Mansfield Center lands $10M grant for Southeast Asian ties

(UM News Service) The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at the University of Montana recently was awarded a $10 million grant to strengthen people-to-people ties between the U.S. and Southeast Asia.

Awarded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the grant will fund the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Academic Fellows Program (YSEALI AFP). Pending funding availability, the cooperative agreement has the possibility of being renewed for two additional years for a total of $30 million in funding over three years.

YSEALI AFP is part of the wider Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, which is the U.S. government’s signature program to support youth in the 11 countries of Southeast Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.

Deena Mansour, executive director of the Mansfield Center, said the initiative is designed to strengthen leadership development across the region, deepen engagement with young leaders on key regional and global challenges, and bolster personal ties between the U.S. and Southeast Asia.

“We are honored to draw on our deep experience in Southeast Asia to support U.S. national security priorities and the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy,” Mansour said. “Our demonstrated capacity to administer this huge grant draws from the long Mansfield engagement in Southeast Asia, UM assets in administration and academic excellence, and a track record of successfully implementing State Department exchanges since 2010.”

The Mansfield Center has the highest research expenditures of any unit at UM. This latest award is also the largest granted by the State Department’s Office of Academic Exchanges to any university in the country.

The fellowship brings about 500 exceptional young leaders per year to the U.S. for five-week academic Institutes at 11 U.S. universities, all under UM’s management. The partner universities represent a range of institutions, including California State University, Portland State University and the University of Kansas, among others.

The Mansfield Center has hosted a similar program at UM since 2010, and will continue to host 50 Fellows per year in the Sustainability and Environment theme. Programming draws on UM and Montana’s unique expertise and attributes to shape the program and draw parallels between critical environmental challenges in the Rocky Mountain West and Southeast Asia.

While at UM, participants meet with experts at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Glacier National Park, UM’s Flathead Lake Biological Station and Butte-Silver Bow County. These study tours provide opportunities for place-based learning about sustainability, environmental issues and conservation.

For many Mansfield Center YSEALI AFP participants, the most memorable part of the exchange is engaging with UM and broader community members. Mansour said such connections are critical to deepening intercultural understanding and establishing lasting international friendships.

“YSEALI allows us to work with our allies, explain ourselves to other nations and engage with our own citizenry to reinforce the value of our democracy in shaping the direction of the world,” said Peter Baker, Mansfield Center director of international programs. “YSEALI – and our program – serves this mission with creative approaches stemming from the strength of U.S. diversity, civil society, democratic values and partnerships. Montanans contribute their time, expertise and hospitality as they play a central role in affirming U.S. global leadership.”

Created by an Act of Congress in 1983, the Mansfield Center works to foster globally minded leaders of integrity through cross-cultural engagement, dialogue and education. Guided by Sen. Mansfield’s example, the center’s work emphasizes the civil exchange of ideas from a diverse range of viewpoints, the importance of democratic institutions, the integration of international relations and the role that ethical values play in public life.

To learn more about the YSEALI Academic Fellowship and to get involved, email Deputy Director of International Programs Randi Edwards at randi.edwards@mso.umt.edu.