This 15th installment in my series of articles about great American universities features Walla Walla Community College, an excellent institution in the State of Washington which earned the 2013 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence.

In a previous post I talked about why a student might wish consider a community college. I thought it might be useful to continue that discussion by highlighting one of the hidden gems of American higher education. I’ve chosen to talk about Walla Walla because I’ve been on campus.

Community colleges are also known by several other names in the United States, including junior colleges, technical colleges, and city colleges. No matter the name used, though, they all perform essentially the same function – providing two-year associate degrees (and sometimes full four-year bachelor’s degrees as well) at low cost and on flexible schedules.

For international students, these institutions provide a useful alternate pathway into higher education in America. If a student faces English language challenges, a community college is an excellent place to work on those skills. Moreover, attending a community college can be a cost-effective way to earn your degree, or to build the kind of strong academic record that will support a move to a university of your choice, since most community colleges maintain “two plus two“ programs (also called direct transfer agreements) with larger universities.

Walla Walla enrolls approximately 13,000 students at its two campuses. Although a majority of students are from Washington State, international students are well represented. The school’s graduation and transfer rates are well above the national average, a primary reason that the school won the Aspen prize. Tuition is less than US $10,000 per year, and financial aid of various sorts is available.

The community college maintains relationships with the flagship universities of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, as well as dozens of other universities. These two-plus-two relationships allow Walla Walla students to complete the first two years of study at significantly reduced cost and then transfer to a more “elite” university to complete their degree.

Walla Walla offers associate degree programs in dozens of disciplines, including agri-business, bioenergy, automotive repair technology, culinary arts, energy systems technology, english as a second language, early childhood education, nursing, physical education and recreation, foreign languages, resource management, an array of technical fields, professional golf management, and much more. The school offers courses in most academic areas, which facilitates transfer to a four-year university if a student so wishes.

One of the most acclaimed programs at Walla Walla is the Center for Enology and Viticulture, which houses the College of Cellars. The 15,000 square-foot College houses wine curriculum classrooms, a wine analysis laboratory, and a fully operational commercial winery. Students are involved in every step of the process of crafting the wines including vineyard production, chemical lab analysis, and sales and marketing of the vineyard’s labels.

The Center benefits from its location in Washington State’s large and acclaimed wine industry. Second in the United States only to California, Washington’s more than 740 wineries produce large amounts of premium reds and whites for export to 50 countries around the world. The school prepares students to step directly into desirable jobs in the industry locally, nationally, or internationally.

Another excellent option at Walla Walla is the Wine Country Culinary Institute, which educates students in complementary culinary, food service, hospitality fields. The curriculum is flexible and allows students great latitude to explore their particular passions and experiment in the state-of-the-art kitchens. Students have significant interaction with Institute’s director, Chef Dan Thiessen, who gained international fame for his culinary pursuits in Seattle.

The William A. Grant Water and Environmental Center contains state-of-the-art laboratories for students studying watershed management, water conservation, and other agricultural and environmental subjects. The Center partners with other institutions in the region such as the Agricultural Center of Excellence for collaborative fieldwork, giving students significant amounts of practical experience working on teams with specialized scientists.

For students with career interests in agricultural equipment, Walla Walla offers the John Deere Technology Program. The Program includes courses on technology enhancement, new product innovation, sale and repair of existing John Deere products, and dealership management. The curriculum includes paid internships with a regional John Deere Dealership. In the same track, students can also study toward a degree in turf management, a broad program involving multiple facets of landscape design and maintenance.

Like other American tertiary education institutions, Walla Walla has an array of clubs and organizations for students, as well as competitive sports teams (including basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, volleyball, golf, and rodeo). The Walla Walla Warriors have captured more than 20 championships, including last year’s men’s National College Rodeo Championship. Walla Walla’s Bryce Palmer finished 2012 as the nation’s all-around individual point leader in collegiate rodeo.

Particularly for international students, community colleges can provide a beneficial path into collegiate athletics. Students can enjoy sports while acclimating to American culture without the kind of pressures they might encounter in a university environment. While there are some limitations, it is common for athletes to begin their career at a junior college and then move on to larger schools. (One of the best examples is Mike Sellers, former star fullback for the Washington Redskins, who started at Walla Walla.)

