I have a very special (and complicated) weekend in front of me.  As I’ve been noting through the week, University Commencement takes place on Sunday, with related events on Saturday and tonight.  I’m going to turn up on Saturday for Fletcher’s Class Day.  I’ll wish the students well and, if I’m lucky, I’ll meet some family members.  On Sunday, I’ll be joining them for the All-University portion of graduation, but my role there will be as Mother of a Jumbo.  My son, Josh, is graduating from Tufts this year.

So my mum-in-law arrived from London last night, and a few of my cousins will also be joining us to celebrate.  And that would make for a busy and fun weekend.  But complicating (and enhancing) the schedule is that Kayla will be attending her high school prom on Saturday night.

For those of you not familiar with the prom, you can read up and check out some photos.  But you really need to ask your American friend.  (The dresses.  The tuxes.  The DRAMA!)  Kayla is embracing the prom protocols, and while Paul and his mother attend Saturday’s undergraduate Baccalaureate Service, Kayla and I will be at the hairdresser getting her an up-do.  Once Kayla is all dressed in her sophisticated gown and sparkly earrings, she’ll twirl a few times for the family, and head off with her friends.  Return time TBD.  She’ll be bleary-eyed but present for Commencement.

On Sunday, after the All-University phase of Commencement, we’ll attend Phase II with the Economics Department.  When all the ceremonial events are complete, Josh, some friends, their families, and our family will head back to our house to celebrate.

All in all, I expect the weekend to be bittersweet.  Sad to say good-bye to so many Fletcher students.  But very happy for all the graduates!  And proud of my Jumbo, Josh!

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Having worked at Fletcher for a long time, I find that, at a certain level, every graduating class looks the same.  They all include students working hard to learn as much as possible.  They all generate a strong feeling of community. They have vocal and quiet students, leaders and those who enjoy being led.  But, for whatever reasons, some classes seem special, and a special class is graduating on Sunday.

The Admissions Office is always asking students to do something for us.  Conduct interviews.  Host a coffee hour.  Let an admitted student stay with you for the Open House.  Take a survey.  Take another survey.  Staff an online chat.  Write something for the blog.  And more.  It’s a wonder that no one turns to us and says, “Ahem.  Do you realize that we’re not here to do your work for you?”  But they never do say that.  Not out loud, anyway.  So we have the very good fortune to get to know a lot of students.

I can’t list every graduating student in the blog, but I’d like to acknowledge the students who have spent a little extra time in the Admissions Office.  Like Bilal, Caitlin, Kartik, and Lauren, our student interns from this year or last.  If I could bottle a little of Lauren’s good cheer, I would.  No matter what we ask of her, she seems utterly delighted to have the opportunity to do it.  Asked to give the 10th tour of the week, she smiles as if I’ve just handed her a big cupcake.  We haven’t yet found the task that would shake her professionalism.

And Andrew, Rizwan, and Vanessa, who conducted Information Sessions last fall.  Vanessa occupies a special place because she has thanked me for unsolicited advice I gave her several years ago — the same kind of nosy suggestion that causes my family members’ eyes to roll.  Just glad my two cents benefited someone!

There’s also Rishi, Andrew, and Ho-Ming, who gave us two great years on the Admissions Committee.  I recently looked through my notes and discovered that Ho-Ming and I first met in 2007, an unusually long stretch between the first time I met a student and that student’s graduation, and we’ve been at least intermittently in contact for the full five years.

And though I won’t list them all here, there were a bunch of students who provided two years of interviews for us.  The interview program requires a small army of volunteers, and I’m always grateful to have returning interviewers who don’t need anything more than a schedule to jump into.

The extreme hazard in creating a list of students whose presence has added to Fletcher is that there’s always someone else to include.  To avoid egregious omission, I’ll stick to Admissions volunteers and interns.  I see them the most, and I’ll notice their absence daily.  But the Admissions staff always has their eyes out for students we interviewed or whose applications we read.  We watch them as they move along the road from applicant to graduate, sometimes checking in to make sure everything is going o.k.

And, inevitably, we feel wistful every year around Commencement time.  When I hear about the accomplishments and transitions that students have achieved through their Fletcher education, I’m thrilled for them!  But, speaking for everyone in Admissions, we’ll miss them!

