 Hello everyone and welcome to today's live video discussion. It's a Yali chat talking about internships. What makes you that great candidate for an internship or a development program? What are the organizations looking for? I'm Lulu Hangala and I'm a Mandela Washington Fellowship. Never heard about that before? Well, let me give you a bit of an insight on what this program is. This is a flagship program that President Obama created. It is called the Young African Leaders Initiative and he renamed it the Mandela Washington Fellowship. It gave the opportunity to 500 young, dynamic African leaders a chance to come to the US for a six-week academic session at 20 different universities and they got to learn about leadership. Now, a hundred of those 500 were selected for an optional eight-week internship program and today I have three Mandela Washington Fellows that are interning at a US, at US organizations right here in DC. I know there are several other organizations in the US. We have US agencies that have some fellows. We have the UN Foundation, the Coca-Cola Company, Voice of America, World Institute of Disability, America Broad Media, where I am, but enough talking for me. Let us meet the fellows and three of their supervisors. Hi, everyone. Good morning. Good morning. Okay, great. So I will start with Kim, please, to introduce herself. Good morning, everybody. My name is Kim Ward. I am the Regional Program Director with the African Development Foundation. I have been working with African Development Programs for going on 35 years and have lived and worked in five different African countries for a period of 14 years. My portfolio that I manage with the program is the country programs in east and southern Africa that the African Development Foundation supports, and one of those countries is Zimbabwe, and I'm very pleased that we are able to host an intern from Zimbabwe as part of the Mandela Internship Program. Yeah. Thank you, Kim. Hi. My name is Irene Chukumbo from Zimbabwe, interning at the US African Development Foundation. I am a community manager and co-founder of HyperCube Technology Hub, and I was doing my academic work at the Northwestern University. Good morning. I'm Karen Carter. I'm a program specialist with the Office of Fellowships and Internships at the Smithsonian Institution, which is the world's largest museum complex. We take over 1,300 interns every year and about 800 fellows every year from all over the world. Our interns start as young as 14 and go all the way up to, I've had someone in their 60s. So we certainly welcome the interns we have, including Jean-Pierre, and I'm happy to talk more about that. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. My name is Jean-Pierre, and I'm interning at the Smithsonian Institution. I live in Senegal, and I work back home on education policy, the education of young children. I went to the University of California Berkeley for my leadership training program. I was in the Civic Leadership Track, and it was a great privilege and a honor for me today to be here interning at the Smithsonian Institution. Good morning. My name is Sheila Hilton-Ingram. I work at the U.S. Department of Transportation as a senior advisor and manager for the Safe Skies for Africa program. I am excited to have Mohamed Umar here with us at the Department of Transportation and another fellow as well. We at the Department pride ourselves on having an open door. We have other interns from the Air Force who are coming over to the Department for various – we do various levels of internships, so the U.S. Department of Transportation and now the African Leaders program. So we're just encouraged and happy to be here. Yeah. I'm Mohamed Zahra-Din Umar. I'm a Principal Administrative Officer in the Office of the Head of Civil Service in Bouchie State Government of Nigeria. I am the Liaison Officer of the Professor at the Buckele Community Resource Center, a center established by the United States government under the auspices of Education for Development and Democracy Initiative, EDDI, and I went to Syracuse University in New York for my leadership program and I'm presently intern in the Department of Transportation. Yeah. Thank you everyone for introducing yourselves. Now we have a wide range of fellows here because every fellow had to select between three disciplines and that was business and entrepreneurship, civic leadership and public management. I did civic leadership at the Presidential Precinct, which was a consortium of six institutions. Now you can join us. I know we have some people watching us live globally. Welcome to all of you and remember that you can be part of this discussion by tweeting your questions. Hashtag, Yali Chat. Please do search for the – and mention Yali Network and you'll be able to tag some of our speakers who are also on Twitter, so just follow the Yali Network, follow the hashtag, Yali Chat and you can join the conversation just like Aida Mbob has and she has tweeted something very interesting. Now she says, this is a great opportunity for people to realize that internships have benefited any stage of your career, not just for early starters. And this is true. I mean, we've got dynamic leaders here and in my mind you do an internship when you're in university. So I'll start with you, Irene. Why did you decide as a co-founder, you know, of a startup to come for an internship? Yeah, that's a very good question to do. I mean, for me, working at home, I guess I would define myself as an entrepreneur and it's not very typical for an entrepreneur to go internship at a developmental agency. But for me, the value that I saw was that life is a journey of continuous learning and having spent already the past month at the USADF, it's helped me understand some things I probably would not have experienced as an entrepreneur. So understanding systems and processes and, you know, building relationships with people that I probably would never have had if I had not come on the internship. So there's definitely a lot of value in that. Okay, great. Jean-Pierre, what's the right age, would you say, you know, for internships? Starting from an African background, how is it in Senegal? What is the culture for internships? All right, thank you. In Senegal, actually, people don't have like, they