The main campus is located in the city of Walla Walla, in southeastern Washington. With a population of 31,000, Walla Walla is slightly smaller than Gisborne. Despite its modest size, the city hosts two well-regarded tertiary institutions besides the community college – Whitman College and Walla Walla University.

In 2012 the American Planning Association named historic downtown Walla Walla as one of the “Great Places in America” because of its rich culture and distinctive atmosphere. Add in the long-standing love of wine-growing — there are more than 100 wineries in the surrounding valley — and Walla Walla offers a comfortable, relaxed, yet interesting environment for residents, students, and tourists alike.

Meaning “Place of Many Waters,” the city takes its name from the eponymous indigenous Sahaptin-speaking tribe. It is certainly a fitting description for a city that is only minutes from the mighty Columbia, Snake, and Walla Walla Rivers. Those waterways offer some of the best fishing and rafting in the Pacific Northwest. A couple hours’ drive will bring travelers to Hell’s Canyon, North America’s deepest river gorge (located just across the Oregon border) or the Snake River Canyon, stretching hundreds of miles eastward across several different States.

If you like the great outdoors, the Pacific Northwest is a wonderland custom made for you. Washington, Oregon and Idaho are filled with national parks, canyons, mountains, caves, and some of the most diverse and beautiful landscapes you’ll find anywhere on Earth, with extraordinary hiking, camping, skiing, hunting, fishing, and rafting. Not too much farther afield are the iconic Yellowstone National Park, Montana’s big sky country, and two epic long-distance trails in the North American triple crown — the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail.

If you have urban urges, the vibrant cities of Portland and Seattle – with their world-class museums, extensive shopping districts, fine dining and ethnic cuisines, rich arts and cultural scenes, and highly competitive professional sports teams — are only about 4 hours away by car or an hour by airplane. Vancouver, Canada is only about a 6-hour drive away. By air you can easily reach not only Vancouver but San Francisco, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, or even Los Angeles for the weekend.

For more information about the pleasures that await in the American Pacific Northwest, take a look back at my prior blog post about the University of Washington in Seattle, as well as the travel article I ran about the great State of Oregon.

To learn more about Walla Walla Community College, including courses of study, degree programs, and how to apply, please visit the school’s main website. Feel free to email our Educational Adviser, Drew Dumas, at DumasAG@state.gov if you would like additional information or have specific questions.

Just as it was four years ago, Inauguration Day was exhilarating, uplifting, and moving in ways difficult to describe. I haven’t yet found adjectives to capture what it’s like to stand amidst a crowd of a million cheering people, or to see virtually an entire government assemble outdoors in a public park to install a chief executive per the direction of its People, or to hear parents explaining to their children what the civic exercise they are watching means to their futures.

My colleague Phil’s guest post yesterday nicely covered the elements of the ceremonies as well as the officials and entertainers involved this year. Rather than restate that information, I’ll simply note a few of the highlights that I found particularly meaningful … starting with the oath of office and the President’s stirring Inaugural Address:

 

In 2009 I was struck by the large number of families who came to witness Barack Obama make history, as well as by the outpouring of happy tears (in some cases uncontrollable sobs) when he repeated the oath. Although we are now four years along, the scene on the National Mall was similar, with a large number of children, folks from the far corners of the country and around the world, a joyful atmosphere, and many moist eyes. And again I wouldn’t have traded the 5 hours in the cold winter weather for a comfortable chair in front of a TV.

Among the other highlights for me were the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir’s extraordinary rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic … the procession of Senators, House Members, Supreme Court Justices, and Cabinet Secretaries, displaying in one place our carefully calibrated balance of power among three independent branches of government … Myrlie Evers-Williams’ stirring and deeply symbolic invocation … the President taking his oath of office on the Bibles of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. …

… the President’s soaring statement that “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths –- that all of us are created equal –- is the star that guides us still;  just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall;  just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone;  to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth” …

… the high spirits and conversations at the Balls and parties … and, yes, the guy who climbed to the top of a tree on the Capitol grounds, waved a sign, and shouted a single political belief repeatedly for five hours within easy eyesight and earshot of the senior officials on the dais, without being pulled down or otherwise silenced and carted away. There will always be cynics, arm-chair critics, and pickers of nits when it comes to freedom of speech, but the annoying guy in the tree unintentionally proved a point and indirectly made me proud.

