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Yesterday I heard from Alison Erlwanger, one of the student leaders of the Africana Club, which is planning “Africa on the Global Stage,” a conference that will take place on Friday, February 20. The second annual Africana Conference is free and open to the public, with support from Fletcher, the Institute for Business in the Global Context, the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, and the World Peace Foundation.
The Africana Club wants to encourage blog readers who are in the area to attend. Please register online if you’re interested. Student-led conferences are a great way to see a practical reflection of the learning that students have done throughout the year.
Launched only about a year ago, the Fletcher Security Review is the School’s newest student-run publication. The Winter 2015 issue is now available. Check it out, and keep up with the FSR commentary on Twitter.
Fletcher students, alumni, faculty, and staff learned on Monday that Prof. Bill Martel had passed away. The community has received the news with tremendous collective sadness, reaching out to each other for help in understanding something that seems impossible to understand.
Bill made his mark at Fletcher, especially on the student community, in so many different ways. He taught and advised a great number of students. His focus on cyber security drew additional students to consult him on their research. He joined the annual ski trip for a day of skiing, and he is known to have enjoyed the chili served at the Mugar Café — a typical indicator that he didn’t simply buy his lunch and run.
The Fletcher faculty is loaded with nice people, but in any group of nice people, someone can still be the nicest. Bill was the nicest. As he walked through the building, he greeted everyone by name. If he didn’t recognize someone, he introduced himself. With his incredible ice-blue eyes, he transmitted kindness and warmth. He was one of those very rare individuals in the world about whom everyone had something good to say.
Bill was a true friend to the Admissions Office, and we loved working with him. He served three years as chair of the Committee on Admissions, and created an atmosphere of warmth and respect. He valued hearing what students and staff members had to say — no claims of faculty privilege for him. He checked with us to be sure he was doing all he could, and we needed to struggle not to take advantage of his generosity.
Even in this past year, when he was dealing with a serious illness, Bill made a special effort to stay on top of Admissions news. We would gleefully have welcomed him back to the Admissions Committee, but the dean decided to give him a light committee assignment load (like us, I’m sure, struggling not to take advantage of Bill’s willingness to jump in where he was needed). When Bill and I exchanged emails in September, we both said we’d look forward to working together again on the Admissions Committee in 2015-16. I truly meant it.
Unlike those who follow a typical path for a professor, taking a permanent position shortly after completing a PhD, Bill came to Fletcher with a rich teaching background, including a long stint at the Naval War College. As a result of joining Fletcher relatively late in his career, Bill was granted tenure only last May. Also in the spring, he was selected to receive the James L. Paddock Teaching Award. Because of his illness, he couldn’t accept the award in person, but he had his friend and colleague, Prof. Shultz, read his speech of thanks, in which he referred to students as the “center of gravity” at Fletcher, and emphasized the importance of a positive “can-do” attitude. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is grateful that Bill received these honors at a time when he might most appreciate them.
Bill will be formally remembered here at Fletcher in the spring. But even outside of formal opportunities for remembrance, Bill will be on the minds, and in the hearts, of all of us who knew him. Truly the nicest of men. An inspiration. And a real friend to the Admissions Office. We’ll miss him greatly.
Every summer the Registrar’s Office compiles the Course Bulletin that students pore over before they select their classes and which, inevitably, is out of date shortly after it’s printed. So each semester there’s a Bulletin Addendum, listing only one or two missed offerings in the fall, but often a longer list in the spring. The list we just received for Spring 2015 includes such interesting classes that I thought I would share it with you. I’ll provide the titles and course numbers, and you can find more info on the Course Descriptions page of the website.
DHP Division Courses
D218m: Influencing Policy and the Global Debate: Writing Analysis and Opinion
D233: Migration and Human Rights: Movement, Community, and Mobilization
P227m: Advanced Development and Conflict Resolution
P228m: Advanced Evaluation and Learning in International Organizations
P233: Information and Communication Technology for Sustainable Development
P258: Applied Research for Sustainable Development
P297: Engaging Human Security: Sudan and South Sudan
EIB Division Courses
B254: Cross-Sector Partnerships
E218: Applied Microeconometrics
Here’s some news from the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, a Fletcher research center. The center has a new director, Nadim Shehadi, and here’s what we learned about him in the announcement of his appointment:
For the past 30 years, Nadim Shehadi has been involved in directing and organizing research activities, both academic and policy oriented, principally at St. Antony’s College Oxford where he was director of the Center for Lebanese Studies and as an Associate in the Middle East Program at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
He has extensive experience working in the Middle East and North Africa including Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, and Libya. He has advised EU governments, European Institutions, and international donors in drafting foreign policy and assistance strategies for the Middle East and North Africa. He has been a visiting fellow at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC and also at the Fares Center in the spring of 2012.
Shehadi is frequently in the media, has written for publications such as The New York Times and The Guardian, and has a number of publications and edited books. He speaks French and Arabic and holds a bachelor’s degree in political economy from the University of Kent and a master’s degree in development economics from the University of Leicester.
This is especially good news, in that it follows an extended search. Sounds like the wait yielded a new director who will bring much policy and academic experience to the Fares Center.
