The Foreign Service Journal, December 2015

30 DECEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Not Everyone Needs to Win a Nobel Prize BYMARILYN SAKS-MCMILLION I ’ve met many hundreds of International Visitor Leadership Pro- gram participants over the past 19 years. I started with Delphi International and remained with the organization after it merged with World Learning, a programming agency that handles several hundred participants each year. We can never predict how a U.S. experience will affect our invitees. But I trust they will be transformed and do good work once they return home. For example, I remember a quiet judge fromMoldova, who was serving on its Higher Judicial Chamber when he visited the United States on a program that highlighted anti-corruption and our justice system. Today, he’s president of his country. Not every participant has to be a would-be chief of state, of course. Once I programmed a group focused on ways to prevent domestic violence. As part of the tour, we visited a battered women’s shelter in Washington, D.C. Though not well off by any means, the visitors were so moved by the shelter’s professionals that they spontaneously donated more than $100 to the staff. I was particularly impressed by a Cameroonian journalist. With my encouragement, he applied for and obtained a World Learning leadership grant to gain mentorship and funds for a social enterprise. Now he has his own news site, which combats myths and ignorance about science and health issues across Africa, and has won prestigious awards from the International Center for Journalists. When I’m asked about the impact of the IVLP, I also think of Nobel Laureate Tawakkol Karman of Yemen. A journalist for Yemen’s National Organization for Defending Rights and Free- doms, while also serving as its executive manager, she partici- pated in a program on investigative journalism in 2005. One of 25 journalists for whom I was responsible, Tawakkol came to the United States hoping to learn about our politics and obtain skills she could use in her work. I remember encouraging these reporters to “look behind the curtain” and discover the diversity of the United States and its decentralized political system. Asking questions is very impor- tant, I told them, adding that the only “bad questions” are those not asked. The program encompassed six cities, and allowed the group to see America as a vibrant democracy of many voices. One of the group’s translators told me Tawakkol expected to be treated differently because she wore a headscarf, but was pleasantly sur- prised not to encounter any negativity on that account. Our visitors were also surprised by the rights journalists enjoy. Foreign media often cover a fictional America that speaks with one voice, and the degree of public debate they found here was unexpected. Travel to small media markets was particularly enlightening, and everyone expressed pleasure with their experi- ence at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. I believe that the openness, friendliness and eagerness to share, which the group experienced during their visit, helped them to put aside preconceived notions and misperceptions. Tawakkol reached the international stage a few years ago, earning the title “the Mother of the Revolution in Yemen.” The Nobel Peace Prize committee gave her the award in 2011. As luck would have it, I met her again in Septem- ber 2014, with her husband in tow, at a presentation she gave at the U.S. Institute of Peace. With a warm embrace, Tawakkol called me her “teacher” and said her IVLP trip was an experience she remembered in her head and heart. I was humbled, and never felt a greater sense of accomplishment, knowing the visit had sparked something inside her. Marilyn Saks-McMillion is a program officer with World Learning, Inc., in Washington, D.C. 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Tawakkol Karman (far right) with fellow IVLP participants during a 2005 visit to the ABC News affiliate in Providence, Rhode Island. KATE GREENE/COURTESY OF GLOBAL TIES U.S.