On Monday, April 11th, Alcorn State University (ASU) welcomed the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Administrator, Samantha Power, to its campus for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony between USAID and ASU.
The day of events began in the Gold Room located in the Clinton Bristow Jr. Dining Hall as Administrator Power and Dr. Felecia M. Nave, 20th President of ASU, gave remarks addressing USAID’s Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) Initiative between USAID Eastern and Southern Caribbean Mission and ASU. USAID, an independent federal agency, aims at attracting ASU students and placing them in careers, internships, and/or fellowships in international affairs. The agency also aims at working with ASU to advance student learning and awareness in education, agriculture, climate change, science and technology, etc.
“I want to recruit on this campus so that students, many of whom are first generation students, many of whom are pell grant recipients, and who have had experiences in the world as well as the classroom that USAID can benefit from. I want them to consider working at the world’s premier development agency, an agency that’s trying to fight climate change and its effects abroad, an agency that’s trying to vaccinate the world, and stand up for human rights,” Administrator Power said.
In the partnership, ASU plans to raise awareness of international perspectives in its various curricula through study abroad and internationalization. In addition, ASU plans to facilitate USAID’s participation in onsite or virtual career fairs and facilitate a mentoring program to assist students interested in pursuing a career in international development or foreign affairs.
“Whether it’s corruption, authoritarianism, war, climate change, or COVID-19, if you can think of a hard problem, USAID’s scientists, engineers, economists, and journalists are at the heart of the problem trying to come up with solutions . . . Alcorn State’s role in all of that is to be a part of the solution and to take what has been largely, although not exclusively domestic expertise here that has been focused on the community, state, or country and integrate this great university into what we’re trying to do internationally,” Administrator Power said.
After the MOU signing, Administrator Power participated in a campus tour accompanied by Dr. Dovi Alipoe, Director of Global Programs, and LLJuna Weir, Executive Director of Educational Equity and Inclusion. Several stops in the campus tour included the Oakland Memorial Chapel, the Medgar Wiley Evers Memorial statue, and ASU’s Bookstore mural.
“I am looking forward to our next stop, the Mississippi River Research Center. . . USAID has missions in 80 countries, so the kind of research that is done here at the Mississippi River Research Center is research we might be able to take advantage of in some of our work whether it’s in pollution or getting more hydropower out of rivers around the world,” Administrator Power said. Her final stop at the Mississippi River Research Center located in the Center for Ecology and Natural Resources, featured a demonstration from ASU students.
For more information on USAID and its partnership with ASU, visit usaid.gov.
(Photo by Tommie Green)