McDonnell Academy, Eisenhower Fellowships partner in new program

The McDonnell International Scholars Academy has partnered with Eisenhower Fellowships, a non-partisan, non-profit organization headquartered in Philadelphia, to launch a new international leadership program in St. Louis.

The St. Louis International Leadership Initiative will identify emerging local leaders and send them abroad to enhance their professional and personal growth, broaden their international perspectives and serve as U.S. ambassadors.

The initiative also will expand the number of international Eisenhower Fellows who regularly visit St. Louis.

“The St. Louis International Leadership Initiative gives Washington University and the St. Louis community an important new way to connect with the international scene,” said James V. Wertsch, Ph.D., the Marshall S. Snow Professor in Arts & Sciences and director of the McDonnell Academy.

“By partnering with this group, we will be able to help bring more international guests to St. Louis and send more St. Louisans to other regions of the world,” Wertsch added. “It’s an exciting time to be finding new ways to work with partners in the United States and the rest of the world as we build the McDonnell International Scholars Academy here at Washington University.”

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and John F. McDonnell, vice chairman of the Board of Trustees, will co-chair a local steering committee that will recommend a roster of candidates each year based on the professional fields they determine to be critical to the region’s future. Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond, R-Mo., will serve as honorary chairman.

The initiative brought 11 international Eisenhower Fellows to St. Louis last week to engage with McDonnell Academy Scholars, the broader University and the local business community. In addition to visits to the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, the Genome Sequencing Center and the Boeing Leadership Center, the fellows had individual professional appointments throughout the St. Louis area.

For more than 50 years, Eisenhower Fellowships has been a leader in promoting international understanding and developing individual leaders throughout the world. Each year, approximately 55-60 fellows join the group. The organization has sponsored fellows from more than 100 countries.

Headquartered at the University, the McDonnell Academy enrolls exceptional graduate and professional students from Partner Universities across all graduate disciplines and professional schools at the University.

These future leaders have all expenses toward their degree work paid, including tuition, room, board and travel.

The McDonnell Academy not only provides them rigorous graduate instruction in their chosen areas of study, but also uniquely steeps them in a cultural, political and social education program designed to prepare them as future leaders knowledgeable about the United States, other countries and critical international issues.

In addition to its program for scholars, the Academy collaborates on initiatives such as the St. Louis International Leadership Initiative and sponsors events such as the International Symposium on Energy and Environment May 4-7.

For more information, visit mcdonnell.wustl.edu.