This lesson focuses on helping students to overcome specific pronunciation challenges. We join the class near the beginning of the unit as they are talking about photos of different women. They have heard the new words in a previous class. Good morning class. Good morning. Let's look at these pictures of women. Which one is most like you? Turn to your neighbor and tell her which one and why. This one. This one? Why? Because she's so nice to you. Fair color. Fair color. Okay. Jamie, what about you? That one's like me. She is young and has straight hair. Me too. Thank you. Jamie is personalizing. That means thinking about yourself or your own experience. How does this help you learn English? Because I know myself. That's one reason. Anymore? Because I'm important? Yes. To yourself, you are the most important person in the world. But really, that helps us remember things, doesn't it? When something is about us, we care more and we remember it better. In today's class, let's practice personalizing. Let's review the words for this lesson with a game. Who wants to start? I do. Great, Emma. Please come up. Point to a body part, then choose someone to show us the word. Mariam? Harm? Mimi? Holly? Julia? I don't know. Can anyone help her out? Eyebrow? Yeah. Okay, good. Now let's practice saying the words. Eye. Eye. Eyebrow. Eyebrow. Nose. Nose. Lips. Lips. Okay, now let's talk about difficult sounds. Look at the words here. Which ones are difficult for you? For this word, I say lips. Is it right? It's close. Is this the problem? Yes. I have an idea.  Say, buh. Buh. Buh. Buh. It didn't move. Yes. Now make the puh sound so air comes out of your mouth. It moves. That's cool. Lips. Okay, now hold your hand here. Say buh. Buh. Buh. Buh. Do you feel that? It moves. Yes. Now say puh. What do you feel? It's different. That's good. We are personalizing. Try to remember this when you say other words with puh. Now, are there any other difficult sounds? Summary. The teacher uses the learning strategy personalize. This strategy helps learners to relate new concepts to their own experiences. Students personalize as they identify their individual pronunciation challenges. The teacher offers methods to help them correctly pronounce their problem sounds. Next time, join us for Unit 4. We will teach reading skills.


to webcast these classes so we have to be wired for sound and I just forgot. We'll have a couple of seconds technical delay while I put a battery in here. Okay well I was hoping not to destroy my credibility at this early stage but with a bit of a struggle we now have the on switch on. Okay let's take it from the top. So for the first three quarters of the class we'll be looking at consciousness and the mind-body problem and in particular we'll spend a lot of time on functionalism which is the most important single idea in philosophy of mind and in the sciences of the mind in the last 50 years. It's really how should I put this sciences philosophy of mind so we will spend a lot of time looking at the functionalist approach to the mind and what it can do and what it can't do what its limitations seem to be and we'll then go on to questions about the self-personal identity. All this is on the course website which you can now get to through B-space. Has anybody tried to get to the course website through B-space? Did you manage? The papers know but a website? Okay so okay well if you I'll try and sort I thought oh it is on B-space now. Well look at that look at all these problems coming up and being resolved so roughly. Okay so the use is you can get to the course website through B-space you can get to it through my faculty webpage and you might particularly want to look at the link on the course website where it says lectures because that tells you what reading there is for each day of the semester. Okay we won't go the full distance today because the most important thing you'll have to do today really is initiate the bonding process with your GSI and find a time for a section that will work for you. The GSI's are Jackson Kirlian and Austin Andrews. Do you want to identify yourselves? You can see what good likenesses the photos are. Say hi guys. Okay there are two set books for the class. David Chalmers collection of philosophy of mind classical and contemporary readings and John Perry's book Personal Identity. These are full of wonderful papers and we'll actually only sample them. Okay and today and on Tuesday we'll be looking at Descartes meditations. The extracts from the second and sixth meditations in the Chalmers collection. So it's a 10 page reading and we'll start in it today and it would be good if you could read that 10 page extract for Tuesday. Most of the readings we do in this class are pretty brief. They're six pages, ten pages long. This is not to make it easy. It's because the readings themselves are pretty dense. Actually it's not so much that they're dense. They're often introducing unfamiliar and difficult ideas and it will often happen to you that when you read a paper for the first time you simply can't make head or tail of what is going on in the thing. This is perfectly normal. At this point you will experience a strong desire to sleep or attend to do something else and your mission is to resist that you have to have faith in both the reading and yourself. This is really good stuff. It really does make sense and you really can do it but it does mean you have to you may have find yourself spending a couple of hours on a single paragraph and that's fine that's okay that doesn't mean you're being dumb or it doesn't mean that the author's being needlessly difficult. It's just that these are unfamiliar ideas and it takes a while to grasp them. Yeah so I sympathise if you find the experience at first highly disagreeable but if you persist and crack through there is really some wonderful stuff that we're going to do. We're going to