don't benefit from a lot of opportunities that's related to internship. And this is, for me, a great opportunity as I'm working on education policies. As a reminder, my education is named Bridge Kids International. So as a person, someone who's working with kids, I just have to get a lot more experiences. And my interning at the Smiths Union is really opening doors and getting, you know, me being in contact with a lot of kids and also being in contact with the Smiths Union educational policies, how really they get to engage kids, how they really get to develop an educational platform so that, you know, a lot of kids will benefit from educational programs. And just to say that back home, really, we don't have such great opportunities related to internship. And people are still struggling to find internship opportunities, but it's really difficult. You can. I personally have never like had an internship before, I've studied, I've gone through primary education through secondary education, university level, but I had never had an internship and this is like, this is going to be my second internship. My first internship dates back to 2013 when I was applying for a job. So I was selected for the job and I had to do like a three month internship before I was really accepted. So and really to say that we have to really open doors for young people to train them to give them internship opportunities so that they will have more skills and so that they will be able to train us as a people as well. So this is only how we can like make change. I like that point. I like that point because already you're starting to think about what you can do when you get back home. Now Mohamed, you're high level government official and in many people's minds when you're doing an internship, you need to photocopy something or make tea. What is your experience being so far? It's very, very interesting and for me, this is my first time of interning, you understand? And back home, I started wondering when I was given the internship to work with the Department of Transportation. Back home as a principal administrative officer, I've been bringing in people, accepting people from various academic institutions to intern in my own organization, the Bureau for Information and Communication Technology, ICT and most of the departments and agencies back home in Nigeria accept people to intern with them. We call it the Industrial Work Experience Scheme, that's CWS and it depends on your program. For a person that is undergoing a diploma program, I believe the minimum period for him to work with us is not going to be more than three months, for some it's six months, for some it's even a year. At times we even call it industrial attachment, so it brings them on board, we teach them the way we work for them to understand the level of commitment, you understand? And pretty much we share ideas with them, we teach them what to do, how the work processes are being conducted in government and pretty much that's most of what we've been doing with them too. Okay great, you know when we were applying, because I also had to apply I'm here as an intern and it was nerve-wracking because this is 500 really intelligent and dynamic young people, young leaders that are, you know are also vying for the same position. So you wonder what are the organizations looking for, what makes an intern stand out and what makes you decide this is the person that we want and Karen I'm going to put that question forward to you because you've talked of you know picking interns from 14 to you know whatever age, you know what makes somebody stand out for you. That's a great question, I think that the most important thing is energy and interest and a commitment to lifelong learning. I really like your point about learning, you know always wanting to be open to new experiences. I think that we're a different generation than certainly my parents where you worked for the same company at least in the US for 30 years, 30 plus years and then retired. People are constantly reinventing themselves and we have the luxury now to be able to do that. So depending on the type of internship because there are sometimes different qualifications required at the Smithsonian for different positions, we do look for enthusiasm and an interest in teamwork and an interest in learning and I will say it's been a real privilege working with the yollies that we have, we have three at the Smithsonian because they do bring a wealth of experience and a level of sophistication that is different than a more typical intern which tends to be a university student who maybe hasn't had an office job yet and is still learning which is fine, we're delighted to have that but it's been great learning from Jean Pierre and his colleagues. Oh great, Kim you have worked in Africa before and you are working in the US right now. What would you say is the difference in the work culture that you've seen having an African intern or an American intern? What is the difference? The programs that we've engaged with in Africa, the people are extremely hard working and committed and engaged, so few people, oftentimes people lack opportunity and when they get opportunity they seize the moment and they really make everything they can out of what limited opportunities they're given. So I would say the people that we've worked with in Africa as we've engaged are extremely committed, they work very hard, they see a way to change their future and they work towards doing so. Our program at the United States African Development Foundation has a mission of being African led and so when you go overseas our program does not have any American staff overseas. Everybody that works with our program in Africa are Africans and we use the dialogue with Africans to learn about how we can support African development initiatives for sustainability. Now we have a question that has come in on the Yali chat from the US Embassy in Ghana and I'm going to throw this question at you Sheila and they ask, how can internship provide practical skills and make you more competitive on the job market? Wow, that's a really good question. Well, practical skills I guess it really would be better for Muhammad to answer that but I'll tell you how I've directed that. We have tasks that are current that are ongoing