Alumni Impact: Ahmed Ag Mohamed
Alumni Impact is a social media campaign that recognizes the excellent work being done by FIUTS alumni all around the world. This week, meet Ahmed!
Ahmed Ag Mohamed, 2020 SUSI alumnus and student of Communication d'entreprises at HETEC MALI.
Greetings! My name is Ahmed Ag Mohamed from Timbuktu, Mali. I participated in the SUSI on Civic Engagement in early 2020.
The SUSI experience changed my life. During my participation in the program, I discovered how Americans devote themselves to their community. I also learned how their work is rooted in American culture. I learned how to work with the unknown, just trusting the team's sense of dedication to work with people. Consequently, I found that I have become more professional than before the program. I improved my leadership, community service, project and relationship development, time management, and problem resolution skills. Thanks to our daily debriefing practice in Seattle, since my return to Mali, every night I reflect on what I did during the day.
Giving one’s time and effort to assist in one’s community is an enjoyable and inspiring idea. During my training on project implementation with Era Schrepfer, FIUTS Executive Director, at the University of Washington, I initiated a project called : "UN ÉTUDIANT, UNE ENTREPRISE". The purpose of this project is to empower students in entrepreneurship through a training program for 20 students from Timbuktu, Mali, providing hands on training with professional expertise and visits with local business leaders to promote student financial independence and business knowhow.
The skills that I developed during SUSI support the goal of my project through the visits to organizations and the experiential knowledge gained about their way of working every day. I continue to seek technical and finance partners for a good implementation of my community project.
Meanwhile, I conducted four sessions with youth in my country to share my SUSI experience with them. They not only enjoyed learning about my experience but were especially fascinated by the project I brought back. My SUSI experience effectively influenced me to make decisions in terms of civic engagement. Back at home in Timbuktu, I did not hesitate a second to take an initiative where I organized 10 young people to clean and rank books, manuscripts from the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research (IHERI-AB)
I will continue to work on my community project despite the disruption of the Coronavirus outbreak. I pray to God that this ends quickly and that the sick recover their good health!
My sincere thanks to: the United States Department of State, Meridian International Center, FIUTS, Professor Ryan Burt, my host family, my brother Ambassador Peter, the schools and organizations that welcomed us, and all American people for their hospitality!
God bless you!
SUSI programs promote a better understanding of the people, institutions, and culture of the United States among international students, teachers, and scholars. Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSIs) are short-term academic programs for groups of undergraduate leaders, educators, and scholars from around the world. Hosted by academic institutions throughout the United States, these 5- to 6-week Institutes include an intensive academic residency and an integrated educational study tour. Extracurricular cultural and community activities help to broaden the participants’ understanding of U.S. society. Learn more about SUSI programs here.
Guest posts on the FIUTS blog represent the experiences and views of individual writers. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FIUTS or any organizations or institutions affiliated with our programs.