2016 Fellows

June 2016

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Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship sends young Ethiopian diaspora professionals to Ethiopia to serve 6-month fellowships. The organization trains fellows on leadership, service, creative storytelling, identity and professional development while providing an opportunity for fellows to work with partner organizations in Ethiopia. This year, they are thrilled to announce the Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship’s cohort of 2016.  After receiving impressive and competitive applications from highly qualified members of the young Ethiopian diaspora community, the selection committee chose the next 5 EDF fellows to pave the way for the new generation. We are very excited to watch members of their new class – Aster, Bethlehem, Mariam, Sergut and Kidist – bring their professional and personal experiences to EDF. For any additional information please visit their website at www.ethiopiandiasporafellowship.org.

 

 

Aster Mengesha Gubay

Partner organization: Veritas

Aster holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations specializing in African Affairs and a master’s degree in Public Policy (M.P.P) from the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs, at George Mason University. Alongside her studies, she served as the VP for the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GAPSA) and worked closely with faculty, the student body, and alumni associations to ensure adequate African diaspora representation in policy discussions concerning the continent. Currently, she is an analyst/contractor with the Department of Homeland Security where she is expanding her consulting experience with the federal government. Prior to consulting, she was the lead Research/Grant intern with the DC Mayor’s Office on African Affairs (OAA). As an intern, she researched, compiled, and stratified demographic data, pertaining to African immigrants and coordinated capacity building and informational sessions for the District’s culturally and linguistically diverse African immigrant community. Aster is extremely excited to be a part of the second EDF cohort, and looks forward to contributing to the diaspora’s impact on the continent.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aster-mengesha-gubay-75202138

 

 

Bethlehem Mesfin

Partner Organization: Kifiya

Bethlehem Mesfin received her BS in Management, with dual concentrations in Marketing and Leadership & Consulting from Binghamton University (SUNY) in New York. Since graduating, she has been employed at Morgan Stanley, and is currently working as an HR Operations Analyst. She first worked on the Executive Compensation team, evaluating and administering deferred compensation. As an analyst on the HR Operations team, she works on the firmwide Performance Management system by processing the full lifecycle of annual performance evaluations. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Pi, one of the largest co-ed professional business fraternities in the United States. Bethlehem is excited to become an EDF fellow in order to serve in Ethiopia, learn more about her culture, and to learn of ways she can contribute towards financial and technological development within the country.

 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethlehem-mesfin-3609a640

 



 

Mariam Admasu

Partner organization: ILAE

Mariam Admasu is an Ethiopian-American from Portland, Oregon. She graduated from the University of Oregon in the spring of 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Family and Human Services. During her undergraduate career, she mentored high school students in the community through a program called ASPIRE. She also mentored incoming freshmen on her university campus through a program called IMPACT.  She takes pride in mentoring and shaping leaders of the future. For her senior project, she worked as a juvenile counselor at the Lane County Juvenile Detention Center where she was given the opportunity to shift mindsets of underprivileged youth. Collectively, her professional and personal experiences have lead her to realize that every adolescent needs a mentor and someone who believes in them. She understands the stigmas facing Ethiopian youth, and acknowledges that equipping our youth with leadership skills can capsize these stigmas. Mariam is thrilled to be able to use her experiences to help youth in Ethiopia break barriers through the development of confident leaders in their communities.

 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariamadmasu

 

 

 

Sergut Dejene

Partner organization: EDC

Sergut is currently a gift officer at the University of Chicago and works with alumni from the College to strengthen annual philanthropic support through the University’s reunion program. Prior to that, Sergut served as a program manager at U. Chicago’s Career Advancement office, and has experience building and leveraging relationships with stakeholders both in the U.S. and in Asia.  Additionally, Sergut is the founder and president of the Auxiliary Board for the Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago, where she leads young Ethiopian professionals in the planning and execution of various social events. More recently, Sergut founded the city’s annual Ethiopia Fest where she led marketing efforts and established partnerships with Ethiopian-American entrepreneurs.  Sergut is excited to join EDF and learn how she can leverage her experiences to tackle challenges facing Ethiopia’s entrepreneurship sector. Sergut holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sergutdejene

 



 

Kidist Tesfaye

Partner organization: St. Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC)