that we needed assistance with right? So when you come in as an intern you really have to jump in, hit the ground rolling and basically get yourself up to speed to where we need you to be able to carry out and address whatever that issue is. So that's really on the job training practical learning where you're able to carry that throughout all the work that you do. Muhammad would you like to share? Well, in my case if I may add it's been really challenging and something that we all have to embrace and work towards achieving that same goal. In my own case I was placed in a department on a project that has essential air services which of course it doesn't address my essential question. So I was working closely with my supervisor and I finally told him that this is not addressing my issue at all, this is not addressing my challenges. So we sat down, revised what I'm going to do there and definitely he has to accept what I really want to address, you understand. By the time I go back home I will definitely have something to do, something I've learnt from them which of course it now changed the whole concept and idea of what I'm going to work on. So from the essential air services project I now shifted to the human resource management and information system, records management and the open government policy. So it's a kind of avenue whereby you sit down, you rub minds, you share ideas. If you've been placed in a specific job that doesn't address your issue you have to sit down with your supervisor, look towards resolving the issue amicably and venture into what will definitely address your challenges. So pretty much I believe is an avenue of bringing it. You know, great point to bring out there because some people might not understand even when we talk about the essential question but this was something that was really important for all the 500 fellows that came for this program. We all had to have an essential question and this essential question needed to be answered during the program so whatever we're going to learn we try and find a constructive answer to the essential question. Now I had a similar experience to you, Mohammed, because I got to the institution where I'm working and they gave me, you know, the list of my duties and I thought, yeah, great, but this is not really, you know, working according to what I would like to learn from you. And which has been what is great for me, the fact that we are an organization, yes, but we do have that leeway to discuss with our supervisors about whether, you know, about what we feel we also need. So it's a mutually beneficial interaction. Now, Jean-Pierre, what was your essential question? So because I'd like, you know, the examples so that people can understand, you know, what the essential question is and maybe how you are applying it in your organization. My essential question is actually to work on education and to be able to transform education in my country because and also to work with the government so that they will implement policies that will actually be about offering like education to every, each and every children, each and every young children, because young children needs to be educated. And they're in my country actually this phenomenon and those people that are called Taliban, they're people, children who live in the street. And my actually education policy is to really offer education to those people because they need really to be educated. If a child is not educated, there is no way he's going to contribute to the development of his society. There is no way he's going to contribute and bring in about change in his society. So and I've been working on that as a policy and actually I'm intending to really work in partnership with my government because I've also realized that as an organization, a nonprofit organization, there is no way for me to achieve change, to achieve my goal if I do not partner with my government. It is actually an essential thing that each and every one of us working in nonprofit has to do in order to achieve his goal and in order to help implement his essential question. Great. This live discussion is all about, you know, getting tips and advice on how you can have a success for intention. And I think something that has come out from the points that we're having right now is that you should also have not an agenda, but I don't know if agenda is the right word. Exactly. You should know why you want the internship also. I think a lot of, especially the younger generation just feel I need this internship because I just want to get a job. But I think you need to know why you want to get the internship, what you want to get out of it and do communicate that to your organization. Now we've got more questions that have come in and we have a direct question for Irene. All right. All right. And this is from TV Yangu in Harare. And they say, what's the highlight of your internship so far? Oh, okay. I guess kind of surrounding that around, I guess, my key question and my own personal expectations and my expectations for the internship. One of the key things I wanted to learn was how technology can enable socioeconomic development. That was what my question was around. So initially when I found out I was at the USADF, I was just like, okay, I was expecting a technological organization. But I'm seeing the value now because at my academic institution, I was focusing on the tech side. And then my practical experience at USADF is focusing on development. So now it's actually connecting the two. So for me, it's an exciting journey having to puzzle, put those pieces of the puzzle together so that it actually can help my experience back home. I think that experience for me is huge. Okay. Great. I hope that answers the question. Please do take part in the Yali chat. All you have to do is tweet at the Yali network or just simply tweet and hashtag Yali chat and we'll be able to answer all your tweet quests. That's what I like to call them. Okay. To Sheila, would you have something unique that you have found in Mohammed that you felt stands out? I don't know that it's unique, but what I will say is that he is driven and that he's teachable. So although I think that we always have to be teaching teachable no matter what situation that we're in, especially in an internship