My Leadership Development at Meridian

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The most recent group of Amal Fellows

Over the past few years, I have learned that it is impossible to achieve your goals, realize your dreams or understand where you are going in your journey without help. In my pursuit of poverty alleviation, I started volunteering at the age of 18 and ever since I have been volunteering with organizations around the world in various capacities. I am now playing a role in the further development of my home country Pakistan, none of which would be possible without the people, governments, and organizations that invested in my professional development and skills acquisition. One of the most...

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A Profile of IVLP Alumni Becoming Heads of State

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A Profile of IVLP Alumni Becoming Heads of State

The 75th Anniversary of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) is a major milestone in the program’s history. It offers us a chance to reflect on the impact of the program by examining the numbers. More than 335 current or former heads of government are IVLP alumni. Meridian International Center is proud to have coordinated the programs of 168 of these alumni. I compiled basic data on these world leaders to see what sort of statistics could be gleaned. I focused on their age when they participated in the IVLP, how many years afterward they became a head of government and what was the length of their term. I also marked their gender and if they were currently in office.

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3 Months Home: An Interview with IVLP Alumna Khairunnisa Ash’ari from Brunei

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Khairunnisa and the group visited America's Promise Alliance in Washington, DC.

This is the first post of a new initiative where we will feature a U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumnus who, three months out from their IVLP experience, is putting into practice ideas and concepts gleaned during the IVLP study tour. Here we feature Ms. Khairunnisa Ash’ari, Director of Community Engagement for Green Brunei and a Committee Member of the Brunei Youth Council. She participated in a group project on Volunteerism and Youth. We followed up with Ms. Ash’ari to learn about her experience since IVLP and lessons learned.

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IVLP and the Rise in Women Leaders

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As pioneers in their career paths female IVLP alumnae are prominent in the growth of women’s leadership around the world.

The 75th Anniversary of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) is a major milestone in the program’s history. It offers us a chance to reflect on the impact of the program by examining the numbers. More than 335 current or former heads of government are IVLP alumni. Meridian International Center is proud to have coordinated the programs of 168 of these alumni.

I compiled basic data on these world leaders to see what sort of statistics could be gleaned. I focused on their age when they participated in the IVLP, how many years afterward they became a head of government and what was the length of their term. I also marked their gender and if they were currently in office.

The first lens that I would like to use to discuss the data is that of women leadership. While the rise of women leaders has been slow, its increase in recent years has been dramatic. In 1960 Sri Lanka elected the first female head of government in modern history, Sirimavo Bandaranaike. The second female head of government came in 1966 when Indira Gandhi became India’s first female Prime Minister. Gandhi was also the first female IVLP alumna to serve as the head of government. 13 years later in 1979 Margaret Thatcher became the second female IVLP alumna to serve as the head of government. The IVLP programs of both Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher were coordinated by Meridian International Center.

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