Eisenhower Fellowships is set to take the stage in Austin, Texas, in March at the 2017 South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference. While many Eisenhower Fellows have attended the well-known conferences and festivals and hosted their own sessions, this is the first time that EF will use this platform to share word of its programs and impact.
In 2016, EF held a mini-reunion of Fellows at SXSW, where Josh Baer (USA ’15) gave a presentation on how to leverage fellowship experiences, including his own Eisenhower Fellowship to Ireland, Northern Ireland and Chile. Later that evening, he invited the Fellows to a musical performance at Austin City Limits, joined by Steve Welch (USA 2012), Stacey Chang (USA 2015), Chelsea Collier (USA 2016) and Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani (Pakistan 2012). This meet-up was a great opportunity for EF staff to learn more about the audience at SXSW and how to introduce the EF brand to a wider, more diverse community of leaders and innovators.
This year, thanks to the initiative of G. Nagesh Rao (USA 2016) and David Bray (USA 2015), Eisenhower Fellowships will be hosting a session titled “Enabling Transformative Change Across Continents”, featuring a conversation about fellowship and impact among Rao, Bray and Dina Sherif (Egypt 2015), moderated by Jane Grabias, EF’s Director of Fellowship Programs. Let us know if you will be at SXSW in 2017.
There will be other opportunities to watch Fellows in action. Rao and Bray, among others, will be hosting separate panels on issues of professional interest. If any other Fellows plan on attending or participating in SXSW session, please let us know. We’ll share full information on all panels featuring Fellows closer to the conference dates. We look forward to seeing you in Austin next March.