program as he had spoken earlier, he talked about the EAS program as where we had had him placed and then he had an interest in the human resource piece. He's doing the human resource piece, but he's also doing that EAS piece as well. So he remained open and teachable. And I just think that that is something that is unique with him and that he's driven. And I've learned a lot from him as well. So it's a give and take. It's a two-way approach. Yes. I'm also learning a lot from you. That's great. I should commend you. High level job and then coming down to having to learn and be getting that word teachable. Teachable. That's very important. And that shows something about your character and that's something that people can learn. We have a question all the way from Addis Ababa and this one is directly to Karen from the Smithsonian and this is from EASU Shishigu. And the question is those who are hiring, who are from hiring organizations, do you accept internship requests from students who attended school in Africa since you already say you have international interns? Absolutely. In fact, we don't give preference to domestic U.S. citizens. Foreign nationals are welcome to apply. We have interns and fellows from all over the world including various countries in Africa. So by all means. And I can just give a quick plug to find out about all of our internship and fellowship opportunities. If you just go to SmithsonianOFI.com. They're all listed there. Great. I mean, look at what is coming out of here. Somebody might just get an internship because they have access to a place that they can find these internships. Now another question that has come in is what are you taking from this internship experience? And I will throw that question at you. What are you taking from this internship experience that you can apply back home? What I will take from the internship experience is actually a lot, is a lot because I've been really, I've been told very good things, things that are going to be helpful for me once I'm back to Senegal and which is my respective country. And I just like Smithsonian and I love to say it. Smithsonian is seriously amazing. They have really have good, good, good educational outreach programs and they're really diverse and concerned with getting people educated because it's only through education that we're going to like change the world. And Smithsonian is interested in transforming and changing the world. And they're just teaching me a lot of different stuff as related to education. How am I going to help implement good educational policies in my country? And how am I going to really engage young children into being educated and into also engaging with their societies? And actually it's a lot of opportunities and programs that I've been going through. Smithsonian and the other thing also is that I have received, I've been told branding and marketing. So, and I think this is going to be helpful for me as I go back to Senegal and I will better know how to help my organizations be visible and also help my organization work and reach really its goal. Okay, great. Thank you very much Jean-Pierre for that great answer. We have a question that is coming from Om Nakwe Henry on Twitter. And I'm going to give this question to Kim. How do you track or know if the interns have gained those skills from the internship program? I know there's a work plan that the State Department gave each of the host organizations. So how are you tracking that, you know, Irene is getting things done? Yeah, I think we're doing so largely through the dialogue ongoing as during the internship and trying to ensure that the experience that Irene has is going to be relevant to her business back home. And even like tomorrow we've set up for her outside of USADF to go to Blue State Digital and meet with a multimedia firm, private sector that does media campaigns which is relevant to the type of social entrepreneurship that she's doing with her firm back home. So we're tracking to ensure that as she expresses interest in learning certain skills or knowledge that we're trying to make those opportunities available. We also are making staff throughout the foundation available to train on specific areas like with business financial planning. You met yesterday with one of our staff who routinely critiques business plans for African entities and so that we can compare and learn from her as well as she learning from us. I like that. There's a question here, another question that has come in. I think it ties in with what Kim is saying and you know Irene how will you now go and implement what you've learned? I know you touched a bit on that but can you give us a practical example that you know you have learned an event maybe that you went to or somebody that you met at the organization or something you were given to do that you can now go and practically say okay this is tangible and I will go and implement this back home. Okay. I think I'll give two quick examples. The first in terms of the in-house training that I've had at USADF in terms of how do you understand if a small business is viable. So we've been looking at the numbers you know I think that's for me that was one of the weaknesses I had being able to interpret what numbers mean for a business. Will it be sustainable in the next five years? So that's something I'm hoping I can implement with some of the startups we work with number one and also maybe to teach others how to critically look at numbers and how that touches upon all aspects of your business. The second skill that I've been getting a better understanding of the development world I'm able to see some of the gaps where science and technology can actually contribute. An example I can give is there are a few projects that the USADF is working within Zimbabwe that are around dairy farming and some of the challenges that some of these dairy farmers have is that they may not be able to refrigerate the milk that they collect from the various local farmers. So we can look at having micro solar panels implemented to run some of these refrigerators for example, that's just from the top of my head. But having that critical eye to see where the gaps are and where we as young people can help because I mean people have a lot of innovative ideas. I met a lot of young