Fall semester classes wrap up today. It already seems quieter in the building than a few days ago. Tomorrow and Thursday are “reading days,” and exams run from Friday through next Thursday. But we don’t fool ourselves — students will start peeling away from campus as soon as this weekend, and next week we’ll be seeing a tired-looking skeleton crew of a student community. That’s not to say that everyone who leaves campus before the final day of final exams has actually submitted all necessary assignments; students have the option of completing research papers or take-home exams from the comfort of their home country, family’s living room, or vacation destination.
This semester has blazed by! It doesn’t seem like three months have passed since the summer, when the staff was last toiling away in a quiet building. But students will be back in a month, and they’ve earned their break. We’ll just need to look forward to their return.
This fall’s alumni newsletter is filled with terrific information about the broader Fletcher community, including students, faculty, recent graduates, and alumni from across the decades. It provides a great picture of the perspectives that Fletcher folk bring to international issues. I hope you’ll check it out!
First-year MIB student, Nathalie (who has also conducted interviews for us — you may have met her!) offered to report on the recent career trip students took to New York City. Here’s the story:
Traditionally the Fletcher School student body goes on two career trips each year: to New York in January and then to Washington, DC a month later. These trips are renowned by students for the career opportunities they provide, and are also considered a no-miss event on the Fletcher social calendar. As the number of students interested in the intersection of the private and public sector grows, a need was identified to organize an additional career trip earlier in the academic year to meet the recruitment deadlines of some of the larger private sector companies. The International Business Club rose to the challenge and organized the student-run Private Sector NYC Career Trip in November. As one of the Club’s leadership team members — and coming to Fletcher this year with five years of work experience in the private sector — I wanted to share some of my impressions both of the day itself and the preparations leading up to the day.
We had begun our internship and job search preparation already with our first Professional Development Program (PDP) class during Orientation week. PDP continued through the first half of fall semester, with Friday mornings dedicated to refining our résumés, elevator pitches, and cover letters. This all felt very premature to me — I thought “I’ve just left my job. I’m planning on staying here for two years. What am I doing this for?!” — but after seeing that deadlines for consulting internships began in the fall, I quickly changed my tune. The New York Career Trip helped jump-start my internship preparation, and made sure I was 100 percent ready with an up-to-date CV and a great elevator pitch. The team leaders for each of the company visits were also very helpful, as they ensured participants were prepared for each meeting. (When trying to make a good impression to a potential employer, there can be such thing as a stupid question.…)
In total 81 students made the trip down I-95, visiting between us a total of 21 companies in one day! The companies ranged from Morgan Stanley to Major League Soccer, from Google to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and from Dalberg to Eurasia. I personally visited LRN, Monitor Deloitte, and Dalberg. Two of these sessions were hosted by Fletcher alums who were very helpful in their advice on finding a job in the private sector. They both recommended taking Corporate Finance at Fletcher, definitely making the many hours I am spending on the coursework now worth it! The other session was a more formal recruiting session; managers presented their company’s structure and projects, generating a lot of excitement about applying to their firm. The day was topped off with an Alumni Happy Hour, with NYC-based alums coming to meet and network with us. And then, as a true Fletcher student who is never one to miss the opportunity to explore, the rest of the weekend was spent with a group of my classmates discovering new parts of New York.
Overall, the trip was a resounding success, with lots of great feedback from students and alumni alike. Personally, it was a welcome opportunity to get the ball rolling on my internship search and it has motivated me to keep the momentum going, as some of the January deadlines are quickly approaching. The trip also showed me how students can really take an active role in the community at Fletcher, and are encouraged to do so. I was able to make direct connections with alumni and other interested employers, something not so typical in larger business programs — another Fletcher bonus to add to the already long list!
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed the second in a series of event announcements, each of which invited students to come and chat, over coffee, with a professor or fellow student. Great idea! So I contacted the organizer, Ameya, for details. Ameya told me:
The idea for these chats came about from a conversation early last year between some of us who had Prof. Chayes as our faculty adviser. She has, as you know, a wealth of experience; we were all interested in learning more about her career and interests, but it was hard to do this in ten-to-fifteen minute office hour conversations, plus it was repetitive for Prof. Chayes, as well. So we set up a combined chat for an hour or so, which all her advisees attended, and it was a tremendously valuable and informative experience.
Based off that, I started setting up similar chats — maybe once a month — with other professors. At some point, it also became clear there were students and alumni with valuable experience in specific areas, so this year I’ve started alternating between faculty and student/alumni speakers. I’ve consistently found the sessions both valuable, as well as reassuring, in that everyone has had a roundabout path to where they currently are in their careers.
Sessions last year were with Professors Babbitt, Wilkinson, and Johnstone, and one alumnus. This semester, we’ve met with two current students and Prof. Moomaw.
I really love this idea, especially the conversations with students, which formalizes the commonly stated opinion that there’s much to be learned from one’s peers here. Plus, it’s an example of how a student can create a new Fletcher tradition, and I hope that Ameya’s idea will be carried forward even after he has graduated.
Earlier this year, the Institute for Business in a Global Context took a look back at what it has accomplished in its first three years (and what it currently does) in pursuit of its mission to focus “on the interplay between global business and the key forces that shape the context in which enterprises operate.” The result was a nice publication! Take a look!
