Introducing our Hubert H. Humphrey fellows for 2015-16, a dozen midcareer professionals from Africa, Asia and South America. You can see their names below and photo at right, and you’re invited to hear them give short presentations next week.

The federal government sponsors Humphrey fellows at universities around the country for 10 months of nondegree study as well as professional affiliation experiences.

During the summer, 33 other Humphrey fellows came to UC Davis for preacademic English orientation and training en route to their “home” colleges for the year. UC Davis Extension’s Center for International Education has been providing Humphrey fellowship training for 21 years.

Manuel M. Bugueno of Chile also came for training this summer — but he stayed on as one of our university’s 12 fellows for the year. The others, who arrived in August, are from Argentina, Bolivia, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Georgia, Madagascar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sudan.

President Jimmy Carter established the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program in 1978, in honor of the late senator and vice president, a longtime advocate of international cooperation and understanding. The UC Davis program is housed at International House.

Part of the community

Each fellow is accepted into one of 17 designated fields of study. All of UC Davis’ 2015-16 fellows are in either natural resources, environmental policy and climate change; or agriculture and rural development.

At next week's program, the fellows will talk about their work and tell how their time here will contribute to improvements at home, in such areas as commercial scale energy production, water management and purification, food security-safety, sustainable rural development in post-conflict areas, postharvest production, natural disaster management, table grape production and rangeland conservation.

UC Davis Extension’s Center for International Education is working with the fellows on business writing and presentation skills.

And, while the fellows are just now introducing themselves in a formal way, they’ve already been out and about in the community, at the Davis Farmers Market, for example, and as volunteers for the city’s Apartment Move-Out Waste Reduction Program. They also are planning to help with the International Festival, Oct. 4, and Meals and Wheels.

Nikki Grey Rutamu, assistant director of the campus’s Hubert H. Humprhey Fellowship Program, said the fellows are happy to hear about other community service opportunities, and to consider invitations to speak at educational and cultural events.

More information about UC Davis’ Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program is available online. The program also has a Facebook page.

HUMPHREY FELLOWS, 2015-16

This year’s Humphrey fellows, with home country and work information:

Natural resources, environmental policy and climate change

• Muhammad Ahmad, Pakistan, national project manager, sustainable energy, U.N. Industrial Development Organization
• Kakhaber Bakhtadze, Georgia, socioeconomic geographer, environment and development
• Manuel Patricio Bugueño, Chile, environmental engineer, Environmental Assessment Agency
• Humberto Camacho, Bolivia, national coordinator, Bolivia Project Office
• Tannia Margarita Mayorga Torres, Ecuador, auxiliary professor in geology, mining and oil, Universidad Central del Ecuador
• Harum Mukhayer, Sudan, natural resource policy specialist, Darfur Development and Reconstruction Agency
• Zhong Zhao, China, director, Green Camel Bell

Agriculture and rural development

• Buddhi Ram Chaudhary Tharu, Nepal, livelihood specialist, freelance contractor
• Tania Guzman, Colombia, rural development consultant
• Sam Oeurn Ke, Cambodia, agricultural value chain and rural business adviser, Netherlands Development Organization (SNV)
• Maria Beatriz Pugliese, Argentina, researcher and professor, Viticulture Agricultural Experimental Station, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria
• Nirina Fenoarifara Randriambololona, Madagascar, agronomist, COLEACP (Europe-ACP Liaison Committee, representing European and African, Caribbean and Pacific businesses that promote sustainable agriculture)

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