people in Chicago who have come up with some very innovative energy solutions that could be helpful for situations like that. Great, thanks. I mean Jean Pierre was this your first time in America? Maybe I should ask that question first. Was this your first time in the US or you've been in the US before? Before I go forth with the rest of the question. This is my first time in the US. Okay, great. I like that because it was my first time too in the US. And I had as I said misconceptions. Did you have any misconception and has it been shattered? This is a question from Twitter from TV and they're asking is there any one misconception that has been totally shattered? I would say not at all because I've been like engaged with a lot of fellows from the United States. I've been working in collaborations with full bright fellows that come all the way from the United States. And also I'm working in the Department of Research and Cooperation of my university and I used to engage with international exchange visitors. A lot of American people are visitors from the University of Wisconsin, visitors from the University of Hamlin and I actually have attended one cultural identity and cultural exchange program. It's actually an online class between the University of Gaston-Berger around from and the University of Hamlin and it's Senegal and the United States discussing culture, discussing identity and but I will say also as part of my experience when I arrived here in the United States I went to California and it was like a cultural shock when I see people somehow the way they behave and in comparison to Senegal it does not really match and I was like really whoa is it really happening here in the States. California is a culture shock for us too. It's really pretty cool because you get to learn about yourself as you really have to I will say like learn from the other and then confront it with your own self and you will be able to build up in that cultural differences and really how you are going to approach culture and diversity and back in California the University of California Berkeley one of the things that we were told is that as a leader we should interact with diversity. We should take diversity as really as a richness, as a wealth I will say because it's only by interacting with different people that you will get to learn and you will get to really be able to know how you are going to really deal with society and how you are going to implement societies by having in mind common interests and common interests just comes from diversity. There is no way you are going to implement good policies that are going to have very good impacts if you don't really have diversity in mind as a starting point. Great, thanks Jean-Pierre. I will share a misconception that I had or maybe it's not a misconception or a difference that I found between being in the US and being back home. Now back home you find that lunchtime is lunchtime. I don't have to work over lunch. I can go out for lunch in certain organizations. While here there's that box lunch meetings and they were even at the institutions we had box lunch lectures and you're wondering when am I going to take a break? So it's like they could continuously working and you will put in that 8 hours of work and you'll be active as you can. I don't know if that has been the same experience for you Mohammed have you found that different here? Well for me normally when it's lunchtime we all go for lunch. We have a cafeteria downstairs where we go for lunch and I don't think I have any different experience when it even comes to the issue of this culture shock and the rest back home as I once told you I've been working I've worked with the Education for Development and Democracy Initiative EDI as the Lizing Officer we have a section in the organization where we call the American Corner. The American Corner is a corner that brings a lot of resources of the American people you know bringing in awareness a lot of books to read video chat and the rest so I've known so many things about the American culture so I don't think I have any different idea when I came in and being in Syracuse University in New York I was born and brought up in Lagos so I consider that area as an extract of New York whereby it's largely populated densely populated so I don't think there's any difference to me I don't think there's any difference and when I get into Washington DC it's just as if it's an extract of Abuja yeah, yeah so I so much love the place I love the people I mingle a lot with a lot of people so I pretty much love the way we interact and even the working environment it's only that it's very quiet once you're in your cubicle there's no buzz he's not lively you have to sit down you read, you browse you work on your project, your work plan an assignment that a superior will give to you or a colleague to help him in dealing with one or two stuffs so pretty much that's what we've been doing I believe it's a very much good experience and it's going to be very fruitful at the tail end and I guess you mentioned the silence because I know in certain organizations that have worked in we talk as we work we discuss what has happened during the weekend or what I saw outside as I'm working and I'm still being productive but you know it's very social there's that feeling of togetherness while here it was that was a shock for me and we talking I think one of my neighbor back in the office since when I came we've never said good morning to each other but there are some that we definitely ah hello how are you some are very friendly so I now perceive it as an individual difference you understand once you know yourself it's good for you to know others if others know themselves it's good for them to know you as well so it depends on the level of interaction and pretty much I think it's a very good experience you can't force somebody to talk to you in the office or even on the road so even in the same family there are some that are very much introvert very true in the same family they don't talk much they're preserved and you see another person that is an extrovert he talks a lot you even get tired of him talking to you and I would think you wouldn't be an introvert right I have a wonderful story working a number of years ago in Lesotho I would come