Kidist Tesfaye is a recent graduate from the University of Minnesota where she has attained her Bachelors of Individualized Studies. She dedicated her undergrad studies in Public Health, Global Studies, and Strategic Communications with a minor Spanish. She has been affiliated with or served on the board for the, Ethiopian Student Association, Students for the Horn of Africa, Black Motivated Women, African Student Union, and the Undergraduate Public Health Association. Her direct involvement in a variety of student and non-profit organizations like the American Relief Agency for the Horn of Africa is a reflection of her dedication to bridging the gap between the diaspora and her country of origin. Kidist has spent the last five years working at TCF Bank. As a member on the management team, she has developed exceptional leadership and operational skills. She has also committed over 4 years volunteering at the Methodist Hospital where she has been a part of innovative expansions and operational efforts valuable for the advancement of healthcare in the US. Kidist is excited to be a part of the second cohort of EDF fellows. It has been her lifetime dream to contribute to the growth of hospitals in Ethiopia, and she is eager to contribute to this effort through the fellowship.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kidist-tesfaye-46647bb1

Ayiba Magazine

Building Bridges Home

April 2016

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As Ethiopia grows to become the second largest population in Africa, Ethiopian-Americans are America’s second largest diaspora. While many first-generation diaspora develop connections to their ancestral homeland, the path to finding opportunities to work and travel to Ethiopia doesn’t always seem so clear. The Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship (EDF), founded by Rediate Tekeste, engages young Ethiopian-American professionals who want to serve, connect, and lead their community. Ayiba’s Akinyi Ochieng recently spoke to Rediate about her plan to build more bridges between Ethiopia and its diaspora.

 

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What’s the story behind EDF?

I was born in Ethiopia, but grew up in Iowa. My parents moved to America for scholarships in Minnesota. For there, they got additional scholarships at the University of Northern Iowa. Iowa is similar to Ethiopia in the openness of the people. In the town where I grew up, people would leave their doors open and neighbors interacted a lot. That was the way my parents wanted to raise us in Ethiopia. The only difference in Iowa was that everyone was American.

 

My Ethiopian heritage was front-and-center in my household, but I also spent a lot of time visiting relatives who lived in Minneapolis, which was only three hours away.

 

During college, my mother took us back to Ethiopia for the first time since left. It was the first time I was in a place where everyone looked like me and knew how to pronounce my name. We got off the plane, and saw people who hadn’t seen me since I was three years old. They were crying and hugging me. It was a moment of belonging, but even as we walked around, there was still a feeling a difference. A lot of diaspora will feel this sentiment of push-and-pull, of belonging but not quite fitting in.

 

 

Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship emerged from that feeling. After college, I went back to Ethiopia for three months and ended up staying a year in Addis and traveling all over the country as I worked for World Vision. I got to see places in Ethiopia that my parents hadn’t even seen and experience the richness of the country’s diversity, something that most diaspora don’t get to see.

 

After I moved back to America, I started working on a documentary film that sent me back to Ethiopia a couple of times. I just kept getting opportunities to go back to Ethiopia and be in that space in different roles.

 

During graduate school, my thesis was supposed to focus on how to integrate millennial diaspora back into Ethiopia. It didn’t end up working out due to the difficulties of coordinating schedules with different groups, so I ended up focusing on another topic. But I still had all this literature about how important the diaspora was to development, and I couldn’t walk away from the idea.

 

In August 2014, I worked with Meseret Hailu (our current Program Director) to send out a survey to Ethiopian diaspora to figure out if this is something other people would be interested in doing—in going back to Ethiopia and serving. We started off the survey thinking we’d get 200 people at most. We got almost four hundred people responding in three weeks to over twenty-three questions. It was a lightbulb moment for us. Seventy-six percent of respondents considered themselves two or more cultures. These first-generation kids really embraced the idea of a fluid identity.

 

We used the survey results, the work I had initially done on my thesis, and forged connections with other diaspora focused groups like Indicorps, which works with the Indian diaspora. Indicorps no longer operates, but the founder was integral to us getting EDF off the ground. We’re focused on investing deeply in a smaller group of people rather than casting our net too wide at first.

 

Do you think that there are other countries that have been successful at mobilizing their diaspora that Ethiopia and other African countries can look to for lessons?

We are learning from many diaspora populations – including people from older Ethiopian communities. There is this movement of African diaspora and you can almost feel the energy within us. Outside of Africa, we’ve also learned a lot from the Indian diaspora since 1 of our advisors is a leader in their space.

 

The point that the Indicorps founder made was that they were sending Indians back to India before it was cool to do so. Back when they started in 2000, people weren’t excited to go back to India. One of the reasons they stopped the program in 2012 because young diaspora were going back on their own.

 

While it’s not the reason that people started going back, it did help increase visibility. There’s a time and a place when organizations like Indicorps, and now the Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship, are needed. When they aren’t needed anymore, we should be satisfied because it means that we will no longer have to be the bridge and it’ll be easier to just go back and forth.

