In a previous post I mentioned that my friends at Sports United, in the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, had invited two dozen deaf student athletes from Samoa and other Pacific island countries to participate in a sports exchange program in Washington and New York City. The athletes have now returned to their home countries, and, from all I’ve seen and heard, the trip was a rousing success.

The visiting athletes at the U.S. Capitol Building.

As you may recall, the four participants from Samoa were Seigafo Mavaega, Rosita Simone, Emo Lapi, and Ionatana Leutele, all students at Fa’atuatua Christian College and Senese Inclusive Education Services. They are highly accomplished athletes who were very much looking forward to this once-in-a-lifetime. (Three of the four had not left Samoa or flown on a plane before.)

Ionatana Leutele on the starting block for one of his races while in the U.S.

Our four Samoan friends and the other participants convened in Washington, the first stop on the trip. They received VIP treatment right from the start, welcomed by my senior colleague at the State Department, Judith Heumann, Special Advisor for International Disability Rights. She is a powerful, tireless voice of advocacy for persons with disabilities, and I was delighted that she was able to meet with our visiting athletes.

Special Advisor Judith Heumann (at head of table, on left) greets the athletes, including Rosita (at far right).

Judith previously served as the World Bank’s first Advisor on Disability and Development, as well as Assistant Secretary in the Department of Education under President Clinton. In her current role, she helps coordinate U.S. global engagement on issues regarding disabilities and disability rights. With our athletes, she talked about her own life experiences and explained her advocacy work on behalf of disabled persons around the world.

The athletes at the Lincoln Memorial.

While in DC, the athletes also visited Gallaudet University. Established in 1864 by charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln, Gallaudet is the only university in the world specifically established for deaf and hard of hearing students. While at Gallaudet, the athletes did the school’s famous ropes course and attended a deaf rugby game at its Model Secondary School for the Deaf.

Seigafo doing the ropes course at Gallaudet University.

The group also visited Roosevelt Senior High School in Washington,  and then traveled to Viriginia to George Mason University, to Maryland to the Maryland School for the Deaf, and to New York City to Lexington School for the Deaf (the largest school for deaf students in the State) and New York School for the Deaf (which has been teaching deaf students for 200 years).

Students from Roosevelt Senior High School welcome our visitors.

During all of those school visits the athletes engaged with American students and teachers on leadership building, conflict resolution, and teamwork activities and games. It was a great platform for interacting with students from another part of the world, and for sharing cultural and social experiences with each other.

Coach Petaia talks about Samoa to students at Gallaudet University.

Of course, sports was a big part of the trip’s itinerary. In addition to playing matches and participating in other athletic events, the young visitors received high-level professional training. The visiting coaches completed special sessions on sports psychology, injury prevention, and disability and youth development. I’m told that all the participants enjoyed both the competition and the camaraderie built during the two weeks, and that the visiting athletes greatly impressed their American hosts.

Emo runs a course at Roosevelt Senior High School.

Seigafo high jumps at George Mason University.

All in all, it sounds as though the trip was a great success. This was the first of several exciting programs planned by Sports United this year to protect and promote development of persons with disabilities, and I’m pleased that we started with a Pacific delegation. Thank you to program manager Kelli Davis and my other colleagues at Sports United for their foresight and generosity, and for organizing such a great study tour.

Our visiting athletes and some new friends pose for a farewell photo at the New York School for the Deaf.

As with any such program, the value was 360. The American hosts learned a great deal about our neighbors in the South Pacific. Our visiting athletes and coaches were exposed to training, education, and other opportunities offered to people with disabilities within the American system. I am certain that everyone involved came away with new ideas, new friends, and useful networks.

I am packing today to head up to Samoa to participate in Samoan Independence Day celebrations and to greet the 400 American sailors arriving in Apia on the U.S. Pearl Harbor to work on infrastructure and medical projects under the auspices of our Pacific Partnership 2013 mission. While in town, I hope to talk directly to the Samoan students and coaches about their trip to the United States.

In the meantime, congratulations to our Samoan athletes. Well done. Fa’amalō le tausiniō.

As you probably surmised from my tweets and Facebook posts, I’ve been in Washington the past two weeks for the U.S.-N.Z. Partnership Forum, a U.S.-N.Z. strategic policy dialogue, a bilateral meeting between Secretary Kerry and Minister McCully, and several days of interagency consultations related to various projects that my team is mounting in New Zealand and Samoa. It has been a busy and eventful trip.

Among the highlights were spending time with Secretary Kerry, stopping to see Attorney General Holder after consultations at the Justice Department’s Office of Tribal Justice, and getting confirmation that one of my student advisers, Rory McCourt, has been chosen from a worldwide pool of applicants to attend a prestigious diplomatic youth exchange program in the United States starting next week.

Rory McCourt.

Rory is a public policy student and president of the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association. I came to know him through my student advisers program, and I’m not at all surprised that he was selected.

Titled “Empowering Youth as Change Agents,” the program that he will be attending is designed to help students develop the skills, resources, and networks to affect positive change in their communities and in the wider world around them.

Organized by the State Department’s Office of Global Youth Issues, the program will run for two weeks and involve stays in Washington, Cleveland, and New York. The busy schedule will include meetings with NGO leaders, State Department and White House officials, the United Nations Secretary General’s Youth Envoy, university groups, and the Cleveland Foundation.

Being included as one of the youth delegates is a special honor, as only a dozen participants were selected from around the world. Joining Rory will be young delegates from places as diverse as Bangladesh, Ireland, Iraq, and Swaziland.