The day was rich with color, symbolism, pageantry, and very personal vignettes. Spectators cheered, sang, embraced, and waved what looked to me to be hundreds of thousands of flags. Both the array of dignitaries on the dais and the crowd of other citizens on the Mall reflected the vast, organic diversity of the American People.

Below are a few more of my favorite images of the day, some of which were inartfully captured with my trusty iPhone:

As I said, it was a great day. I look forward to returning in four years to witness again the grand Constitutional exercise as power is transferred smoothly, peacefully, and publicly from our 44th President to our 45th. If you happen to be in the U.S. on January 20, 2017, or can plan a trip at that time, I would encourage you to attend as well.

Welcome to this 4th installment in my series of articles about American universities.

I have already talked about an elite Ivy League university in the northeast (Harvard), a flagship public university in the midwest heartland (Iowa), and a highly internationalized private university in the southwest (Southern California).

Today I thought I’d travel up the Pacific coast to the northwest edge of our lower 48 States, and talk about the very highly regarded University of Washington.

Founded in 1861 before the Washington Territory entered the Union as a State, the University of Washington (a.k.a. Washington, UW, or UDub) is one of the oldest tertiary education institutions on the West Coast of the United States as well as one of the finest research universities in the world.

Located in Seattle, Washington, the school has a large and influential footprint with more than 500 buildings (ranging from stone-and-brick gothic classics to award-winning contemporary gems) containing more than 20 million square feet of educational space. In addition to the main Seattle campus, UW has satellite campuses in nearby Tacoma and Bothell.

In 1909 the University was used as the site for that year’s world fair. The structures built specifically for the fair were afterward converted to educational use, and the old fairgrounds are now the center of the main campus.

The UW landscape is breathtakingly beautiful. Iconic 14,500-foot (4,400 m) high Mt. Rainier soars in the distance, glowing with color at sunrise and sunset. There are spacious quadrangles, gardens, and other large green spaces, in places filled with cherry trees which burst with clouds of pink and white each spring.

The University contains 30,000 undergrads, more than 12,000 graduate and professional students, and more than 3,800 faculty members. Notwithstanding the extensive research activities of the professors, the school maintains an average 13:1 student-to-faculty ratio in classes, allowing for close student/teacher interaction.

The University of Washington is a public school, like the University of Iowa. As is customary with schools of this type, UW offers discounted tuition for students from the State of Washington. (As a result, Washingtonians make up nearly 80% of the student body, but there are also large numbers of international students.) Overall, 58% of all incoming freshmen receive significant financial assistance. 

The University comprises 16 colleges and schools offering hundreds of different degree programs. Many of those programs are highly ranked nationally and internationally. Overall, Washington consistently places in the top 20 universities in the United States. Times Higher Education ranked it 25th in the world, and this year UW placed 13th in the world in the Leiden Ranking published by Leiden University of the Netherlands.

The University’s current faculty includes 6 Nobel Prize laureates, 2 Pulitzer Prize winners, a recipient of the Fields Medal (considered the highest honor a mathematician can receive), 15 MacArthur Fellows, National Book Award winners, hundreds of other prize winners, and large numbers of members of prestigious academic societies.

UW is particularly well known for the extensive and highly regarded research conducted by its professors and students. Since 1974 the University has consistently received the largest amount of federal research funding among public schools, and it ranks second in the nation in funding received when private and public schools are considered together.

To give you a sense of the research commitment at the University, more than US$1 billion was spent on scientific research in the last full year for which I could access data. Also noteworthy, the University hosts ResearchChannel, the only television station in the United States (and perhaps anywhere) dedicated solely to broadcasting research findings by academic institutions and scientific organizations.