CONGRATULATIONS graduating Fletcher students!!  Be sure to keep in touch — link us in, friend us, send an email now and then — and let us follow the story of your post-Fletcher lives!

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Dis-Orientation is in full swing for soon-to-graduate students.  For several years now, the completion of classes has been followed directly by a pre-Commencement week-or-so of communal fun, just as the first semester of classes is preceded by a week of Orientation.  Today’s activities are a daytime duck tour, followed by evening karaoke.  Other activities have been more cultural (touring Newport mansions) or less (many themes of party), but surely no one could complain that there’s not enough to do.  And because even nearly two weeks of togetherness may not be enough, some students have already offered to host a farewell brunch for their fellows on Monday.

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In April, after I wrote my last post from the Hall of Flags, I was emailing with Manjula Dissanayake, one of the students featured.  A week later, we sat down and he described the incredible path he has followed from his pre-Fletcher days to now.  With Commencement just around the corner, I’m featuring Manjula’s story.

It all starts in 2007, when Manjula was working in finance in the DC area.  He and his roommates had previously raised funds for Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami, but they felt they could do more.  They decided to focus their efforts in the area of education, forming Educate Lanka.  Before long, Educate Lanka was occupying so much of Manjula’s time that he decided to dedicate himself to the effort, starting by pursuing graduate study in development and social entrepreneurship, either through an MBA or an international affairs degree.  An application process later, he enrolled in Fletcher’s MALD program in September 2010 as a Board of Overseers Scholar, and quickly got to work on building his own intellectual infrastructure to run the organization, which currently has a core volunteer staff of ten, and a larger pool of about 40 to draw upon.

I should pause here and describe Educate Lanka.  The organization’s main activity is securing micro-scholarships of $10 to $20 for students who lack funds but have a high potential to become future leaders, by connecting the kids with sponsors from around the world.  100% of the sponsorship funds go to the students.  There are no administrative expenses (this being a fledgling organization), but if something comes up, funds are raised through a separate fundraising process, which also generates some scholarships for students without sponsors.  Currently 275 students are receiving scholarships.  A total of 350 have received funds, about 30 of whom have completed school (though a few left school and the program).  There are over 400 sponsors in 15+ countries.  Once they are in the program, the kids are funded through their undergraduate studies, starting as early as fifth grade (age 10).  Over 12 million Sri Lankan Rupees (about US$100,000) has been awarded.

Back to fall 2010.  Manjula settles in, registers for courses, etc.  Good things started to happen pretty much right away.  The first was that Educate Lanka was selected to receive the funds raised through Fletcher’s annual Asia Night event.  That same semester, Manjula drew support from Empower, a project of the Tufts Institute for Global Leadership (IGL).  And Educate Lanka took third place in the Tufts 100K Business Plan Competition.  Not a bad start for one semester, and at that point Manjula started to think Educate Lanka had the potential to become a larger organization.

In spring 2011, Manjula took a microfinance class with Kim Wilson, and cross-registered for a Harvard class on education and social entrepreneurship with Fernando Reimers.  Both professors offered advice on complementary models for Educate Lanka, and on how to make the organization more sustainable and scalable.  Should it continue as a 501(c)3 (non-profit)?  Or should it turn into a blended social business?  Also that semester, after attending the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference, someone referred him to USAID and the State Department, because he works with the Sri Lankan diaspora community, which led to an invitation to speak at the Secretary’s Global Diaspora Forum.

Come summer 2011, while also interning in the Education Investment Group of the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, Manjula was a finalist in the MassChallenge competition, as a result of which he received mentorship and guidance.  Toward the end of the summer, he used a fellowship from IGL to travel to Sri Lanka, visiting the north and east of the country, where Educate Lanka wasn’t yet working.  He returned with a sense of how to achieve near-term organizational expansion in Sri Lanka, including a corporate partnership model.

Meanwhile, Manjula’s roommate, Sadruddin, was thinking of replicating the model in Bangladesh, and had received a good response to the idea.  He hopes to pilot the project by the end of this year.  (Here they are together.)

Back at Fletcher in September 2011, Manjula reconnected with Prof. Wilson and Prof. Reimers, who together mentored him and helped him to think about global replication and to add a corporate partnership model to Educate Lanka.  An MIT class on Development Ventures required him to take his ideas and act on them.  He received another IGL/Empower fellowship to return to Sri Lanka during the winter break.  And he continued entering business plan competitions.  He was one of two finalists in the MIT 100K Elevator Pitch Competition.

