Women Fulbright Students from Sub-Saharan Africa to Attend Seminar in Texas

April 11, 2012

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State will host more than 40 Fulbright students from sub-Saharan African countries at a leadership and re-entry seminar at the University of Texas at Austin, April 10-15, 2012. The seminar will provide emerging women leaders from sub-Saharan Africa studying at U.S. colleges and universities with leadership training.

During the five-day seminar and workshop, participants will network with local U.S. women leaders in business, academia, the non-profit sector and government, and explore Austin’s culture through keynote speeches, panel discussions and site visits to local organizations and local families’ homes. On April 12, Texas State Representative Senfronia Thompson will welcome the women at the State Capitol to discuss the importance of women’s leadership in public service.

On April 13, male colleagues from sub-Saharan African countries will join the women as they prepare to return to their home countries. Together they will participate in additional leadership training and activities, including discussing their experience in the United States and goals upon return to their home societies.

The seminar in Austin is the final of three re-entry and leadership seminars for women Fulbright students held by ECA this year. The first two seminars took place earlier this year at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, California for students from Southeast Asia and at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts for students from Latin America. In total the seminars convene students from more than 25 countries. These students are among the nearly 4,000 international students studying at colleges and universities across the United States this year on the Fulbright Program.

ECA hosts the Fulbright Women’s Leadership and Re-entry Enrichment Seminars as a component of the 17 Fulbright Enrichment Seminars for foreign students hosted across the United States as part of its flagship Fulbright Program. These enrichment seminars benefit Fulbright foreign students and support the overall mission of the Fulbright Program – to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.

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