UW is an avid partner in R&D efforts. For example, in 2009, Lamborgini formalized an agreement with the University to create a research center where students and faculty can perform tests on composite parts for the iconic automobile manufacturer. The National Science Foundation is partnering with UW in establishing an engineering research center to study the integration of technology with the human neural system. 

If you are interested in nursing, you definitely should look at Washington, which in 1945 established the first university-level nursing program in the United States. Since 1984 the UW School of Nursing has been consistently ranked 1st in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

Just over 99% of the School of Nursing’s tenured faculty hold doctorate degrees. Nursing students can specialize in one of three separate departments – Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Systems, Family and Child Nursing, and Psychosocial and Community Health.

UW’s School of Social Work is also very highly regarded, ranking 3rd in the United States. The school has had a reputation since 1970 for conducting ground-breaking research, and it devotes more than US$ 3 million annually to scholarships, fellowships, and assistantships.

The instinct toward public service runs deep at UW, and students and alumni engage in volunteer activity in exceptionally high numbers. For example, Washington students are disproportionately represented in the Peace Corps.  In 2011 there were 110 UW students in the Peace Corps, second only to the University of Colorado at Boulder (with 112). 

UW’s Foster School of Business is the second oldest business school on the West Coast and is widely known for the quality of its faculty research. Foster’s professors are ranked #1 for research productivity in business administration and #8 in marketing. The School is partnering with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on global health research and projects.

I’ll note just one other of UW’s many academic programs. The Evans School of Public Affairs is ranked 9th overall out of 266 schools of public affairs by News & World Report, and 4th among such programs at public universities. The School is particularly well-known for its offerings in non-profit management and environmental policy management.

UDub’s distinguished alumni include Kenny G, both of Bill Gates’ parents, Pixar co-founder Loren Carpenter, Kim Thayil of Soundgarden, action star Bruce Lee, actors Kyle MacLachlan and Anna Faris, Jeopardy win-streak champion Ken Jennings, several astronauts including Michael Anderson of Space Shuttle Columbia, and legendary test pilot and aerodynamicist Scott Crossfield.

For those who have not yet graduated, Washington, like other American universities, hosts a plethora of extra-curricular activities in which students can participate. There are more than 850 different student organizations covering a broad range of intellectual, social, cultural, political, and recreational interests, plus approximately 50 Greek fraternities or sororities.

Washington competes in the Pac 12 conference of Division I-A of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The University has a history of highly competitive teams in various sports, with particular success in football, basketball, and rowing.  There are well-regarded men’s and women’s rugby teams.

UW crew men have claimed 46 national titles plus 15 gold, 2 silver, and 5 bronze medals in Olympic competition. UW women rowers have won 10 national titles and 2 Olympic golds. In recent years the University has also won national championships in softball, women’s volleyball, golf, and athletics.

The University’s motto is Lux Sit, a poorly constructed and somewhat ambiguous Latin phrase generously translated as “Let There Be Light.” The official colors, selected by student vote in 1892, are purple and gold. Pitched debate over choice of colors resolved when a dramatic reading of a poem by Lord Bryon swayed student opinion:

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold,
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Vivid imagery and martial pride also swayed students in selecting the University’s fight song, Bow Down to Washington. Written as an entry in a competition held in 1915, BDW is quite often slightly revised to add selected profanities, witty insults, and surgical calumnies directed at particular opposing teams.

The University’s students originally referred to themselves as Sun Dodgers, in honor of Seattle’s occasionally rainy weather. University athletic officials tried to change the nickname to the Vikings, but students rebelled and forced a vote. The winning option in the poll, the “Huskies,” has been UDub ‘s nickname since 1922. A student costumed as Harry the Husky attends sports events, and a real Alaskan Malamute leads the football team onto the field before games.

In terms of sports traditions, Huskies are avid tailgate partiers. Because Husky Stadium is built on the shore of Lake Washington, though, UW tailgating takes place on boats out on the water rather than on the tailgates of pick-up trucks or utility vehicles in the parking lot of the stadium. It’s a very cool twist on an iconic American sports tradition. 

Also, UDub – along, I should add, with certain others — lays claim to creating ”The Wave,” the famous stadium tradition of rowdy fans simulating a rippling wave around the stands. According to Husky legend, graduate Robb Weller and band director Bill Bissel launched the first-ever Wave in October of 1981 during a pitched football battle against Stanford University. 