in and get very task oriented and focused on what I've got to get done today so the executive secretary worked with our program and I went to her and said we've got to do ABC and D today and she sat there kind of stone faced and looked at me and she was the most wonderful open kind person and I just couldn't understand why I'm getting this stare and she said Mr. Ward you haven't greeted me yet today and you know I'm not going to do anything until I get a proper greeting but it does highlight the difference in the cultures and gregarious and open with one another in the workplace as well and there's also the first name basis and the last name I worked I had the opportunity to work for an American organization in Zambia it was a bank and because it was an American organization we were expected it was policy for you to use first name basis and I found that so hard I'm glad I had that because now I come here and I'm able to say Sheila instead of Auntie Sheila or Mrs. and Mrs. that I think that that kind of informalness in the workplace makes it more comfortable to work because you're back home you're kind of like yes Mr. Moyo or yes Mrs. so and so and there's like an element of holding back and I think if people are more in your workplace I think people also tend to be more productive if I even show an example of at Google like their work culture it's very colorful everyone's kind of laid back but at the end of the day they know that they have to produce a result but you can still make the workplace a fun place and I think that's one thing I really appreciate about the U.S. I mean we have we have yoga like on Wednesdays at our workplace because people need to relax in all that work that people have to do they still kind of have to just take a break I love that we're all learning and these are all great ideas that we can go back and implement back home because each of us are leaders and we do have people that we are in charge of and so these are great ideas I think that we have to take back home now Jean-Pierre we've got a question from Vuga Uzenzele in Zimbabwe and the question is is there anyone who made it into the Yali program focusing on culture and community based activities from what you said it sounds like you have and how is that helping you culture and community based actually I will say it's helpful because you came here you discovered another culture and it kind of and I've also like studied culture in my university training and it's just that people need to have a different approach of culture people need to because there is what is called like alterity there is what is called cultural relativity and just if you understand what is cultural cultural relativity then you will be more able to interact with the other to embrace the other and take into consideration the other because you don't have to focus on cultural differences and this is important for a leader this is important for anyone who really would like to who really would like to do things in his community and I know that we all have different cultures but we all are the same in terms of you know being a human being and as that we just have like to embrace the other and be able to really work with him I know in my office I'm the only black person in my office so and I can like say oh wow this is different for me but how do I have to live and work with those people how do I have really to show them that I'm capable of it because it's all about being capable of understanding the other understanding how the other thinks and really being able to take the whole of it and build up on that and the other thing maybe I would like to mention is that usually we have misconceptions and we have biases and biases are not good because biases are what kill people from really doing good things we always have like differences that we focus on too much and if we do that we're not going to get forward we only will step always step backward while it's not useful for us. Great tip right there go in with an open mind. Alcax on Twitter asked the question and I'll direct this to Mohammed how is the internship enabling you as an intern to build and strengthen networks that are relevant for your organization how is it structured to build long term partnerships you know so maybe you can take that first part and I'll ask Sheila to take the second part on how you structured it so is this going to be just for now your relationship with him or for me it has provided me with a platform whereby resources can be channeled into a more reliable and unique posture based on our internal relative competencies and shortcomings anticipated changes that we might be having in the environment and the contingent move by intelligent people among us and even within our external environment so pretty much you have to take cognizance of the human resources the financial resources material and in a competitive environment where policies and programs are being implemented within and outside the organization which will definitely have a lasting impact on your productivity again when I look at the relationship by the time I will be going back home, I would really love to apply that pattern that will help me to coordinate my major goals our policies back home and our major actions to enable us become much more productive and change the way we do business you understand to confirm with more than international challenges in the 21st century so I believe is a paradigm shift that we are having from business as usual to a more dynamic robust and vibrant system that confirms to international best practices yeah Zorobats in Madagascar joining us on the Yali chat is asking Irene, what's your plan back home how do you want to draft a plan of mentorship for other young leaders or for your organization oh that's a good question I'm still reflecting on that but I'll try to give the best answer I can so in terms of mentorship I think he's brought up a very important issue because I feel a lot of the youth we have we've lacked that back home and I've seen what impact that can have having someone to guide you and give you advice on your career path because there are a lot of things that you overlook when you don't have that person so in my capacity I do plan to work with some of the younger girls because I felt that's something that I