WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE Report of Academic Year 2016-2017
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The William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College relies on both the Kahane United Nations Program Endowment and the Kahane Scholars Endowment to enhance the excellence of this distinctive program and ensure access for the very best students regardless of their financial circumstances. The enclosed report provides information on both Kahane endowments and their impact on this exceptional program and this past year’s cohort of students.
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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE
YEAR IN REVIEW BY DOUG GARDNER Faculty Director of the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College
The Kahane UN Program, with its experience-based approach to education, continues to be a flagship program of the College that attracts an expanding base of interest from Oxy students. The number of students enrolled in the program in 2016 grew to 18. Participants were selected through a competitive application process and successfully completed demanding internships in the UN system as well as a rigorous academic program. This combination of essentially a full-time professional job with the demands of two important courses challenged each of the participants to advance toward their fullest potential. The fall of 2016 was a particularly historic time to be at the United Nations, with the election of a new U.S. president and a new UN secretary general. Both of these changes in global leadership have tremendous immediate and long-term implications for the work of the UN. This will no doubt be a major focus for the students participating in the fall 2017 program. Fall 2016 Semester Highlights: Select highlights from the fall 2016 semester as well as lessons learned from this past year include: • We are continuing to find that the preparatory steps taken before students arrive in New York are essential to a student’s success in the program. In addition to the detailed briefings on campus and the all-important interactions with students from the previous year, there was an additional orientation held in New York with eight alumni of the UN program who are now working professionals. This gave the new cohort a chance to place their forthcoming experience at the UN in the context of future career paths. The feedback we received from students regarding this additional orientation was extremely positive. • There was again good diversity in the 2016 cohort, with six out of the 18 participants being students of color, and 14 out of the 18 students being women. • The internships remain the cornerstone of the program, providing Oxy students with the unique opportunity for experiential learning while contributing to the work of the UN system. Students engaged in numerous critical global issues that the UN was addressing during the fall of 2016. Prominent among those issues was the refugee crisis related to the conflict in Syria that has tremendously impacted multiple agencies in the UN system and was a focus of virtually all diplomatic missions. Note that the Syrian refugee crisis also became the theme for the UN Week held on Oxy’s campus in February 2017.
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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE
• With the increased number of students in the program, we added four new internship hosts. These internships were selected after careful consideration of both the needs and dynamism of the host and the specific interests and skill sets of the students. The placement of the right student in the right internship is a crucial element for the success of the program, so: »» A pre-med student was placed on the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) HIV and health policy team. »» An economics major was placed on UNICEF’s long-term policy and planning team. »» A diplomacy and world affairs major with strong interpersonal skills was placed in an outreach arm of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). »» A student with a passion for sustainable development goals (SDGs) and poverty elimination was placed in the Rwanda Mission’s development wing. • An anecdote that typifies the extraordinary opportunities (often unexpected) that these students experience in their internships involves Ama Peiris ’17, one of last year’s Kahane Scholars, who interned in the development wing of the Rwanda Mission. She found that her supervisor had suddenly departed in September and was not being immediately replaced. While at first intimidated by the scope of responsibilities she now faced, as a talented young professional she calmly rose to the occasion. She learned quickly on the job and represented with distinction her Mission in numerous committee meetings throughout the semester. That experience showed the versatility and courage of this young talent to seize the opportunity of basically leading a key function of the Mission when initially she was just to be an intern on the team. Flowing from this experience at the Rwanda Mission and following Ama’s graduation from Oxy in May 2017, she has been hired by the Sri Lanka Mission to the UN in a professional capacity as a research officer/policy analyst. More information about Ama can be found in her reflective statement, which has been included in this report. • The feedback from all 18 students from the 2016 semester indicates that each had a meaningful internship experience. The sense of fulfillment they feel from contributing to the work of the UN at the end of an intense internship has always been powerful. This year the placement and number of interns were as follows:
UK MISSION 3 interns COSTA RICA MISSION 2 interns GUATEMALA MISSION 1 intern RWANDA MISSION 2 interns UNICEF 2 interns
UNHCR
UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ACTION CAMPAIGN 1 intern
2 interns
UNITAR 1 intern
UNDP 2 interns (THE OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES)
UNFPA
(UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND)
UN FOUNDATION 1 intern