The University has two institutional rivalries of note. One is with nearby Washington State University. Relatively friendly, the U/State rivalry boosts athletic competition between the two schools to fierce levels, culminating in the Apple Cup football match each year to claim State-wide bragging rights.

The Husky’s other rivalry is with the University of Oregon, and it’s not a friendly one. Oregon claims that Washington administrators engaged in political subterfuge to deprive the Oregon football team of a chance to play in the 1948 Rose Bowl game. Oregon has not forgotten the alleged injustice, and Washington resents the allegation. One particularly notable eruption occurred in 1962 when Washington fans vaulted onto the field and tackled an Oregon receiver just before he could score the winning touchdown in the closing minutes of the game.

The University of Washington sits at the edge of the city of Seattle on a narrow isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, within a dynamic metropolitan area of 3.4 million people. When students are not hitting the books, they can access tremendous numbers of recreational, cultural, and entertainment options just a short walk, bicycle ride, or commute away.

For those drawn to the performing arts, Seattle is the birthplace of grunge … and then there’s Bumbershoot, one of America’s largest music festivals … dynamic alternative and other live music scenes that have spawned the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Modest Mouse, and Death Cab for Cutie … worldclass opera, symphony, and ballet companies … numerous chamber ensembles … championship spoken word slammers … and several film festivals.

Other cultural offerings include Native American festivals and pow-wows … the highly regarded Seattle Art Museum … several other art and history museums … outdoor art parks … The Bite, an annual food festival that draws more than 450,000 tasters … Pike Place Market, home of the original Starbucks … and historical excursions including my favorite, the Seattle Underground Tour of the remains of the old city on top of which modern Seattle was built after the Great Fire of 1889.

For outdoorsy folks, Seattle’s environs are a paradise. The rain forests, snow fields, and glaciers of the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic Mountains lie just to the west. The towering volcanoes of the Cascade Range, including Mt. Rainier, lie just to the east. There are camping, skiing, hiking, climbing, kayaking, sailing, and adventure sports opportunities year-round.  Men’s Fitness magazine named Seattle the fittest city in the United States because of all the outdoor activities available to — and regularly engaged in by — its residents.

Seattle, though, is not just about fun. The metro area has a dynamic economy driven by technology firms, aerospace companies, and innovative entrepreneurs. Among the major enterprises headquartered there are Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia, Boeing, Starbucks, Nintendo of America, and Valve Corporation. It’s a great place to intern over the summer, get your first job, immerse yourself in a 21st Century economy, or even start your own company.

That’s just a brief snapshot of Seattle based on what caught my eye when I visited. For a more comprehensive view of the city’s cultural diversity, special attractions, and hidden pleasures, as well as for advice on planning a trip, please check out Seattle’s official website.

For more information about the University of Washington and how to apply, please visit its main website or graduate programs page. As always, please feel free to contact the Embassy’s Educational Adviser, Drew Dumas, at DumasAG@state.gov.

And of course, stay tuned. The next installment in my university series two weeks from now will highlight Swarthmore College, a small liberal arts powerhouse of just 1,500 students in my original home State of Pennsylvania. It’s a very different kind of school from the four that I have already profiled, and I bet it’s just the kind of place that some of you are looking for. 

If you would like me to focus on a particular institution or academic program after that, just let me know. I have already adjusted the series line-up to respond to reader feedback, suggestions, and questions, and I’m happy to continue to do so as we proceed.

This past June 6th was a special day for my good friend Adimaimalaga (Adi) Tafuna’i. She was in Washington with seven other extraordinary women from around the world to be honored at this year’s Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards.

With a strategic focus, wide array of programs, and deep support from many of the most prominent women in business, government, NGO, media, and entertainment circles, Vital Voices has become the preeminent non-governmental organization dedicated to empowering women.

Established in 1997 by then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in partnership with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the Vital Voices initiative is intended to elevate the status of women through mentoring, training, building networks, and highlighting the extraordinary — but often overlooked — efforts of courageous, tenacious female leaders around the world.