 

Would you say it’s still difficult for Ethiopian diaspora to just move back and start a business or go back and find a job?

Definitely. I would say it’s difficult for young millennials in the diaspora to go  back and find meaningful work. Despite growing up in Ethiopian households in the  diaspora, there are many who don’t know the culture or language. On top of that, starting anything in Ethiopia comes with some red tape.  As young, black children of immigrants, many often lack social capital at home in the  United States and then abroad in Ethiopia.

 

Why did you decide to make EDF a six-month program?

The fellowship is trying to answer human resource capacity issues that persist even as Ethiopia develops. The second issue is the diasporic identity and the idea of “deficiency” –of not quite being enough of anything. We’re trying to shift from that view of deficiency to one of cultural empowerment. What about the bi-cultural experience is an asset? You’re a cultural translator, an ambassador who can walk into various spaces and understand the differences and similarities that bring people together. That’s the shift we’re trying to achieve.

 

Six months seemed practical in terms of management and experience. A few weeks weren’t sufficient, but we wanted to give enough time to create those shifts in thinking.

 

We sent five people last year, and two of them got full-time positions and are staying in Ethiopia. Naome, grew up in Atlanta, had never been to Ethiopia, and was  minimally proficient in Amharic. Now, she’s working full-time, proficient in Amharic and loving her position.

 

Is that the kind of experience you’re aiming for with EDF fellows?

If it’s right for you at that time in your life, you’ll stay. We’d love for that to happen. But just because you return to the US doesn’t mean you’re not still connected. One of our fellows who returned to start a Ph.D. program actually switched his focus from business to education because of his experience in Ethiopia. We need some of those people to come back because to really foster that exchange behind Ethiopia and its diaspora, we need to have thought leaders on both sides of the ocean.

 

How do you establish relationships with partners?

Our first year, we established connections through people. I had met a number of people during my year in Ethiopia, and we also tapped into our network of family and friends. The second year, we obtained many current partners through word-of-mouth or through stumbling across our website. It’s been very organic so far.

 

Last year, we had a fellow working in education. Others worked in television, health and ICT, and youth development. This year, we’ve expanded to hospital care, public policy, and entrepreneurial development. We’re all across the board.

 

I once read a statistic from an Ethiopian government official that there are more Ethiopian doctors in the city of Chicago than in the entire country. That shows a clear need in the health sector, but are there other industries where Ethiopia could use diaspora support?

I personally think that the gaps that are the most visible are in marketing and communications, especially on the digital side. But when I say human capacity gaps, I don’t want diaspora to go back to Ethiopia to take over jobs or become the new elite. The advantage of the diaspora is they often have more access to information and opportunities. We place our fellows at middle-management positions so that they learn how to manage up and down, and contributing to systematic efficiency. It’s 90% about listening, and 10% about implementing.

 

How do you fund fellows?

We are independently funded through fundraising campaigns. Last year, we weren’t eligible to apply for grants because our theory of change wasn’t proven yet. But now that this first class of fellows has come back, we know it works. We have a lot of supportive individuals who believe in our mission.

 

Who is the ideal EDF fellow?

We have our requirements on our website, but broadly our ideal person is in a place in their life where they want to grow and change. They aren’t set in their ways, but they want to bring value to the table. They have to have some kind of technical skills they can bring to the partner, but also personal skills—the fellows live together. They have to be able to step up and be a leader. There are only five fellows each year, so it’s important that the people we bring embody our pillars: leadership, service, and creative storytelling.

20 Young African Influencers in the Diaspora

March 20, 2016

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AfricanDevJobs

AfricanDevBoss: Rediate Tekeste talks founding the Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship

July 19, 2015

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Rediate Tekeste is a first generation Ethiopian-American who founded the Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship (EDF).  The fellowship program connects young Ethiopians in the diaspora with their home country and provides them with the opportunity to be part of the country’s development through practical work experience. Established in 2014, the fellowship is based in Los Angeles, USA and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

AfricanDevJobs.com had the opportunity to talk to Radiate Tekeste, founder and Executive Director of EDF, about the program and her experience working in development sector in Ethiopia.

 

ADJ: Tell us about the Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship and how it came about.

RT: EDF was initially my Masters thesis proposal. I wanted to create something that would build a bridge for young Ethiopian professionals to go to Ethiopia and help them create their own meaningful relationship with their country. We, our current Program Director, Meseret Hailu and I, sent out a survey through social media and we received over 350 responses. People were interested in engaging in Ethiopia, they cared about the country, the people, and wanted to learn more about their Ethiopian identity. We used the responses from the survey, academic research about diaspora engagement, and an assessment of other fellowship service-oriented programs and built EDF.

EDF is a six-month fellowship program that sends young Ethiopian diaspora professionals to Ethiopia to serve in a variety of organizations. Our pillars are leadership, service, and creative storytelling and our aim is to help Ethiopian diaspora connect to their Ethiopian identity while helping build human resource capacity in Ethiopia.

 

ADJ: What was your inspiration for starting the Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship?

I was born in Ethiopia and grew up in the United States not fully integrated in the Ethiopian community. I went to live in Ethiopia after college, and the experience challenged and helped me develop a better understanding of who I was personally and what I could do professionally. When I returned, I met many young professional Ethiopian diaspora that had the same desire to go to Ethiopia, better understand their identity, and were educated and talented individuals. Many people didn’t have access, contacts, and a way to connect on their own. So, I guess the inspiration was seeing that gap, and realizing we could create something to help close it.

 

What activities has the fellowship carried out so far?

Our first class of five fellows have worked at five different partner organizations from August to December. They have helped produce TV shows, worked on business plans, communication strategies, in education and a variety of other deliverables.

 

How do you describe your cooperation with Ethiopian organizations that host the fellows?

Our partner organizations are in one word – amazing. We pitched them a concept in our first year, and they took a chance and partnered with us. They have been supportive of the fellows, and us as an organization. They are doing innovative and groundbreaking work in their respective sectors. We believe in partnering with Ethiopian organizations that not only deliver results, but can also support and understand the value of a good relationship with the young Ethiopian diaspora.  We’re very excited to expand our partnerships with even more organizations.

 

How do you see the interest of young members of the diaspora in contributing to the development of Ethiopia?

We see an immense interest in the diaspora community. We were very impressed with last years applicants, and since then we’ve received even more interest. People are starting to understand the opportunity and absolute need to engage with their country in a meaningful way. We’re just providing an opportunity that is about their development and the partner organization’s development.

 

Do you say that the development situation in Ethiopia is accommodating these interests?

Yes, at least in Addis Ababa where we are based. This organization might not have worked 10 years ago. Through Ethiopia’s development – the access to internet and the infrastructure, makes things much easier now than ever before. There are still some challenges, but that can be expected in any developing country.

 

What would you say is your biggest achievement so far?

Our biggest achievement in my opinion are two things – one, our fellows. They love Ethiopia, and they understand their identity better now than they did before. In fact, two of them are staying in Ethiopia to work full time for another year. Two, starting an organization and doing what we said we would in less than a year. We have a network of advisors, supporters, and a lot of people that have helped with EDF.

 

ADJ: Where do you see the fellowship program after five years?

We’re hoping to scale up the number of fellows and possibly expand globally. Right now, we’re focused on learning from our first year and making this year even better.

Harnessing the Power of Diaspora Millenials for Ethiopia

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Gizeyat

Six Months to Find your Roots and Change the World

July 19, 2015

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By BEREKET DIRIBA, Correspondent

In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, his nameless protagonist declares, “When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.” The same could be said of the thousands of Ethiopians who have never been to their homeland.

Discovering her roots and her identity on a life changing trip to Ethiopia, Rediate Tekeste envisaged the same eye-opening journey for other young Ethiopian diasporas around the world. The young LA resident decided it was time to create an organized platform that gave young Ethiopians abroad the chance to go home, see Ethiopia for themselves, and contribute with their skills.

In 2015, with the help of another young Ethiopian lady — Meseret Hailu, her ideas became reality, and the Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship was born.

“My motivation was to serve a community of young, professional diaspora that are looking to serve in Ethiopia, but don’t have the platform to do it in an organized and meaningful way,” Tekeste told GIZEYAT. She believes that the first and second generation of the Ethiopian diaspora are at the perfect age and educational level where they can take an opportunity like this and grow from it by building a healthy relationship with their country, their identity, and their people.

However, the organization is not just about taking a trip to the homeland. Young Ethiopian professionals are trained in leadership development, service, and creative storytelling skills before heading off to serve with partner organizations on a six-month fellowship.

The Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship is now ready to send its first five professional Ethiopian diasporas to Ethiopia. Some of them have never been to the country before.

“I was born and raised here in the States. It will be my first time visiting Ethiopia. I will also meet my entire family for the first time,” says Naome Seifu, a recent graduate of Georgia University.

Seifu also looks forward to using her experience and knowledge to help make a difference in the country, something that Tekeste believes will help contribute a great deal to Ethiopia while also helping build a stronger relationship between Ethiopia and Ethiopians abroad.

Seifu and the other four visitors will work with the Fellowship’s partner organizations on the ground — Selam Children’s Village, Whiz Kids, Endurance Youth Organization, and others. Tekeste hopes the experience will lead them to build a relationship with their country. “Introduction to Ethiopia is the first step towards this,” she says.

The Next Step
Currently the Fellowship’s program is limited to the United States alone. “We would love to grow big enough to include other countries,” says Tekeste, but for now the focus is on making this first visit a success.

As a non-profit, the Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship also faces the challenge of funding for expansion and scaling up.

Would you like to participate in any way? The organizers recruit their fellows through awareness creation programs through Ethiopian community centers, churches, social media and their website.

Introducing the 2015 Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship Fellows

July 6, 2015

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Tadias Magazine

Highlighting Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship

May 28, 2015

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Introducing the Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship

April 29, 2015

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By Rediate Tekeste, Founder and Executive Director of Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship

The Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship (EDF) trains young Ethiopian professionals in leadership development, service, and creative storytelling skills before sending them to Ethiopia to serve at partner organizations for 6-month fellowships. While in Ethiopia, fellows participate in peer-to-peer mentorship and use storytelling to increase their own cultural identity and become a catalyst for growth and change in Ethiopia. Our partner organizations’ work ranges from technology, education, health, gender empowerment and an intersection of multiple areas. Our vision is to be one avenue in which young Ethiopians can engage with Ethiopia in a meaningful way.

If you had asked me what being Ethiopian meant while I was growing up in Cedar Falls, Iowa, (yes, Iowa) I would have told you it meant, “eating injera, smelling like onions when my mom cooked, and having beautifully unruly hair.” The complexity of identity did not occur to me until I was 24 and I found myself accidentally living in Ethiopia. I say “accidentally” because like many other diaspora, I went to visit home and just did not want to leave. In Ethiopia, a country of 94 million people, many new things were happening, and at the same time, life moved at a slower pace. I looked around and people looked like me, but I was still a bit of a ferenge (a foreigner). The identity discovery that happens when you go back home is complex, and not fully realized until you return to the U.S. and try to acculturate again.

After extending my trip multiple times, I finally returned to the U.S. I felt very alone in my identity exploration until I started meeting young Ethiopian diaspora, Indian diaspora, Ghanaian diaspora and other young people with similar narratives and experiences. Unknown to me, there was a whole generation of bi-cultural, code switching, educated, young people! We walked the line between two cultures sometimes wishing one side would fully let us in. Our lives have always been full of decisions based on the careful balance between two cultures, sometimes an exhilarating and confusing experience.

As I built a community around this experience I was asked the same questions from young people looking to go back home – How did you live in Ethiopia? Where did you find an organization to work with? Do you know anyone I can connect with? I spoke to friends and family and helped build connections with my networks in Ethiopia. The experience of working in Ethiopia as an Ethiopian diaspora is different than the experience working as a foreigner. Consequently, it was hard to find a platform that understood and engaged our young diaspora population. With the strong support of other young diaspora with similar experiences, we brainstormed possible solutions. Before making the leap to start anything new, we wanted to do our research. We sent out surveys to young Ethiopian diaspora and we were shocked to receive almost 400 responses. Our peers answered 23 questions about their identity, education, and relationship with Ethiopia. Of the respondents, almost 84% stated they would consider a fellowship opportunity in Ethiopia, and over 90% belonged to or wanted to belong to an Ethiopian community. We discovered through the survey results that the culture our parents had instilled in us was not only alive, but it was strong. The young Ethiopian diaspora were connected to their culture and had a desire to engage in service and learning opportunities in Ethiopia. Their responses showed us that creating a structure to provide those opportunities was one solution for that demand. Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship (EDF) was our response.

The idea of entrepreneurship never crossed my mind. The idea of stability always did. I grew up the daughter of two hard working immigrants striving for the original “American Dream,” an opportunity for an education. I say, the original “American Dream,” because a new narrative is becoming a reality from young diaspora and first generation people. With shows like Fresh Off the Boat and FirstGen (http://www.firstgenshow.com/#!whatisfirstgen/cr0k), many young people are using their experiences publicly and telling their stories in creative ways. The young diaspora are bi-cultural, we are millennials, we are informed, we are interested, we are active, and well connected. Many times we feel the push and pull of not only two cultures, but of our unconventional millennial ways. Serving this population demands flexibility and an understanding of their complexities.

Launching EDF was the beginning of an everyday adventure. Our team, our program director, our advisors are focused on providing an opportunity for fellows to increase their leadership skills, understand the importance of service, and harness the power of storytelling. These skills will make our fellows better students, professionals, and agents of change in their own future and hopefully, the future of Ethiopia.