lacked growing up having that someone who's had experience of their career path so I do plan to do some work with some of the younger girls back home and I guess even people my own age as well if they're willing to take me yes Jean-Pierre, any thoughts on that do you feel mentorship is something that you'd like to do and how do you feel you can do that in Senegal? Absolutely actually it's what I'm planning to do if I go back because it's all about giving back and I always have this phrase from the US Embassy that you're going to the United States of America to be trained on leadership and the Department of States keeps telling us after you know your leadership training in the United States what are you going to do back home are you going to help train other people and I think it will be what I will be doing actually I'm in a university environment and there are many young people who really need leadership training and I'm going to contribute a lot into training young people building capacity young leadership because actually the challenge is about young leadership young people are not trained in ways that they can really transform their societies and usually young people they don't even want to engage with their societies because actually they are waiting a lot from the government expecting a lot from the government while it should not be the case young people should take the leadership and really take a role and play that role because it's all about engaging with your society if you were not trained then you just feel like you're not going to make it so and actually what I will be doing is telling them that they can bring about change telling them that they can make things happen because usually young people feel like they don't make it because they don't have support and even though you don't have support but you have to be your own leader, your own entrepreneur, your own this is how you're going to build psychologically you have to be ready to face any challenge and if you're not ready to face any challenge you're not going to make it and I think young people need to understand that and it will be part of really telling what I will be really telling them and how the US actually the US perception of leadership the US perception of civic engagement the US perception of individual leadership because people usually back home they have this perception that American individualism is bad American individualism is promoting selfishness and I would like to tell people that are back home people from Africa that individualism is actually all about individual leadership you have really to be your own leader if you are not your own leader then you will not make it you have to be your own leader take your own initiative and it's really capacity building I will be doing that a lot if I may add we have to take the bull by the horn and we have to be industry drivers I wouldn't want a situation whereby I would be a follower there was a time that my state to bring about more productivity and enhanced performance within the civil service it established what we call the civil service promotion examination almost about three to four years back for you to be promoted you have to pass your promotion exams bringing in the culture of reading you understand letting other workers to know about their job requirements I took it upon myself to become the resource person for ICT in the civil service I am a resource person for that my subordinates and superiors on that same specific aspect and I'm not an IT person but it's the preliminary knowledge that we all need since we are moving towards ICT compliant government I believe is a starting point for us to know what is on the ground so pretty much that's what we've been doing too great I like that wow we only have a few more minutes left and I'm really enjoying this conversation but to the supervisors I think I'll just ask each of you to answer this question what qualities have you seen in the fellows that made them a valuable addition to the workplace to your organization specifically Kim with Irene I was attracted immediately to her resume where she had studied master's level in Sweden strategic leadership for sustainability and one of her first tasks we gave her when she came to ADF was read our legislation read our strategic plans read the documentation about US ADF and critique it for us tell us how it is relevant to Zimbabwe and she came back with this paper and it's like what took me years to figure out and learn about development and she had it immediately and I think and part of that is this outward focus of giving back to the community it comes out in everything that she's about and she does and it's just a wonderful experience for us and an opportunity for us to engage with Irene that's great I see her getting emotional like you Kim that's something great to hear those makes me proud to be one and what do you have to say about your fellow I think the Smithsonian as a whole has really benefited from having Jean-Pierre and his colleagues IJ and Nulu again as I mentioned before because they bring with them a level of experience that is really wonderful to see and like you mentioned Kim a commitment to community development to giving back to really a collaborative experience that is important that's part of the Smithsonian's mission and so we have learned a lot from them as I hope they have from their experience with us I hope we get more Yollies I really do it's been a privilege and we've loved it Lovely to hear that Sheila So at the U.S. Department of Transportation we were very thankful to be able to support the president's you know young African leaders initiative and when we were received Mohammed as our one of our interns we were quite excited because he was at the level that he was at in his government that he is able to actually be a force for change so as we're sharing what our best practices are in the transportation sector he's viewing that, he's receiving it being open and teachable as we had talked about earlier and I think when he goes back to Nigeria that we're going to be able to see some of the work that we're doing here be actually influenced the work that the Nigerians and the policies that the Nigerians will be doing to make it their state a better place Actually Sheila maybe you can also