1 intern
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YEAR IN REVIEW BY DOUG GARDNER Faculty Director of the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College
The academic segment of the program is closely linked with the internships, and the substantive issues addressed in the academic segment are frequently the same matters that students face in their internships. As in years past, there were two classes in the program, one in human development and the other in conflict prevention, in addition to the biweekly seminar, “The UN Experience,” that helps students process their internships and gives them the opportunity to learn from guest speakers. This biweekly seminar was added in 2014. The theme focuses on an in-depth look at leaders and leadership at the UN. Leadership styles from each internship are examined, and this academic component helps to build upon other scholarly research related to leadership at the UN. In 2016, various guest speakers also addressed our students to give them a wider perspective on issues and individuals working within or with the UN. These were thought leaders in subjects related to gender equality, the Paris Climate Change Accord, various threads in SDG implementation, diplomatic protocol in the UN and much more. As an example, Steph Djurric, the secretary general’s spokesperson, gave particular insights into the inner workings and decisionmaking at the highest levels of leadership in the UN. The dynamic exchange with all of these speakers allowed students to engage not only on important, substantive issues but also to see how careers of UN officials unfold. Career paths were understandably a topic of great interest to these Oxy seniors who were about to embark on their own careers after graduation. In our conflict-prevention class, with its focus on architecture, actors, tools and praxis, the objective was to enable students to develop a conceptual and practical understanding of conflict prevention and resolution as a process and as an institutional form as it relates to the role of the United Nations in the promotion of human security. To achieve this objective, the course relied on the active participation and involvement of students to augment their understanding of present-day conflict prevention and resolution situations. Individual assignments involving analytical summaries of weekly readings and the submission of policy briefs on topical issues were key elements of the class. This was supplemented by team oral exercises including group presentations of the readings and thematic modular policy reports focused on gender, migration and counterterrorism. Within the human development class, task-force methodology has become our main learning pillar. This represents a shift away from the classic classroom methodology to one where students work as a de facto consultant team to solve a problem for a UN client that concludes with an oral and written presentation at the end of the semester.
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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE
The director targeted a client who had a practical need for student engagement on a real-life issue and was willing to be a mentor to these young professionals from Oxy, who would then be working in two task forces composed of nine students each. This year UNDP was selected as the client. They sought student support to provide carefully researched input for a progress report called for under Security Council Resolution #2250 on youth, peace and security. The client at UNDP sought to gather together lessons learned from youth engagement in building peace and avoiding violent extremism in three regions: the Middle East, the Balkans and the Caribbean. Students undertook interviews and researched case studies from these regions. Their final reports carried some insightful recommendations that brought to life the full potential that youth can play in peace and security around the globe. With these Oxy seniors being 21 years of age, this work represented youth speaking about youth — something that was specifically sought after by UNDP. The client at UNDP gave extraordinary praise for the work done by these young Oxy professionals. Their task force reports have been circulated and they have been an important contribution to the progress report called for by the Security Council. Additionally, there were a number of events planned throughout the semester that complemented various components of the program. These include: • The visit to Washington, D.C. in mid-November. In meetings on Capitol Hill and at the State Department, the White House, Brookings, etc., students considered how and where the U.S. government leverages the UN to advance U.S. foreign policies. One of the highlights of this visit was an hour-long meeting with Secretary Jeh Johnson of Homeland Security. The timing of the visit was just after the U.S. presidential election, so there was then a tremendous uncertainty about what lay ahead with the new administration. • A December reception at the home of Bill and Elizabeth Kahane was a special moment in the semester for the students. In addition to the warmth and hospitality of the evening, there was an engaging discussion about the U.S. presidential election and how this impacted the students. Similarly, a Thanksgiving event at the Kahanes was a chance for students to savor this U.S. holiday in a welcoming family environment. • There was also a close link between the New York-based activities of the program and the L.A. campus activities related to the UN. As a prime example, after returning to campus, the fall 2016 cohort participated in a panel presentation that was a highlight of UN Week, which took place on campus in February 2017. Returnees shared with excitement their internship experiences at the UN as well as the critical issues that were being addressed by the UN. A dynamic exchange ensued, largely with students who were considering the program during their senior year. This peer-to-peer sharing from one class to the next enhances the interest of future participants and is also a hallmark of the program.