be doing the greatest hits over the last 300 years in thinking about the mind. Okay so we'll start out with the Descartes and then the next up which we'll do next Thursday are extracts from Royal in the Chalmers collection. So again that's just seven pages but give yourself plenty of time to address those seven pages. Are there any questions just about the basic setup of the class right now? I think most of your questions should be answered on the on the website. Yeah you don't need to bring the textbooks to class you may want to it may be helpful to to work through it but I'm anything I quote will be on the screen so you don't need to have a text here I mean but you may want to it's your choice. Okay so there are three things I want to do today one is just to get stated the mind body problem how the mind body problem comes up in the first place I mean it's a familiar phrase but how did it first arise how did people start out thinking about the mind body problem and then one resolution of the mind body problem is dualism dualism says there's two different kinds of stuff there's material stuff and there's a stuff your mind is made of and they're just different and that solves the mind body problem because it's just two different things and there isn't really a big issue about how they're connected and then finally today I'll look at problems with dualism we'll go back over this stuff too on Tuesday. Okay so what sets up the mind body problem is back in the 17th century when mathematical physics first came on the scene it is really physics that generates the mind body problem. Physics really destabilizes our picture of the ordinary world and what we're doing in the universe what's going on in the universe it really destabilizes it in ways that are still puzzling today that we still haven't really come to terms with. Here's a remark by Koyere the historian Koyere about how the implications of the new physics started to be seen back in the 17th century not only are the heavenly spaces empty and void but even the so-called solid bodies are full of void. The particles that compose them are by no means closely packed together but are separated from one another by void space. The Newtonians from Bentley on took an enormous pride and pleasure in pointing out that matter proper occupies a practically infinitesimal part of space you get the impression that this was a particularly annoying thing that Newtonians used to do but really when you think about it think about what physics is telling you about what is in this space-time zone this classroom right now and what is here according to physics are we talking about people colors projects or screens no all we have are the fundamental particles floating in the void there are just was mostly empty space in this room occasional clumps of gluons the operation of basic physical forces and that's the whole thing that is all that's going on now that really destabilizes our picture of the world think about how the world would have looked to say a 16th century peasant innocent of mathematical physics someone who'd never heard of mathematical physics you look at let us say a flower and the flower itself with its coloration with all this delicate tremulous beauty is just out there a fact about the world that you simply encounter the world is full of these medium-sized physical objects with all their delicate colorations with all their wonder and variety and you just happen to be plunged in amongst them and you start finding out about them so before physics when you're innocent of physics you can think that what's going on when you see a flower is that there's that thing out there there's you and you see it what could be planer than that your conscious experience of the flower is it's a relation between you and a bit of the world there's there anyway that flower would have been as it is whether or not humans had ever existed whether or not there were ever minds at all but after physics what physics is telling you is out there in the world there is nothing like that delicately beautiful flower there are only the fundamental particles what is going on is that those fundamental particles are generating in you sensations of color and taste and smell and so on but physics doesn't talk about color or smell or taste and physics gives you comprehensive coverage of the universe physics tells you there's just one world and it's a physical world and there is no more to it than that there's no more to it than that then the flower as it seems is not something that's out there independent of you what's out there it's just a configuration of gluons and they generate these sensations in you of color and smell and taste so physics takes away the regular world it also condemns us to a kind of loneliness a real existential loneliness because what's going on when I look at the scene right now is these layers of atoms are generating sensations in me when you look around the room now these layers of atoms are generating sensations in you but for all we know they're generating different sensations in you and in me our minds might be completely different you don't know whether your color sensations are just the same as mine in fact when you think about it is not just that you don't know whether your color sensations are the same as mine I mean consider this don't look now but think about the person sitting right next to you I mean is entirely possible that although they are physically just like a regular human they have no sensations at all maybe they are a kind of zombie they're physically just like a human but with no consciousness why not maybe that would explain some puzzling things but you don't know I mean maybe the person next to you is having sensations maybe they are just the same as yours but if that's true it's just an accident you have no way of telling so this picture of physics a configuration of atoms out there