answer this what do you think Americans could learn from Africans? That's a huge question That should be a hydrant and this is a question from Napoleon Nyahi in Zimbabwe you know you're working in an American organization So let me answer that from a real personal perspective being an African American born and raised here in the United States I think that what I have learned from not just from Muhammad but my experience and the three times that I've gone to the continent is that we are more alike than what we are different than we are different and I think that you know we all have the desire to do right and be right by one another and that it's just it's just a great opportunity for us to be able to have that dialogue I had a minister from one of the countries ask me he says where are you from similar to this question and I said well you know I stopped, I paused and I said okay now how am I going to answer this and I said well I know where I'm from and I know who I belong to and he stood up and he hugged me he was like that's the best answer that you could have ever given so to that we are more one than we are separate I love the sound of that now we have come to the US and outside the internship I guess people would like to find out what is that single experience in your period that you've been in the US you've been in the US longer than you know the other 400 fellows and so what's that one single experience that has made an impression on you how's that with Jean Pierre well actually it's really a great experience because those 400 as you have mentioned they have gone back to Africa and we have stayed for two more months and two more months means like a more cultural discovery and it's really we've been interacting with DC the DC area and I love to say that I have been like I have undergone different cultures like California and DC which is entirely different in terms of culture entirely different in terms of landscape in terms of everything and it's a great experience for me to really compare both cultures and see what are the differences within my own culture back home and it's really great and amazing to really discover the way people live and part of my living at the Smithsonian is culture because the Smithsonian is interested in a lot of different things and part of them are culture so how does other other people in other nations live what is people's culture and outward spaces in Africa, they've been engaged a lot in Africa and it's really interesting because I've done a country shit as part of my first project in the Smithsonian and what I have done is that I was asked to discover the Smithsonian's implication was in my country and it was really a privilege because I have done that research and I have discovered how Smithsonian really is interested in discovering how the other people live and they have done a lot of research about culture in Senegal and I have just come to discover that in the U.S. and it's really amazing. That's great and for you Mohammed what is that take away? Well for me I've become to my work more committed more determined with different thoughts going back as somebody that will bring about the needed change that we need more disciplined more knowledge based definitely I am out there to make a difference and I believe at the tail end will definitely see to the end of achieving our major objectives going by what President Obama did in November 2011 where he signed the presidential memorandum for automating all the processes and of his work in the United States government definitely when we get back home will definitely make sure that we now have a change a direct shift in course when it comes to how we conduct our businesses back home and I believe it's now going to be a landmark or a stepping stone for us to imbibe the culture of transparency, accountability and open government partnership to bring about the needed transparency and accountability we need in the system and lastly to bring about intergovernmental relationship between the government and various stakeholders the NGOs, the CSOs to come on board for us to achieve our collective objectives to have a much more a kind of society that will be more productive at the tail end Thank you very much for the impression that you've had with your experience here that you're going to take away I think something that I've been touched upon earlier about embracing diversity both at our institution in terms of having all the various different African fellows and the different cultures and religions and being able to work together and having the same at the workplace where you have people varying levels, different backgrounds differences because I think we spend a lot of time focusing on our differences and we never end up achieving the goal but I think it's important to use those differences to come together so that's probably one of my biggest takeaways going home Great, I would like to thank each and every one of you for coming through and being part of the program today to the U.S. organizations that have hosted Dayali Fellows not just those that are present here and those that might be watching us would like to say thank you for hosting us out here we're having a great time and we are learning so much that we can take back home so everybody that has been watching and bringing those questions out to us, thank you so much and you know what is exciting this is just the beginning of so much more if you haven't yet joined the Yali Network please do just search for Yali Network on Facebook, on Twitter and make sure that you also get onto the website because there is a wealth of information there and you also get a chance to get free online courses on diverse subjects that can help you grow and you also might be able to find out about some internship opportunities and just so much more so I'm not going to tell you everything that's there you have to go and look for yourself we would also like to say thank you to the interactive team in the Bureau of International Information programs at the U.S. Department of State so please let us not stop that chat here let's continue discussing I'll be checking on that hashtag Yali Chat to see what each of you are saying thank you so much it's been great having you and thank you for viewing it and stay locked to the Yali Network