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YEAR IN REVIEW BY DOUG GARDNER Faculty Director of the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College
Looking Forward to 2017 With a track record of over 30 years, and with generous support from the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program Endowment, the opportunities for 2017 will revolve around continued refinement of the core elements of the program while seizing new opportunities that will deepen students’ learning and enhance the overall value of the program. Several of the opportunities envisaged for 2017 include: • Giving students a practical perspective on how the UN functions at the field level during a one-week visit to Costa Rica in November. A rigorous schedule in both the capital and in rural communities will provide students with a grass-roots perspective on key development practices and how and where the UN is engaged in this middle-income country. This first-ever field visit by the program to a member state will be a practical opportunity to study how the country’s government utilizes the UN to advance its policies and how global decisions at the UN are implemented (or not) at the national and local levels. The director’s discretionary funds from the Kahane UN Endowment make this valuable addition to the program possible. • Deepening the relationship with alumni of the program is an important focus of the College in 2017. To kick off this effort, all alumni of the program over the past 30 years will be invited to an October reception in New York. Likewise, an up-to-date database is being refined so that students in the program will have access to alumni for networking and possible job opportunities. Tightening the bond with the 400+ alumni of the program represents a huge window of opportunity. • The 18 students selected as the cohort for fall 2017 represent a particularly talented cohort from Oxy. They are being placed in internships that will challenge them while providing an opportunity to contribute to key issues that the UN is facing. With budget constraints at the UN and uncertainties surrounding the direction of the new U.S. administration, the innovative and creative ideas of Oxy interns will be at a premium.
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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE
REMARKS BY PROFESSOR ANTHONY CHASE Kahane Oxy-at-the-UN Committee Co-Chair
During its second year, a portion of the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program Endowment was used to realize its initial promise of complementing the Kahane Oxy-at-the-UN program by “Bringing the UN to Los Angeles.” Programming from this year was largely organized under the overarching theme of “Can the United Nations Empower Social Change?” The UN’s relevance to Oxy’s campus was brought home through endowment support for programming in three major areas: 1) intellectual events addressing major issues intersecting with UN work; 2) an academic workshop facilitating research that overlaps with UN work; 3) faculty-student interaction that builds community around UNfocused conversations. The below contains an overview of last year’s events within these domains. Intellectual Events UN Week: Through Refugees’ Eyes Coordinated by Adjunct Assistant Professor Sherry Simpson-Dean and organized by a diplomacy and world affairs student group (Jayne Wixtead ’19, Zach Solomon ’19, Allegra Messina ’19 and Jack Allen ’19), this year’s UN Week (February 13-18) was both ambitious and impactful. Students were able to powerfully confront the Oxy campus with the realities of refugee lives in many of their dimensions. This was accomplished through talks by prominent speakers (including Refugee International’s Michel Gabaudan), a faculty panel that made clear how diplomacy and world affairs are constituted by refugee experiences (featuring Oxy professors Lan Chu, Sophal Ear and Sanjeev Khagram), direct engagement with refugee work and art by Syrian artist Abdulazez Dukhan, virtual reality exhibits and a hack-a-thon. This was, simply, a significant and unforgettable week as we addressed one of the most prominent issues facing the international community. Speakers This past year we were able to bring a number of prominent speakers to campus. Highlights included a visit by former Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, who talked about innovative approaches to economic development to a packed Choi Auditorium. Other speakers included Chandra Sriram (University of East London), Dennis Altman (La Trobe University) and Jane McPherson (University of Georgia), who discussed with students issues that ranged from the intersection of human rights with sexuality and how human rights can inform more effectice social work. In addition, practitioners like Jon Marks, Jay Soloman and Ambassador Ivo Daalder engaged students with the on-the-ground realities of global politics. OXY.EDU