generating sensations in us and seems to drive us into a complete loneliness you don't know what sensations other people are having you don't even know whether they're having any other sensations so this is just an artist's impression of the fundamental particles and the fundamental physical forces but that's all that's really there and the thing about the world the way physics describes it where it's all are there any physics figures in the class what is there gluons gluons right quarks yeah there's gamma ray bursts there's spectroscopic emissions there's black holes the thing about the world is described by physics is that there is absolutely nothing in the world that it would be possible to care about all the world of people of ordinary concerns or beautiful things is just not there in the description of the world given by physics so when you think of the problem that physics is really a complete description of the world then the implication of this is well it would be natural to feel a kind of terror at this point I mean I kind of scream seems to be a reasonable reaction to maybe that's just a liberal arts reaction to physics if that's all that's really there then the world is really very alien to the world of ordinary concerns always going on when you look at the flower is that there's a collection of atoms out there there's an atomic structure out there and your sensations are projecting the colors and smells and tastes onto that atomic structure as you look around the room there is nothing in the room but collections of atoms but you are projecting different things your mind is projecting different things onto that scaffolding of atoms like being in a movie theater your mind is projecting this stuff onto the world out there well that's already a little bit distressing but at this point the really hard question is where does the mind itself fit in the mind itself doesn't seem to be capable of being described mathematically the mind itself doesn't seem to be capable of being brought under basic physical laws so you can say that the color of the flower is a projection by the mind onto the atomic reality that makes sense but you can hardly say that the mind itself is a projection of the mind if you see what I mean that that doesn't make any sense at all the mind itself is not a projection of anything so how can that be either physics is incomplete or else we have a really hard problem of trying to understand where the mind fits in to the physical world so something like that I think is the background to where the mind body problem comes from it comes from physics because it's only once you have physics that you have a sharp conception of what matter is and then once you know what matter is you can ask about the mind and is that matter how does that work how's it connected okay that's the origin of the mind body problem comments protests anyone sorted out is come on yes yes right thinking yeah I wasn't really distinguishing between thinking and sensation but you're right there does seem to be a difference there thinking I guess is something like what you do in language right what you what you and I are doing right now thinking out loud yeah sensation seems how should I say you don't need a language to do that when you look at the flower and you get that sensation of color that's not itself thought yeah but some connect between them that the the sensation that makes the thought possible you wouldn't be able to think about colors unless you had sensations of colors yeah and maybe it's only thinking about color that actually does the projection of the color onto the world that allows you to judge that there are colors in the world so I guess I'm thinking of the mind as a kind of package with both sensation and thinking and something like that is constituting the projection apparatus of the mind you see what I mean and then the question is that package of sensation and thinking how does that fit into the world of the physical world yeah I think that would be true too but that's a kind of intramural question about the relation between thinking and sensation at the moment I'm asking a much broader thing which is take thinking and sensation however they're related how do they connect to physics yeah yeah yeah but think about what you see in a physics textbook and in the 17th century the big move was to do two things to say matter is ultimately made out of atoms little round hard billion balls yeah that was the picture and the atoms are governed by mathematical laws you can measure everything that that's the whole idea everything is measurable that's a very counterintuitive idea if you were just as an suppose you're in an intelligent child of six or an intelligent medieval and you want to find out how the world works how a tree works for example well if you want to find out how a tree works how do trees grow how do they originate you want to understand what goes on with a tree well you could measure the tree but that seems this seems obvious that's not going to tell you anything very much right so until the 17th century people thought numbers don't have much to do with it and if you want to understand how a tree works what you have to do is read Aristotle and think about it really hard yeah and that was the wrong answer but it is a very natural answer I mean you know what measuring it was going to do with it and and the really bold move in the 17th century was to say no measurement can tell you the answers to everything the measurable quantities solve the whole thing tell you everything so they are the mathematical characteristics of fundamental particles you can get all the rest from that but the trouble is that the sensations are in themselves atomic they don't seem to be constructions from the atomic yeah so they don't fit in to the mathematical physics picture yep yep yeah that must be right I mean your brain must have something to