Key Trump impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and author-activist Kimberly Jones headline this year’s jam-packed Family & Homecoming Weekend! We hope you will join us (virtually) for this year’s edition of SEGL’s greatest tradition. To register for the weekend, click here. guest speakers: This year’s keynote speaker is Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. Vindman is best known as the key witness in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. He is also the author of the bestseller, Here, Right Matters.  Guests who contribute $40 or more will rec ..read more

Key Trump impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and author-activist Kimberly Jones headline this year’s jam-packed Family & Homecoming Weekend! We hope you will join us (virtually) for this year’s edition of SEGL’s greatest tradition. To register for the weekend, click here. guest speakers (more to come!): This year’s keynote speaker is Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. Vindman is best known as the key witness in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. He is also the author of the bestseller, Here, Right Matters.  Guests who contribute $40 ..read more

This month we recognize the service of three longtime SEGL Trustees, celebrate the arrival of three new Board members, and announce our new Board leadership! Founding Trustee Paige Cottingham-Streater finishes her term as Board Chair (and her service on the Board) after a distinguished 12-year tenure.  SEGL Founder and Head of School Noah Bopp offered these words of tribute at the DC Spring 2021 Closing Ceremony: Under Paige’s leadership, the School opened a second campus in South Africa (doubling our enrollment), strengthened its London program, raised faculty salaries to the mean o ..read more

In this newsletter’s SEGL Spotlight, Tamiya Fowler (F`17), Y-Binh Nguyen (F`12) Archer Biggs (S`14, pictured above, far right, in journalism simulation costume), and Chloe Kellison (Summer `16), share what it was like to return to SEGL as teaching fellows, how SEGL has shaped who they are today, and what’s next for their lives. Tamiya is from New York and is entering her junior year as a Business major at Howard University. Y-Binh is from An Giang, Vietnam and grew up in Massachusetts; they also joined SEGL’s South Africa summer expeditions in 2013, 2014, and 2015.  Archer is fr ..read more

Will you be ready when you testify before Congress? Defend your PhD thesis? Argue before the Supreme Court?  After the past few weeks, each of our students is better prepared for these challenges.  The reason?  Their capstone collaborative policy document experience. The collaborative policy document (or “CPD,” as our students call it) is arguably SEGL’s most difficult academic challenge. Each SEGL cohort must select a current international crisis, research that crisis and collaboratively craft a 40-page scholarly document which is then presented and defended ..read more

What are weekends like at SEGL?  With students crafting their collaborative document capstone (on China’s Belt and Road initiative) this week, we’re devoting this post to answering this frequently-asked question.  In short: they are a lot of fun! Perhaps the most important thing to say about weekends here is that they are student-run.  Occasionally, the faculty will facilitate an SEGL tradition or an important discussion.  But most of the time, a group of student volunteers does the planning.  And this weekend was no different. After classes, exercise period, dinner, a ..read more

Even before the pandemic, we always planned to keep our students in South Africa for spring break, opting to coordinate a series off-campus outings rather than a long-haul flight home. And what a break it was! On the first day of break, ALA organized 5 different trips for all SEGL and ALA students to enjoy together. Each student signed up for and was granted the trip of their choice. These trips ranged from weaving through Honeydew Mazes to hiking at Cradlemoon Resort, from running around at Kreature Paintball to touring Alice Art Gallery or exploring the Maropeng Caves. (All of these ven ..read more

James Baldwin famously wrote, “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” In the last few weeks, SEGL at ALA students have faced two major case studies of profound relevance in South Africa, hoping to understand how change has happened and continues to happen: Public Health and National Reconciliation. Our Public Health case study began with a short pre-lecture from faculty member Mpho Mphahlele, which focused on the intersection of public health and the economy. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the South African government imposed one of ..read more

As our students look past Spring Break to the end of the semester, many of them hope to take a piece of SEGL home.  In fact, they can.  And they do.  The Social Venture Project capstone ensures that. One of three capstone projects that each SEGL graduate completes, the “SVP” allows students to put their DC experience–public speaking, negotiation, coalition building, persuasive writing, ethical values, and more–to work immediately.  We also introduce our students to successful social entrepreneurs who serve as mentors. Our first guest was Joe Weinstein, who has served a ..read more

Do our students ever meet with leaders whose experience falls outside our Ethics and Leadership class case studies?  Yes!  In fact, often these meetings are some of the most memorable of the semester.  Last week, we had two such conversations: first, with General John Allen, the retired four star general now in charge of the Brookings Institution; second, with Ambassador Derek Mitchell, President Obama’s Ambassador to Burma, who now leads the National Democratic Institute. General Allen’s military career included service as former commander of the NATO International Security Ass ..read more