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REMARKS BY PROFESSOR ANTHONY CHASE Kahane Oxy-at-the-UN Committee Co-Chair
Academic Workshop Professor Chase organized an academic workshop at Occidental from Nov. 16-17, 2016, focusing on “Where to Go After the Middle Eastern Counter-Revolutions? The UN, Social Movements and Empowering Human Rights and Democratic Change From the Ground Up.” This workshop explored if and how the United Nations and transnational social movements can empower local actors to advance human rights and democratic change in the Middle East. The participants (listed below) are among the world’s most prominent academics and intellectuals engaged on these issues in theoretical and practical ways. The two-day workshop focused on the following “moving forward” questions: • How is it that the Middle East uprisings were repressed? • Are there theories of a path forward out of the current morass? • Is there a need for greater focus on the nexus of human rights and democratic change — are they interdependent in ways that have not been sufficiently discussed by theorists in those domains? • Can UN agencies impact this operationally and can UN-inflected norms impact this more generally? • Are rights resilient? In other words, in the face of resurgent authoritarianism, are the impulses behind the Middle East uprisings normatively and politically engrained enough such that their salience will reemerge? • Are counter-revolutionary movements global — i.e., are these counter-revolutions regionally exceptional or are they part of a global wave? • What are ways to focus future academic research on these questions?
Participants: • Fateh Azzam, director of the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship and senior policy fellow at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Relations, both at the American University in Beirut • Huss Banai, University of Indiana • Anthony Tirado Chase, Occidental College
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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE
• Youssef Chouhoud, University of Southern California • Mark LeVine, University of California at Irvine • Khaled Mansour, Arab Reform Initiative • Pardis Mahdavi, Pomona College • Amr Shalakany, American University in Cairo and Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton
Faculty-Student Interaction “Learning About the United Nations Through Culture and Cuisine” This forum for faculty-student interaction was initiated at the end of 2015-2016, but became much more established during 2016-2017. The animating idea is to break bread around food from a specific country as a way to bring together diplomacy and world affairs professors and students to discuss the United Nations’ past or current presence in that country. These gatherings have three main goals: • Strengthening the community among diplomacy and world affairs students; • Strengthening community among diplomacy and world affairs students and professors; • Increasing freshman and sophomore interest in the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental.
Each event has roughly 6-8 participants, including one professor and 5-7 students. Although serious topics are discussed, these dinners move beyond classroom dynamics, enabling casual and stimulating conversation. Each person in the group, including the professor, is assigned a related news article to read that they are expected to present to the group. This year students and faculty came together around the UN’s impact around the following countries and issues: • Brazil and sexual orientation and gender identity-related human rights (at Tropicalia Brazilian restaurant). • Armenian/Cambodian genocide (at Raffi’s Place, an Armenian-Iranian restaurant). • Syria and chemical weapons (at Kismet Middle Eastern restaurant).
Thank you — we appreciate the generous support of the Kahane UN Program Fund and the resources it has given us to foster greater intellectual connections and conversations as a campus community this past year around the theme of ‘Can the United Nations Empower Social Change?’ The ability to engage a wider group of students and to effectively bring the UN to Los Angeles has been both a great asset to Occidental and a motivation to our students and faculty.
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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE