Among the most important concepts Iroka Joseph Udeinya '76 learned when he arrived at Brandeis from Nigeria were hard work, the pursuit of excellence and how to make meatloaf.Udeinya was last to speak at the 50th anniversary of the Wien International Scholarship Program, among the members of a panel of four distinguished alumni scholars. The program, established in 1958 by Arthur Laurence Wien and his wife Mae Wien, recruits exceptional students from all over the world to attend Brandeis.

While Udeinya lived in the Foster Mods his junior year, "I learned how to make meatloaf. I also taught my American roommate how to make fufu! [a Nigerian dish] . I became more Americanized as I Nigerianized my roommates."

There are currently 42 Wien scholars from 21 countries studying at Brandeis, according to David Elwell, Director of the International Students and Scholars Office. Eight hundred Wien scholars from 106 countries have attended Brandeis since the program's inception.

The original goal of the Wien program was to "bring people to the United States so that they could bring back stories of the United States to their countries," Peter Malkin, Wien's son-in-law, said in an interview after the panel event.

Admissions officers choose approximately 12 students each year from an international application pool of about 1,000 to enroll as undergraduates. Brandeis used to accept Wien scholars as graduate students but no longer does. While the Wien program used to grant all scholars full scholarships, the program currently allots some students only partial scholarships.

According to Elwell, the University seeks out "not just an academic scholar," but also "unique individuals who see their role as . giving back to the community."

The weekend of events included a speech from the Prime Minister of Iceland, Geir Haarde '73, a presentation by current Wien scholars and a panel of alumni Wien scholars who spoke about their Brandeis careers and current experiences, moderated by Laurence Simon, associate dean of academic planning at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Wien alumni from countries as geographically distant as Sweden and Ethiopia gathered here at Brandeis to meet up with old classmates, remark on how much Brandeis had changed since they last visited and see their own aspirations as college students reflected in the optimistic speeches of current scholars.

Udeinya was strikingly charismatic as he narrated the story of his path from Brandeis to his current career at a scientific research organization in Nigeria.

The Wien scholars were supposed to graduate in three years, Udeinya explained, during which time he was not allowed to get a single C grade. Udeinya managed, graduating from Brandeis with a B.A. in biology and receiving his Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of West Virginia in 1979.

He pursued his postdoctoral research in bioscience at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, one of the National Institutes of Health, in Maryland.

Initially, he said, he was interested in studying the use of extracts from the Nigerian neem tree (azadirachta indica) as a treatment for African pandemics like malaria. Then, he says, "HIV became more interesting," and he began his current research in Nigeria as the president and CEO of the Rocitus Corporation into the plant's role in treating HIV.

Speaking slowly to a captivated audience, Udeinya explained that clinical trials have indicated that that the medication he would create from the plant extracts would not have the same side effects associated with current HIV cocktail medications.

Yet Udeinya's brief speech emphasized that beyond the scientific education and dedication to the pursuit of truth that he acquired at Brandeis, the exposure to people from a diverse array of cultures and ethnicities allowed him to develop a new perspective on the rest of the world.

"The Wien program afforded me an interesting worldview," he said. Udeinya explained that interaction with such a multicultural group of students caused him to consider his duties as a member of a global community.

"If I can contribute anything to my family, which is the world, I will do it," he said.

At the other end of the table sat Haile Menkerios '70, who narrated with confidence and wisdom a lifetime of world travel, service in the Etitrean army and diplomatic activity in the United Nations.

Speaking with enthusiasm as he described his first experiences outside of his native Ethiopia, Menkerios says his Brandeis career allowed him the "openness to learn what the hell is going on in the rest of the world."

Throughout his Brandeis career, Menkerios most valued the opportunity the students had to fight for the causes and ideals they supported.

Menkerios first came to the United States through a high school exchange program and graduated from an American high school. Yet he describes his pre-Brandeis education as very "America-centered" in that it ignored the perspectives of other countries and cultures.

Menkerios attended Brandeis during what he describes as a "time of social awareness," most specifically, the student protests against the Vietnam War.

"I was part of a movement to change the world," he said.

Menkerios attended graduate school at Harvard immediately after graduation, but before he'd even had the chance to complete his thesis, he took advantage of the opportunity to pursue the activist spirit he'd developed at Brandeis and joined the liberation movement in Eritrea.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, the Eritrean Liberation Front fought against the Eritrean People's Liberation Front for control over the country.

"It's a two-way street," he said, explaining the obligation he felt to participate in the nation's struggle for freedom. "Not only do you want to learn and gain . but at the same time [you are] seeing if you have something to offer."

Menkerios went on to serve in several United Nations positions, including the U.N. ambassador to Ethiopia, where he says he worked toward "regional integration" and advocated for "the sacred right of every individual to select the government."

In 2007, Menkerios was appointed the UN assistant secretary-general for political affairs.

His presentation was followed by that of Seung-il Shin '64, a peaceful man with a very soft smile, who recounted an equally extraordinary lifetime of scientific achievements.

When Shin came to Brandeis as a young man in 1962, he had just fled a "major, devastating war" in his home country of Korea. Upon arriving in the United States, he realized "it was a completely different universe."

"I gained the intellectual equipment to do whatever I wished," he said of his time at Brandeis.

Yet Shin admitted that even after graduation, his experiences in Korea had made him skeptical of the idea that one person could substantially improve human life.

"As a person from a very poor country," he explained, "you couldn't imagine that one person could change the lives of so many people."

After graduation, Shin taught graduate school classes on genetics. During one seminar that ultimately changed the course of his life, Shin says the teacher showed a slide of the last person in the world to contract smallpox before the creation of the vaccine put a halt to the spread of the disease.

"I thought, 'Wow, science can do something,'" Shin said, with a twinkle in his eye that inspired awed murmurs throughout the audience.

Subsequently, Shin entered the vaccines business. He has visited countries all over the world in an effort to develop vaccines for viruses like Hepatitis B, which he said is especially prevalent in southern countries. Shin currently works as the senior adviser and chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of Celltrion, Inc., a United Nations-organized vaccine institute.

Unlike the other panel members, who entered into academics or social action immediately after leaving Brandeis, it took some time after graduation for Wakako Kimoto Hironaka '64 to realize her intellectual potential.

Hironaka, poised and articulate, came to Brandeis in 1958 as one of the first Wien scholars. She opened her speech with an ironic confession.

"To tell you the truth," Hironaka told the audience, "I was not a good student while I was at Brandeis. I was worried that my poor English reflected my true intelligence."

Hironaka said she originally came to study in the United States because she was "strongly intrigued by new ideas such as women being equal to men." Hironaka said that, in Japan, gender roles were "based on traditional Japanese views."

After two years of living in the United States, Hironaka met and married a Japanese exchange student from Harvard. After her marriage, Hironaka says she led an "ordinary, middle-class American life."

But after experiencing such significant intellectual growth at Brandeis, Hironaka recalled that the idea of being an "ordinary" housewife troubled her.

"I graduated from a university in Japan, I got a full scholarship, and what am I doing after that?" she asked herself.

Not long after, Hironaka enrolled in the anthropology graduate program at Brandeis and pursued her dream of becoming a journalist.

"I wanted to share what was happening in America with Japanese readers," she said.

Hironaka wrote several articles for publications, including magazines owned by Kodansha Limited, and translated books such as Shifting Gears, by George and Nina O'Neill, from English to Japanese.

In 1968, Hironaka joined the Upper House of the Japanese Diet, where she became a "strong advocate for the concept of global fairness" domestically as well as internationally.

In response to audience members' anxieties about ethnic diversity in WISP's future, Undeinya noted the significant decrease in the number of scholars from Africa since he was a student at Brandeis.

The countries that send the largest amount of Wien scholars to Brandeis include South Korea, India and Turkey.

Nicholas Senecal, associate director of undergraduate admissions, who was present at the panel, suggested that the decrease might be a result of the University's recent move to send out applications over the Internet, as opposed to by hand, at a time when many African students have only limited Internet access.

Undeinya also raised the concern, seconded by many alumni scholars in the audience, that too many current scholars are majoring in economics, consequently ignoring other areas of study.

Anum Khan '10, a double Health, Science, Society and Policy and environmental studies major and business minor from Pakistan, said in an interview after the panel event that part of being a "Wien and a Brandeisian" is being able to "leave knowing that you tried something else. You stepped out of your comfort zone."

Other students, however, upheld the educational value of economics.

"They probably think the reason why we shouldn't [focus on economics] is because they want us to save the world," Ceylan Ecer '09, an International Global Studies, French and Economics major from Turkey, said in an interview after the panel event. "Doing econ, you can still do that in a very efficient way."

Mai Le '07 emphasized that her mathematics major as well as her physics major were useful in preparing her for her current work as an economic consultant in New York City.

At the current scholars' presentation earlier that day, alumni and current scholars debated whether or not Brandeis lacks sufficient awareness and dialogue about international events outside of the Middle East.

"I hear people talk about the old days when every issue was a hot issue and an open forum," one current scholar lamented. "A lot of that forum has been restricted."

Yet, other students pointed to Brandeis' significant efforts at initiating discussion of international topics, including the establishment of the Office of Global Affairs last year and the array of course offerings on international topics in the Anthropology and Women's and Gender Studies Departments.

Elwell said the Wien scholars organize annual trips and activities with the goal of becoming a close-knit group. In 2006, the ambassador to the United Nations from the Ivory Coast, a Brandeis alumnus, hosted the Wien scholars at the United Nations. Last year, the scholars went to volunteer in New Orleans, La.

Brandeis invites all the Wien alumni to campus approximately once every five years, Elwell said.

Current Wien scholars recognize their unlimited capacity for change that comes with the opportunity to interact with a group of highly motivated students from all across the globe.

"I don't think about skipping my 9 a.m. class," Chanont Banternghansa '08 said in a documentary current scholars presented. "I always remember that there's a million people waiting in line for my spot.