His Fletcher classmates sent more funds Educate Lanka’s way from 2011 Asia Night proceeds, and Manjula was one of a small group honored as a UN Volunteer of the Year in Sri Lanka.  Also helpful, more Fletcher students were jumping on board, including a group that wrote a consulting report on the concept of distance learning in Sri Lanka.  He received additional funding from the Center for Emerging Market Enterprises, and IGL is committed to supporting Manjula, even after graduation.

In spring 2012, Manjula was a semi-finalist at the Harvard Social Entrepreneurship Pitch Competition.  And this semester also found him in two classes specifically selected to build his skills set.  Along the way, he needed to write a thesis and do the other things expected of Fletcher students.  Oh, and he attended Clinton Global Initiative University in March, and was an Echoing Green semi-finalist.  In preparing to graduate, he created his own Fletcher Field of Study:  Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship in International Development.  (His second field is International Political Economy.)

I asked Manjula to reflect on his Fletcher experience, which seems to have been uniquely successful in connecting him to the local academic community.  He said that he came to Fletcher “with the idea to get more guidance, more advice” and to “test the model and see if it has legs.”  He confirmed that he was able to do that through classes, the business plan competitions, talking to mentors, seeing the response of people who believe in the Educate Lanka model (including some who want to replicate it elsewhere in South Asia and in Africa), and talking in panels and at conferences.  All of this pushed him to move Educate Lanka toward a sustainable social business model while maintaining its core scholarship model.

What’s coming up after graduation?  There are five or six fundraising events set up for the summer.  The model will be starting up in Bangladesh, leading to “Educate World” in many countries.  There’s a plan to start an online platform to arrange one-on-one mentoring for underprivileged kids, enabling knowledge-sharing between the developed and developing world (and also generating more traffic for the Educate Lanka website).  The mentoring program would offer a new means of involvement for people who can’t contribute funds, and builds the community of people Manjula says are energized with “‘change the world’ spirit.”

Finally, Manjula took a minute to say “how much I appreciate all the support and backing I have received from my fellow Fletcher students, from all three classes (’11,’12,’13) with which I had the privilege to share my experience, as well as faculty, staff, and alumni. I owe them my  thanks.”

I’m going to try to keep up with Manjula and Educate Lanka through the coming year, and I’ll report back on Manjula’s post-Fletcher path.  Based on his success in the past two years, I’m guessing there will be plenty to write about.

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I’m very pleased with the results of my first ever blog survey, which has provided me with a nice list of topics of interest to readers.  Several people asked me to write about the waitlist.  Done!  And the suggestions of others will be covered in future blog posts.

A few people asked me to pull out my reporter’s notebook and start writing about professors and students.  As it happens, I have been working on a long post about one of our soon-to-graduate students.  Look for it next week!  And I’ll try to do more in the future.  Meanwhile, I’m going to use today’s post to point you toward information about students that’s already on the web site.

First, there are the brief pieces, including pre-Fletcher work and education experience, about the fall 2011 entering class — the folks who will still be around to meet our incoming students, and the fall 2010 entering class — the students to whom we’ll soon say good-bye.  And, you can access more profiles by degree program for MALD, MIB, LLM, MA, and PhD students.

I enjoy interviewing people, and I will definitely take the time to include more features on the blog in the future.  But I’ll also occasionally point you toward information that’s already out there and ready for you to read.

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The spring goes by in a blur of admissions work for me, but outside our office, it’s about the most interesting time of the year.  In just the past few weeks, Fletcher students ran or attended a successful Energy Conference, and listened to a whole bunch of special lectures.  Since I can’t list them all, you might want to click on the highlighted dates on the April Fletcher calendar.

Classes end Monday but that doesn’t mean the events have come to a quiet close.  Instead, recent Fletcher grad Andrew Lewis will highlight a conversation session with the Diplomacy Club.  And today, there’s a featured talk about the Turkish economy, before students start tying their bow ties for tonight’s annual Diplomat’s Ball.  (Sadly, no links to share — you’ll need to trust me that it has been the source of much discussion.)  Dip Ball attendees will want to cut short their sleep to attend tomorrow’s Spring Fling.  (Even I might come up to campus at about 1:00 to catch Lupe.)