Held this year at the impressive John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on the banks of the Potomac, the annual Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards celebrate women who are making a difference in their communities by strengthening and expanding democracy, increasing economic opportunity, and protecting human rights.

The gala evening attracts significant attention among opinion leaders and power brokers, and thus provides a valuable platform for raising awareness of the Awards recipients’ efforts. This year, for example, a variety of media including the Washington Post ran stories about the Awards, the winners, and their work.

Only a small handful of women receive a Vital Voices Award each year. Recognition of Adi is particularly important because women leaders from the Pacific are rarely included on such global lists.  When Adi took the stage in front a full house of more than 2,500 attendees including numerous celebrities, senior officials, and business leaders, she brought much needed attention to the power and potential of the women of the Pacific.

And from what I hear, she made full use of the networking opportunities, as I knew she would. At the event she apparently spoke with fashion legend Diane von Furstenberg about considering Pacific designs for future styles, and she arranged meetings later in the week at the World Bank, USAID, and other Washington-based organizations to discuss development issues and projects.

The particular honor conferred on Adi was the special Vital Voices Economic Empowerment Award. I can think of no one more deserving of recognition in that category. Over the past couple of decades Adi has helped thousands of Samoan women take control of their lives, increase their skills, earn income from their homes, and uplift their families.

A visionary entrepreneur, she co-founded Women in Business Development, Inc. (WIBDI) in 1991 and has worked tirelessly to expand, strengthen, and improve its programs. With a growing network of colleagues and supporters she has used WIBDI as a vehicle to create sustainable, culturally rooted economic opportunities for Samoan women and indeed for all Samoans.

WIBDI takes a strategic, diversified approach to economic development by building organically certified agricultural co-ops, seeding micro-finance capabilities, preserving and commercializing Samoan fine-mat weaving and other traditional crafts, providing training and mentoring services, and establishing farmers markets, among other things.

Under WIBDI’s organics project approximately 80,000 acres tended by more than 700 families have been organically certified to international standards. The certification adds significant commercial value to what is cultivated on the land, and opens new and lucrative markets for the end product.

To create the critical mass necessary to compete successfully in international markets, Adi and WIBDI have led development of a region-wide Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community. They are organizing women in Tonga, Fiji, Micronesia, and Vanuatu as well as Samoa to build capacity, create demand, and stabilize supply.

A particularly good example of WIBDI’s work is the contract that Adi negotiated on behalf of Samoan organic coconut growers with The Body Shop of London, which gave many Samoan farmers their first exposure to international markets. Samoan coconut oil is now used in health and beauty products sold in more than 50 countries around the world.

A recognizable organic-and-pure Samoa brand is starting to develop, demand for Samoan oils is increasing, and additional formulations are being tested. To feed that effort, Adi is now working with her colleagues to develop a global market for health and beauty products made with Samoa’s traditional anti-aging secret, the fetau seed.

Among Adi’s great strengths is that she is not just about business. She understands the needs and aspirations of people, and she is known for her kindness, generosity, and patience. Her work strengthens village life and creates a path for others to improve not only their economic but their political, educational, and health prospects.

As I learned first-hand when she and I judged the Miss Samoa beauty pageant together in 2010, she is blessed with more than the normal dose of wisdom and emotional intelligence, along with a fierce tenacity and stoic courage. She is a wonderful role model, and not only for women or for Samoans.

To learn more about Adi and her work, take a look at the video below, produced by the Vital Voices team as part of the Global Leadership Awards process. For more pictures from Adi’s tour of DC and the Awards ceremony, visit the Vital Voices gallery.

 

Visionary entrepreneur. Strategic thinker. Hands-on organizer. Bull-dog businesswoman. Simply put, Adimaimalaga Tafuna’i is a national, regional, and international treasure. She is making the world a better place, which is the highest compliment that anyone can be paid.

So, big congratulations to Adi on her much deserved Vital Voices Global Leadership Award. And thanks to her and everyone at WIBDI for paving the way for other Pacific women to follow.

Malo le finau mo mea lelei Adi! Ia manuia le tou alo atu i o outou faiva aua le atinaeina o Samoa.