For 25 years, we have proudly served as a catalyst for global engagement, fostering collaboration, innovation and meaningful connections across borders.
UC Davis welcomes its 33rd cohort of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program. In 2024-25, the campus is joined by 12 Fellows from 12 different countries.
Italy is a second home to Mary Puma and Eivind Lange III ’77, who have visited there for over 40 years and built a family residence in the Umbria region. Their lifelong love of the country inspired them to give $1 million to support engagement and research programs in Italy for UC Davis students and faculty.
“We want to give UC Davis overall a chance to get more involved with Italy,” said Lange. “Increasing the international exposure of students helps them to not only get their degree, but to experience another part of the world.”
During their Fellowship at UC Davis, Mandela Washington Fellows develop Ignite Talks, short and poignant speeches that spotlight issues facing their communities, their lives and the world. The 2024 cohort chose a passionate Ignite Talk from Kelsey Kalu (Nigeria) to represent them at the Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit in Washington, D.C.
Rising third-year UC Davis student Maddison Cunningham received The Obama-Chesky Scholarship for Public Service, known as The Voyager Scholarship, Tuesday. Cunningham is the first UC Davis student to earn The Voyager Scholarship since its inception in 2022.
by Diógenes "Dio" Melo, Humphrey Fellow Alumni (2013-14, Brazil)
There are well over 300 alumni of the UC Davis Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship program. Global Affairs is honored to welcome them back to campus when they visit. Here is one alumnus's story about his return to UC Davis after a decade.
In April, UC Davis Humphrey Fellowship alumni Diógenes "Dio" Melo (2013-14, Brazil) returned to his host University and presented the Zero Waste Seminar with his partner George Humberto Guimaraes.
Huda Ibrahim, a 2024 Mandela Washington Fellow from Ghana, shared her cohort's fellowship experiences in this unique recap. Ibrahim developed her report with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a computer system that documents, analyzes and reports data about locations around the world.
UC Davis third-year biochemistry and molecular biology major Vyoma Bhanap wants to change the world through dance. In April, the Donald A. Strauss Scholarship Foundation Committee awarded Bhanap $15,000 to implement her proposal, Dance Bhoomi. This project uses the power of dance — specifically, dance therapy — to safely bridge the mind-body disconnect that often occurs in children who experience constant trauma.
It was a single note that reached Angélica Mendoza de Ascarza after her son Arquímedes was taken from her home by soldiers in Peru’s military. In faint cursive on a scrap of deeply creased brown paper, he wrote that he was being held at an army barracks and asked her to find a lawyer and money and any way possible to get him to a trial.
As part of my Mandela Washington Fellowship journey, I had the privilege of moderating a profound panel discussion on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at the International Center at UC Davis. The session featured two remarkable experts: Joanna Regulska, vice provost and dean of Global Affairs and a distinguished professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at UC Davis, and Linda Amrou, an international human rights and immigration attorney with over a decade of experience.
