The Humanity in Action (HIA) International Conference started last evening with a panel discussion with Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation and Cem Özdemir, Chairman of the Green Party in Germany. The entire conference is being held at the Bertelsmann Foundation in downtown Berlin, and the venue is a fantastic building built originally in the 1600s and has been completely rebuilt since.
It's been a while since I was an HIA Fellow, so if you're new to my blog, I'll catch you up on my affiliation to this program. In 2008, I was selected as one of 60 American Fellows—basically young university students from across the country who were selected based on leadership and commitment to human rights. It was arguably the most rigorous and intense international program in which I have participated to date, and I have been shaped tremendously by that opportunity.
I have written about my reunions over the past year with my old HIA buddies, since I did the Berlin Program and met many of my closest German friends on that program. And as I have undoubtedly mentioned a few times, I wrote my final research paper for the program then along with Oscar and Anton, both of whom I saw just a few weeks ago in Berlin.
Anyway, it's been great catching up with all the new Fellows and meeting other Senior Fellows from years past. There are Senior Fellows who did the Fellowship as far back as 1997 (I wasn't even 10 years old then!) and as recently as 2010. Last night, after the opening session, I joined some of the Dutch Senior Fellows for dinner at the local pizza place.
We had a good time stuffing our faces. Afterwards, we went to find a Kölsch place, because one of the Senior Fellows was craving some Kölsch. I have to admit: I'm not the biggest fan of Kölsch, but it's still okay to drink. Thankfully, I knew one place in Berlin that serves Kölsch (it's from Cologne, so you don't find it often in the eastern part of the country).
This morning, I headed back to the Bertelsmann Foundation for a full day of seminars and programs. It's been a while since I've had such an intense day of activities, so I was pretty wiped out. In fact, I accidentally dozed off in one or two of the sessions. Oops. It was really great to be back in such a rich and intellectually-challenging environment.
Our wonderful Executive Director and Founder, Judy Goldstein, is just plain awesome. She remembers when I was the "baby" in the program, since I was one of the youngest Fellows in 2008. In fact, a number of the new Fellows are older than me (actually quite a few of them are).
For Dream Project fans, I am happy to announce the sighting of a certain Benjamin Overton. Ben is a friend from the UW who is a Fellow in the Danish program this year. He had quite the adventure just to get to Berlin from Copenhagen, as EasyJet did not let the last five people of their group (yes, their traveling group) on the flight, because they had to close the gate at a certain time—even though the entire group arrived and moved toward the gate together. EasyJet, is there even a question why you're considered such a bad airline that is only existent because you're cheap? (Actually, I heard a rumor recently that they're on the verge of bankruptcy...).
During our breaks, we'd head outside into the April-like July summer weather in Berlin. It's nice to keep cool. Reminds me of Seattle.
Anton and I just seem to act like little kids when we hang out. Probably not the best Senior Fellow role models in those cases.
Tonight, we had a Senior Fellow Reunion Dinner, and we did our best to have a Berlin 2008 reunion table. Anton missed out on this picture, but Zach and Kathleen both joined me. We were trying to make some 2008 sign with our hands....clearly, we failed. But it was a fun evening nonetheless.
I was starving, so I piled the food on my plate...and then got a second similarly-packed plate and put that down too. I did some serious work, man...
Some of us headed outside for some fresh air after that and ended up having good conversations about our work, etc. In fact, we completely missed the awards ceremony that happened and walked back while one of our most successful (subjective definition) Senior Fellows was giving the keynote speech. So we waited by the door. But she was a fellow in the early 2000s and was recently elected to the European Parliament as a Dutch representative.
HIA is full of impressive young people who are seeking to be change agents in their community, and I'm very proud to be part of the program. I'm so glad the International Conference is in Berlin this year, because I can sleep in my own bed and show up at the conference by just taking my regular tram into town. It's perfect. Plus it's another excuse to wear my suit. :)
Tomorrow is our last full day, and then we will have a social event in the evening for all fellows. Then Sunday will be the final day, which is just in the morning and early afternoon. After that, I'm going to enjoy my summer and first days of being officially unemployed! Haha. Actually, the technical date is July 15th, but since I'm just about done with my Fulbright project, I should start thinking about the next steps.
Till next time,
Sam
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