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The Osgood Center Hosts
the International Leadership Conference
The Osgood Center for International
Studies has just completed a successful, challenging and
inspiring International Leadership Conference
(ILC). Throughout this document, you will meet some of
the participants. First, below is Eunice Aasamoah, from
Ghana, who attended Salem College and came to the US via
a Rotary Exchange program.
Eunice had this to say about the ILC:
Participating in the Osgood Center’s
Leadership conference is the best decision I ever made.
Meeting professionals who work in different fields puts
everything into perspective. The sessions that the
Osgood Center provides to participants are very dynamic
ranging from Brookings Institution to the Woodrow Wilson
Center, not forgetting the vast array of speakers. The
leadership conference has provided me with a lot of
networking opportunities... Shelly does a wonderful job
of putting together the conference making sure it is on
different topics and appeals to almost everyone. I am
very glad I was given the opportunity to partake in the
conference and all of this will not have been possible
without the support of Rotary. Thank you to Osgood and
Rotary!
Here is the daily schedule (http://osgoodcenter.org/ILCSchedule.pdf )
but to demonstrate Eunice's points the ILC program
included, among others, site visits to the US Institute
of Peace (USIP), the Department of State, the Pentagon,
and Congress and the participants met with the Chiefs of
Staff of a congressional office and the USIP plus the
Director of UN Affairs at the State Department. These
"mentors" discussed the challenges and issues facing
their institutions in difficult times, the leaders who
inspired them, their own leadership journey, and
insights on how to organize and sustain large staffs
over time. The participants cited Paul Hughes of USIP as
the most inspiring. Paul is a retired Army colonel who
served in Iraq immediately after the US invasion in
2003. He was in place to accept the resignation of the
Iraqi military when the Coalition Provisional Authority
disbanded the Iraqi military, leaving angry and
destitute soldiers with caches of weapons to provide for
themselves. One week later the insurgency began and the
US stayed in Iraq for nine more years. Paul Hughes
retired from the Army, understood war plans without
solid peace plans were useless, and thus joined the US
Institute of Peace. He rose to Chief of Staff and he now
vows to build a group of peace professionals who are as
well trained, as committed, and as effective as US
soldiers.
Hawa is a Health Official in Liberia.
While in the ILC she highlights meeting Raymond Gilpin,
Director of Sustainable Economies at USIP and attending
a Brookings Institution panel discussion on African
priorities
http://www.brookings.edu/events/2012/0111_africa_2012.aspx).
While at Brookings, she also met Catherine Powell, who
serves on Secretary Clinton's Policy Planning staff, and
then later met the staff at the UN Foundation that
coordinates the global Nothing But Nets Program (Hawa
works on malaria control in Liberia), I think it is
fantastic to see how Hawa's face lights up when she
mentions her visit to the DC Rotary Club (below).
At the DC club, Hawa and the other participants met a US
Trade Commissioner, a judge, an IRS official, a YMCA
official, a realtor, and especially Sheldon Ray of
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Sheldon is a twenty-four
year Rotarian, Member of the Board of the Osgood Center,
and an expert on wealth management. After the Club
meeting we repaired to Sheldon's office where he
discussed personal wealth management with the
participants, but mostly he discussed Rotary, service
above self, and the many local and global community
service projects he supports. He noted that the Osgood
Center's commitments to education, international
service, peace and development were in fact Rotary
commitments. The participants were intrigued by Rotary
Ambassadorial and Peace Scholarships, international
service projects, and the fellowship of weekly meetings.
They all hope to join Rotary as soon as they can.
Meet Stephen Ose-Bonsu, a stand out
participant in the ILC. He is a young community and
business leader in Ghana. He reported on a daily basis
the lessons we discussed at the ILC, especially the work
shops with me, back to his main contact in Ghana. He
will organize the next group to come because the core
group was unable to attend since their visa appointment
was set to late for the group to attend (Stephen already
had a six month US visa). Stephen wants to join Rotary,
if possible.
The highlight of the program for me
were the frequent opportunities I had to conduct
leadership workshops with the participants. I was a
professor for thirty-eight years, but the last eight of
those years, I also directed the Austin College
Leadership Institute and led or participated on the
International Service committee for the Rotary Club of
Grayson County, Texas. I was also sponsor of the Austin
College Rotaract Club. Through community service, local
mentors, guest lectures, and work shops (example, our
"Leading Lights and Rising Stars" Program brought
community leaders and high schools students together to
learn from one another), I have developed leadership
lessons and insights that I share with participants. It
is amazing what people can learn from one another as
they share stories of successes, challenges, short falls
and visions. At the end of the ILC, we all knew a great
deal more about Ghana, Liberia, West Texas, and
Washington, DC. African, American, and international
politics were more clear but not more simple. .We knew
that failure happens but we can grow from it. We knew
that leaders must also follow, that empathy is worth
more than sympathy, that mentors are gold, that leaders
are both born and made,
that advancing the group trumps advancement of the
individual, and that helping others is the ultimate
leadership act.
Winnifred Arthur of Ghana, Editor
of her college newspaper in Berea, KY, said it best:
The
Osgood Center’s Leadership Conference has been a truly
inspiring and eye-opening experience... Most
of all, I was grateful to [people] leading by example
and showing us what someone can do when they're
passionate about their job.
She is at the far right and I am at
the far left:
I will allow Afua Sargong (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbA0V4qZjP0&context=C3b70cf1ADOEgsToPDskLtuK-M0KZ3KQksJ8p1WDU4)
of Ghana, above third from the right, the last word.
She demonstrates how we learned from one another and she
thanks Rotary eClub of the Southwest USA for its
support. On behalf of the Osgood Center for
International Studies, I thank everyone for your support
and I thank you for helping us build bridges to Africa.
We know that we are now permanently connected.
The ILC at the US
Department of State with Director of UN Affairs, Mark
Desjardins (center).
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