Twelve Mandela Washington Fellows visited the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the club's July 26 meeting. The fellows, who represent countries of SubSaharan Africa, are visiting the United States as part of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. They were selected as fellows based on their professional accomplishments and their commitment to improving their communities. The 12 that visited on July 26 are part of a group of 24 who will visit the club on July 26 and August 2 during their visit to Jackson. They are hosted by North Jackson Rotarian Dr. Sharon A. Simmions who is a professor of Business and Entrepreneurship at Jackson State University.
The following photo shows the group with Club President Larry Anderson (rear center) at the meeting.
Also shown in the following photo is fellow Bongekile Matsenjwa (center) a chemical engineer from Eswatini the newest country on the African Continent with Club President Larry Anderson (left) and Rotarian and chemical engineer Bill Osborne (right). Ms. Matsenj was selected for the YALI program because of her work to get more women into the STEM (Science, Technical, Engineering, and mathematics) fields. She is completing her Ph.D. in Engineering Administration at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
We thank the fellows for visiting our club and hope that their visit to the United States is both pleasant and beneficial to them.