliott School alumni, who shared their individual stories of life at Elliott and beyond as they mingled with current students.
“I always feel proud as a member of the Elliott School community, and I appreciate it more for the helpful networking,” one student said. “This site visit brought me eye-opening experiences and helped me make close bonds with Elliott Fellows.”
“[The exhibit] is a space for reflection, recollection, meditation and communication in which survivors share stories and memories of often immense pain and loss with extraordinary generosity, trust and faith in the capacity of the viewer to empathize, and ultimately — one hopes — to act in solidarity with survivors and in affirmation of their human rights, particularly their right to reparative justice,” said Dr.Noam Schimmel, visiting associate professor of ethics and international affairs at the Elliott School.
The exhibit also gives voice to those who work at genocide memorials, where they honor the dead by cleaning and preserving their remains. It raises awareness and understanding of the way Rwandans commemorate and memorialize their dead, showing how survivors are rebuilding their lives through creativity and resilience. Additionally, it demonstrates survivors’ determination to come to terms with a violent past, and the role genocide memorials and human remains have played in this process.
Based on Dr. Julia Viebach’s research on memory and justice in Rwanda over a five-year period from 2009 and 2014, the exhibit was curated in consultation with members of the Ishami Foundation, the Rwandan community in Oxford, the Pitts Rivers Museum and the Kigali Genocide Memorial.
“I hope that this exhibition can be an educational opportunity to promote understanding of and empathy for the suffering of ‘the other’ in times of heightened xenophobia and fear of otherness and difference,” Viebach said.
Albert Gasake, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide and attorney with the Rwanda Bar Association, also spoke about the legacy of the genocide at GW’s Textile Museum on Wednesday, April 3.
Sports create a common language and a shared culture, if only on the playing field. It can be a useful diplomatic tool to facilitate people-to-people relationships and to build trust between countries. At the global level, sports often become an important avenue for cross-cultural communication, says Tara Sonenshine, a former U.S. under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, who is now a senior career coach at the Elliott School. The State Department, for instance, dedicates significant resources to sports exchanges among teams in the United States and around the world. Through these sports-focused dialogues, Soneshine explains, the U.S. has a powerful way to disseminate American values internationally.
In many ways, it is a story that reaches back thousands of years— to 776 B.C., when a Greek King offered respite from war by promising safe passage to citizens for “games” to be held amidst conflict. From this ancient truce grew the modern-day Olympic games.
Major global sporting events allow host countries to showcase their nations’ points of pride — and to convey the desired national image. Today, hosting a world-class sports event has become a global stamp of approval, conferring world-class status on the host nation.
Psychologically, a powerful win on the sports field enhances a nation’s sense of self worth. It is partly for this reason that President Vladimir Putin was willing to go to great lengths to ensure that Russia garnered the most gold medals during the 2014 Sochi Winter Games — even to the point of tactics that the International Olympic Committee special commission called the “systemic manipulation of the anti-doping system.”
In recent times, sports diplomacy is conducted on a personal, as well as a governmental level, says Elliott alumna Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff, B.A.’99. A global communications and sports specialist and Executive Committee member of the sports clubSport & Démocratie, which focuses on sports diplomacy, Krasnoff, consults with high-level organizations to leverage sports for diplomatic purposes. Social media has been a game-changer, she says, enabling individual athletes to tell their own stories. She says the nature of sports diplomacy has evolved from a predominantly traditional government to government approach of cultural exchange to include many more informal people to people exchanges — predominantly through social media. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram and YouTube allow individuals to tell the stories as they see them and not simply accept the messaging as it is presented to the public in formal government sponsored exchanges.
With sports diplomacy taking place at all levels, from the global to the individual, there is vast opportunity for major sports events to bring about greater understanding among nations and peoples. Sports have indeed become a force for the good in our conflicted world.
Thanks to Tara Sonenshine, senior career coach at GW’s Elliott School, and Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff, global communications and sports specialist and member of the advisory council to the Elliott School’s Leadership, Ethics, and Practice Initiative, for contributing to this article.
For more than a century, International Women’s Day has been held worldwide on March 8 to celebrate the achievements of women. The day also serves as a reminder and call-to-action for accelerating gender parity. Here’s how the Elliott School is celebrating the achievements of women in commemoration of International Women’s Day.
International Women’s Day Photo Exhibit
Have you checked out our latest photo exhibition on the second floor atrium of our building at 1957 E Street NW?
The exhibit features women politicians and political activists worldwide who have taken on leadership roles and campaigned on the issues they’re passionate about. Each of these women represent a “first,” having smashed through glass ceilings and striven to have their voice heard and valued, providing a new model of leadership and a vision of how politics can be done.
Overcoming Violence: A Conversation with the 2019 International Women of Courage
Join us in honoring the 2019 Secretary of State International Women of Courage (IWOC) awardees on International Women’s Day at the Elliott School. The IWOC award recognizes women who have demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment — often at great personal risk and sacrifice.
The Friday, March 8, morning panel will comprise three 2019 IWOC awardees in conversation with Elliott School Dean Reuben Brigety, the former ambassador to the African Union.
International Women’s Day 2019: The Year of Women in Politics
On Thursday, March 7, join us for a panel discussion on women in politics and the current and potential impacts of the increasing number of women in Congress. Speakers will include female leaders from around the Washington, D.C., area and nationwide.
The episode will feature two new student hosts, Emma Anderson and Taylor Galgano, who talk with Dr. Graham about the history of International Women’s Day, the impact of all-women UN peacekeeping teams and more. Graham’s current research interests includes women, peace and security, women’s empowerment and the prevention of gender-based violence.
Ralph Alswang Photographer www.ralphphoto.com 202-487-50
In honor of Women’s History Month, we recently caught up with alumna Kateryna Pyatybratova, ESIA BA ’11, MA/MBA ’16, who has turned her experiences at the Elliott School and GW into a career promoting women’s leadership and public service around the world.
Tell us about what you are doing now and why it matters to you.
I currently serve as the director of marketing and business development at the GW Center for Excellence in Public Leadership. In this role, I am responsible for the Center’s go-to-market strategy and partnership-building efforts with U.S. and international government agencies and executive education partners.
In a place like Washington, if you ask someone to identify the number one reason that makes something succeed or fail, the answer inevitably comes down to “leadership.” Right here at GW, we help leaders achieve personal and professional breakthroughs and make a positive difference in their organizations and in the lives of the people they serve. Seeing the impact that we’re making here in DC, and around the world, is what energizes and inspires me to continue to do more.
March is Women’s History Month. How have you worked to promote women’s leadership and public service?
While at the Elliott School, I’ve been blessed to have a number of amazing mentors and friends (both women and men) who supported me in my own leadership journey. It is important to me personally to do the same for others. I called on my extended GW network time and again when I served as director for the Women’s Information Network Advisory Council, fundraised for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and when a fellow alumna and I started publishing the Women Inspire Action Magazine, telling authentic stories of women who turned their vision into a reality.
Most recently, my GW colleagues and I launched the Executive Women’s Leadership Program (EWLP)*, designed for high potential leaders who are looking to accelerate their impact, influence and career advancement. Because the program received such rave reviews from women leaders in DC and federal government agencies, we are now working to bring EWLP to international audiences through partnerships with the Elliott School’s Gender Equality Initiative in International Affairs and GW’s Global Women’s Institute. Later in March, we will bring our empowering message to the 6th Annual Power of Collaboration Global Summit at the United Nations.
How did the Elliott School influence your professional choices and successes? Who helped you on your career path?
I wouldn’t be where I am today without my GW family. This university didn’t just give me a world-class education and a fulfilling career, but also life-long friendships and exposure to transformative ideas and experiences.
During my undergraduate years, I had the extraordinary opportunity to do research alongside top foreign policy scholars, such as Dr. Hope Harrison, study abroad at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and Sciences-Po University in Paris, and volunteer at the Obama White House and AmeriCorps. Thanks to GW’s strategic location in the nation’s capital, by the time I completed my B.A., I had four years of job experience on my resume, having worked at the Peace Corps, the Woodrow Wilson Center, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Being a first-generation immigrant, none of this would have been possible for me without the help of a generous alumni scholarship that funded my first two years in college. I will always be grateful for that!
I especially want to recognize fellow alumnus Paul Maeser, MA ’14, who recommended me as a participant to a prestigious seminar in 2018 through the German Marshall Fund, opening a lot of new doors to partnerships in Germany, Brussels, and Ukraine. I also credit my program director, Dr. Peter Rollberg, who heads the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, for his wisdom and invaluable support throughout my four years in the joint M.A./M.B.A. program. Under his guidance, I was able to really tailor my graduate school experience to my specific professional goals and undertake hands-on research projects that added tremendously to my professional portfolio. One of the projects I did in Ukraine, which was sponsored by the William & Helen Petrach Grant, even evolved into a business opportunity!
What would you say to current Elliott School students who want to make a positive difference in the world?
I would reiterate a quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the famous 20th-century German theologian and anti-Nazi dissident, whose writings had a profound impact on my own life: “Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.”
*Note: The Executive Women’s Leadership Program is open to alumni, as well as non-GW women active in professional careers. The Spring Cohort will take place April 3-5, and there are still a few spaces available.
It would surprise many Americans to know that former Nazi party members, SA and SS officers dominated the post-WWII German justice ministry through the 1950s and into the 1960s. Now on display at the Elliott School, a new exhibition,“The Rosenburg Files — The Federal Ministry of Justice and the Nazi Era,” reveals how the ministry handled its Nazi past and eventually came to terms with this open secret.
The Rosenburg Project was initiated in 2012 by the former federal German justice minister and undertaken by an independent team of researchers headed by historian Professor Manfred Görtemaker and legal scholar Professor Christop Safferling.
The exhibition title refers to the Castle Rosenburg near Bonn, Germany, headquarters of the German Ministry of Justice from 1950 to 1973. The multimedia art installation re-examines history through visual and auditory interactive displays, illustrating the degree of continuity between the past and present.
Making its U.S. debut at GW, the exhibit already has been on display in Germany. We kick off the debut with a reception and keynote presentation by the current Minister of Justice Katarina Barley. The exhibit is free and open to the public from February 6 through March 15. It then moves to Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
New to airwaves this spring: The Elliott School is excited to announce a new podcast called the Foreign Affairs Inbox, featuring interviews with professors on pressing, international issues.
Hosted by student Koji Flynn-Do and produced by the school’s Public Affairs office, the podcast’s first season includes interviews with Dean Reuben Brigety and professors Melani McAlister, Sean Roberts and Paul Williams. It also covers issues from around the world, from China’s mass detentions of an ethnic Muslim minority group to the history of the African Union’s mission in Somalia.
The idea for the podcast came from Flynn-Do, a sophomore majoring in international affairs and sociology, who said he was inspired to start one at the Elliott School after hearing another GW professor being interviewed on a different podcast.
He brought the idea to Dean Brigety, who approved of the concept and connected him with the Elliott School’s Public Affairs office to start the project.
Flynn-Do and the Public Affairs team then began interviewing and recording audio for the podcast over the fall semester in the Elliott School’s studio. Flynn-Do researches each guest’s work, including recent books and articles, to prepare for each interview.
“I’m really excited about finding new ways to communicate big ideas and information,” Flynn-Do said. “I personally listen to a ton of podcasts — when I’m walking, when I’m commuting, when I’m folding clothes — and I thought it’d be a lot of fun to try to be involved in making one myself.”
He said his favorite memory thus far in helping host and produce the podcast has been recording the first episode, after all the months of workshopping and planning.
“I really hope everyone enjoys the Foreign Affairs Inbox and learns something with each episode,” Flynn-Do said.
Robert M. Franklin, Council of Foreign Relations member,
and Marcus King, director of GW’s international affairs master’s program, spoke about Martin Luther King Jr.’s international influence at the Elliott School.
A record number of Elliott School women were honored this school year as recipients of Freeman Foundation awards and will travel over the summer to Asia for much-coveted internships with nonprofits, think tanks, and businesses.