I nominated Rory after inviting my student advisers across New Zealand to describe what changes they would make in the world if they could. All of the responses were impressive, and selecting just one was difficult. Rory’s statement, though, did stand out. I know that he will make excellent use of the opportunity and will return to New Zealand with fresh perspectives, new networks, a better sense of best practices in different countries, and even more confidence and enthusiasm.

Such exchanges are a powerful mechanism for connecting and empowering future leaders. As I’ve said before and will say again, there is no better use of our time and resources than preparing our next generations to collaborate, problem-solve, and lead. For that reason, I’m delighted that other Embassies are forming student adviser and youth council programs and that the Department is organizing international gatherings such as this one.

Hearty congratulations to Rory. I very much look forward to hearing all about the trip upon his return. If he is amenable, we’ll record an interview in our new digital studio and post it here for everyone to enjoy.

U.S. Department of State
Office of the Spokesperson
May 23, 2013
Joint Statement: U.S.-New Zealand Strategic Dialogue

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns opened the 2013 US-New Zealand Strategic Dialogue with New Zealand’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade John Allen; Chief of Defence Force Rhys Jones; Secretary to the Treasury Gabriel Makhlouf; and Deputy Secretary of Defence Bede Corry today at the U..S Department of State as part of our countries’ ongoing bilateral discussions.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James P. Zumwalt led the discussion and welcomed the productive efforts of the United States and New Zealand to jointly tackle key challenges. The two sides discussed issues of global concern and challenges in the Asia-Pacific region. They reiterated their commitment to continuing to strengthen the strategic partnership between the United States and New Zealand.

The issues discussed by the United States and New Zealand included:

• The US rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region and areas of concern, including the situation on the Korean Peninsula;

• The strategic and economic architecture of the Asia-Pacific, including ASEAN, the East Asia Summit, APEC, the ASEAN Regional Forum, the Pacific Islands Forum, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership;

• The US-New Zealand strategic partnership, including cooperation in Afghanistan, peacekeeping operations, and cyber policy;

• Regional cooperation in the Asia-Pacific in areas such as maritime security, development, economic sustainability, and democracy and rule of law;

• Shared interests in protecting the environment, including joint efforts to secure approval in July of the US-New Zealand proposal to create the world’s largest marine protected area in Antarctica’s Ross Sea;

• and a mutual commitment to continue regular contact between our countries at all levels, including regular dialogues on issues such as scientific cooperation, the environment, coordination on Pacific Island challenges, development efforts, human rights, and the Asia-Pacific region.

The US delegation included representatives from the Departments of State and Defense, the National Security Staff, and the office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The New Zealand delegation included representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry of Defence, the New Zealand Defence Force, and Treasury. The two sides looked forward to holding the next Strategic Dialogue in the second half of 2013.

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After months of work on his project and days of busy engagement at ISEF, Sohail reports on the results of the judging:

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Special Awards and Grand Awards Ceremonies!   [posted May 18th by S.A.]

So Intel ISEF 2013 has come to an end. What a ride it has been. It was probably one of the best weeks of my entire life!

There were two awards ceremonies: The Intel ISEF Special Awards and The Intel ISEF Grand Awards. Each ceremony had everyone on their toes. The Special Awards winners were chosen by appointed judges from the respective companies awarding the prizes. Awards ranged from Google and NASA to King Abdul Aziz ‘s Special Award. The ceremony ran very smoothly and although I did not win any Special Awards it was a lot of fun! The experience was unreal. I tried  to get as much sleep as possible that night because the very next morning (today morning) was the Grand Awards Ceremony…

I woke up very early. Around 6 – 6 15 AM. Today was the big day, the day all the winners are announced. I was in line around 7 30, an hour before the doors opened, hoping to get a good seat and luckily I did. I was nervous the whole morning and shivered a bit at times even in the Arizona heat. When the doors finally opened I rushed to the middle of the hall and got seats near the front. My new friends joined me a little while later. For some reason when the ceremony began all my nervousness had vanished and I had come to a realisation that just being at Intel ISEF was a tremendous honor regardless of if I win a prize or not.

The atmosphere in the hall was very energetic and lively. The awards were presented in ascending order from 4th place in each category first, followed by 3rd place and so on. Each time a winner from my category was announced I moved closer to the edge of my seat.  When the winners of the 4th place award in my category were all announced I began to feel nervous again. Had I won a better prize? Had I won a prize at all?

Following the 4th place award winners began the announcement of the 3rd place award winners for each category. When the names of the winners from my category were being announced I got a bit distracted by taking photos and then suddenly I heard “From Auckland, New Zealand…”. My eyes popped open. “From Auckland, New Zealand – Sohail Arif Abdulla”. My heart started racing and I quickly walked up the stage and joined the other 3rd place winners.

I felt so proud being honoured for my work at Intel ISEF and up on stage I realised how great a journey my Robotic Glass Cleaner has been through. From Brightsparks to Realise the Dream and now to Intel ISEF… wow. Usually I would have been nervous standing on a stage in front of almost 5000 – 6000 people but I was too overwhelmed with joy. I made it all the way to Phoenix, Arizona and won 3rd place in my category!!!

After leaving the stage we were directed outside the hall to receive our medals. I was handed a white medal with an elegant ribbon on which it reads “3rd Place Winner – Intel ISEF 2013″. I still cant stop smiling.

This once in a lifetime trip has been nothing but outstanding. I will cherish these moments for the rest of my life and I hope to share my experiences with the next Intel ISEF Finalist from New Zealand!

Thank you for following my blog.

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I am delighted that Sohail had such a great time in Arizona and came away from Intel ISEF with new friends, a prize, and even more enthusiasm about science and engineering.  I look forward to this year’s Realise the Dream program and selecting another talented Kiwi secondary school student to travel to the United States to participate in Intel ISEF 2014.