Home to former President Bill Clinton as well as nine African-American students who would break racial barriers, Little Rock, Ark. is a historic place. Six Brandeis students had the opportunity to visit Little Rock as fellows of the Eli J. Segal Citizen Leadership Program.
From Oct. 25 through Oct. 27, Segal Fellows Leah Igdalsky '14, Paul Vancea '14, Manoo Sabety-Javid '14, Lys Joseph '14 and two Heller graduate students, Rachael Weiker and Aaron Chalek, had the opportunity to explore the history of Little Rock on a program retreat.
The Segal Leadership Program was founded in 2007 at the University. "[The program] was founded by the friends and family of Eli Segal '64 in order to commemorate his legacy and advance his passion for citizen engagement," according to its website.
Segal's accomplishments range from being the CEO of the Corporation of National and Community Service to serving as Bill Clinton's chief of staff. In addition to the Brandeis students, the fellowship also draws from programs such as City Year, Corporation for National Community Service and Americorps. The program consists of 63 fellows from 15 different states, including three who are currently abroad.
The application involves essays, recommendations, transcripts, references and interviews with people in the network. For Brandeis, between five and nine students, both undergraduate and master's students, are selected each year to be fellows.
Brandeis fellows have "a summer internship that [the fellowship program] helps support you through, [as well as] a Segal coach. Then you become a Segal fellow for life," Igdalsky said.
The Segal coach is "a founder of the program that fellows have to talk [to] about their career and personal aspirations," according to Tam Emerson, program manager and Segal management fellow. The program helps the fellows find their summer internship and gives undergraduates $3,500 and graduate students $5,000 for the summer. Some past internships encompass a broad range of areas including national service, youth development and education, business and the environment.
Joseph described the fellowship as a lifelong commitment. "After you're done with your internship, it's about how you are going to give back to the program, how you are going to help cultivate the world," Joseph said. After your internship is complete, you are then placed on a committee within the overall program, continuing the fellow's involvement after their internship is complete.
Each year the fellows, as well as its founding members, go on the retreat. The retreats are "an opportunity to build the community of fellows and bring them all together in one place," Emerson said. Because all of these fellows are so "like-minded and interested in the idea of social entrepreneurism, when you bring them together the idea is to start to build and help sustain our network on the larger end," she added.
While on the retreat, "the fellows come together and reflect on leadership service, what they've learned and what they still want to work on, as well as getting to know each other," Igdalsky said.
This is the furthest the fellows have traveled to their retreat location. In past years, they have gone to Maryland and other locations in Massachusetts.
"Little Rock was this year's location because Eli Segal was the chief of staff for President Clinton during his presidential campaign, and they were housed there," Emerson said. "So there was quite a bit of history there connected to our program ... [as well as the] larger social justice civil rights movement history that happened there."
The fellows had the opportunity to meet current and former governors of Arkansas; Sandy Berger, Clinton's national security adviser; Crystal Mercer whose father, Christopher Mercer, worked in the NAACP during the time of the integration in Little Rock; as well as two members of the Little Rock Nine, Carlotta Walls LaNier and Minnijean Brown.
Igdalsky said that on their first night in Little Rock, the fellows went to a dinner reception at the old state house where Clinton made his victory speech after the 1992 presidential election.
While at the dinner, the fellows had the opportunity to hear Dean of the Clinton School of Public Service James L. Rutherford, moderate a conversation between Mac McCarthy, President Clinton's former chief of staff and cofounder of the fellowship program and Sandy Berger, who was the national security adviser under President Clinton. Emerson added, "the beginning of the evening was more of a networking reception where you could talk to anyone including members of the Clinton administration and other founders."
The fellows visited Central High School, where the integration of the Little Rock Nine took place. The fellows tour the school and met two of the Little Rock Nine, Brown and LaNier. The two were able to give "a great perspective of how to be a citizen leader," Emerson said.
Igdalsky and Joseph agreed that the most meaningful part of their trip was the meeting the two members of the Little Rock Nine. The experience was "empowering, especially as an African-American student," Joseph said.
The fellows also participated in a day of service at a local junior high school in Little Rock. While in the middle school, there were different projects the fellows had the opportunity to participate in, including painting murals.
"Our fellows are all citizen leaders in their own right," Emerson said. "There is no formula for being a citizen leader; it is the idea that wherever you are you have the opportunity and the capability to be a leader."