There are two past events that warrant particular mention.  First was Brian William’s participation in the annual Edward R. Murrow Forum on  Issues in Journalism.  The event was sponsored, in part, by Fletcher’s Murrow Center for Public Diplomacy.  And the second was the very special lecture last Friday by Muhammad Yunus.

Honestly, I have no idea how students manage to complete all their academic work.

An amusing aside — no matter how advanced their technology, some phones are still not a good match for a student in international affairs.  Margot shared her failed attempt to convince her phone to allow her to tell a friend that she had walked by Muhammad Yunus.  In an email, she further noted, “It’s not every place where passing Muhammad Yunus on the sidewalk is something worthy of a text in the first place — that’s sort of a Fletcher thing.”

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Unlike real journalists, I like featuring good news stories.  So, when I sent a note of congratulations to PhD candidate Ivan for receiving the university’s Presidential Award for Citizenship and Public Service, and Ivan responded to my question about the work for which he was honored, my brain lit up:  BLOG POST!

Here’s what Ivan told me:

I was very honored to receive the award.  I believe it was for general work/public service to the university, but also related to my other service work.  The main components included:  being the Resident Director at Blakeley, helping with continuing education through Osher Lifelong Learning, student initiatives such as serving on the PhD Committee and organizing the PhD conferences and colloquium, and, outside of Tufts/Fletcher, the international civic engagement program I helped lead in China (sponsored by Duke University and the Gates Foundation).

That’s a lot to fit in around Fletcher study and the writing of a dissertation!  Congratulations to Ivan on making such a strong contribution to the community!

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Once again trolling my inbox for blog post ideas that don’t need to originate in my own head, I came across a nice round of Social List sharing:  “Fletcher” written in various other alphabets.  Why did I like this?  I suppose it’s because I enjoy knowing that when a student asks, others will jump in to provide the info he needs.  Some responses even included mini linguistics lessons.  As I’m only able to read two of the languages, I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that the List crowd would have corrected any misinformation.

So, while it’s not a comprehensive accounting of the languages students speak, here’s “Fletcher,” many different ways, with thanks to the Social List.

Arabic:  فلتشر

Armenian:  Ֆլեթչեր

Bengali:  ফ্লেচার

Chinese (simplified):  弗莱彻
Chinese (complex):  弗萊徹

Cyrillic:  Флетчер

Dari and Pashto:   فلچر

Gujarati:  ફ્લેચર

Hindi:  फ्लेचर

Kannada:  ಫ್ಲೆಚರ್

Korean:  플레쳐

Morse Code:  ..-. .-.. . – -.-. …. . .-.  (Or “Di-di-dah-dit Di-dah-di-dit Dit Dah Dah-di-dah-dit Di-di-di-dit Dit Di-dah-dit”)

Persian:  فلچر

Punjabi:  ਫ੍ਲੇਤ੍ਚੇਰ

Thai:  เฟลทเชอร์

Urdu:  فلیچز

Yiddish:  פלעטשער

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For (if I remember correctly) the third year, students have compiled videos of enthusiastic (if less than smooth) dancing by classmates visiting locations near and far. Please enjoy “Where the Hell is Fletcher? 2012″ a now annual tradition:

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There’s a lot going on in Admissions this week.  Most of our admitted students need to make their enrollment decisions by tomorrow, April 20, and there has been a pretty steady stream of last-minute questions.  (How do I put together my dual degree?…Can you send me my GAMS password?…What’s your suggestion for housing?…)  By Monday, we’ll know what about 80% of the entering class will look like.  (I’m making that number up — but I think it’s about right.)

Meanwhile, continuing students are submitting their applications for scholarship renewal.  They also have many last-minute questions.  The forms are due this afternoon, so I know the office will be hoppin’ at about 4:00.

Which leaves me depending on others to create interesting blog content for me.  And combing through my inbox, I found something.  Students have compiled a list of thesis topics, along with faculty advisor, keywords, and the students’ Fields of Study.  The list contains only a portion of the theses that will be submitted this spring, but I think it provides a nice snapshot of the broad range of topics and formats.

Here’s a sample of the list:

For the full list, click here.

If you’re interested in learning more about the professors who advised a student on a specific topic, you can find them all on our website.

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