do with it if you bash someone's brain you're going to make a difference to what sensations are having so no argument about that but the question isn't really can the physical stuff affect the mind the question about the mind is what is it anyway we know we're thinking that maybe the whole world is describable by physics but what's the mind and it's not really does the physical stuff affect the mind it's what's this thing what are we talking about not does this affect that but do we even know what this is how we're going to say what this is we're going to come on to that very question in just a second to that question about existence okay let's take this one too quickly and then we should move on but yes well what I said what I meant there was it's really two things that matter is made of atoms and that all the characteristics of the atoms are mathematically describable now the the if you take sensations of color or test yeah the question is can you measure those is there a way of putting a ruler against your test sensations and measuring them and that's the thing it doesn't seem to be yeah that was how it seemed back then I mean I think Galileo was the first person to make this point but back in the 17th century most I mean Galileo was really the father of mathematical physics and that was how it seemed to him and I think back in the 17th century they're thinking that's right how are you going to measure itches you know yeah last one and the I saw you first okay let's take this to quickly but yeah yeah I'll try to be quick yeah well yeah can't it be a concept I thought what's not made it matter oh color yes right right right okay but how can it be a concept to describe if it describes does it describe something physical or not the software exists and the software part of the physical world that's really weird so software is non-physical well there's something that is not quite right but there's something that is importantly right the software is a good model and we'll actually spend quite a bit of time on the idea that the mind is the software of the brain that is actually quite a powerful idea that just as a computer runs programs your brain is a bit of hardware running software which is the mind that's what it is to have a mind is to be a computer running the appropriate software yeah that your brains so that's an important idea but I just want to get that this big block busting thing I'm asking is this physical or not if you want to really bring that to bear on that big question then you have to be very clear about whether you're saying software is physical or not yeah last one very good okay there are two different things here one is to say sensation is based on neurochemistry the other is to say that sensation is just the same thing as in neurochemistry yeah and again that's an important idea that we're going to spend a lot of time on actually the whole line of thought you just set out but in a moment I'm going to give Descartes argument that is one thing to say the sensation is caused by the neurochemistry but it's not right Descartes is going to argue to say that the sensation is just the same thing as in neurochemistry that's really the critical thing yeah now the really last one okay I mean these are all excellent questions these are all bringing up things that were big themes yeah yeah right yeah yeah you guys are basically inventing functionalism here and the computer model of the mind which is going to take us another couple of weeks to labor up to so bear with me as we labor up to these questions but let me put it right back to you if if what you're saying is correct if there's no more to sensation than the brain running a particular kind of software then it should be child's play to make a computer that has sensations making computers that have sensations I have one right here is it does it have sensations you can do that yeah I mean look suppose you have a set of laptops orchestrated all over the world right you could run soft and you wouldn't even yeah I mean you got a powerful enough laptop you're not going to need a network just amp up the processing power of this laptop couple of years will be there and then that's going to have sensations that's what you're saying well okay we're going to spend a lot of time on this idea I just want to be clear about what you have to be saying if you really mean that yeah but here's Descartes arguments that none of this can be right yeah none of these important ideas can be right Descartes says there are two different kinds of stuff there's mental stuff and there's physical stuff and one argument there are three arguments he gives for this in the meditations and just going to look at one of them the argument he gives is the certainty with which you know of your own existence is greater than the certainty with which you could know of the existence of any physical thing therefore the mind and the body can't be identical so well here's what he's thinking how do you have knowledge of the world around you anyhow how do you have knowledge of the physical world well you get your knowledge of the physical world from your sensations and what's going on according to physics is that the sensations you have are just caused by the atoms out there so if that's what's happening you the sensations that you're having are being caused by the atoms out there well if that's what's well if that's your hypothesis about what's causing those sensations well actually those very same sensations could have been caused in endlessly many different ways as you sit here full of intellectual stimulation you're inquiring mind questing into the depth of the mind body problem you take it for granted that what's going on is that the physical stuff is configured in just you're in a room full of other people and so on but of course it's also possible that you could maybe you didn't make it to the lecture after all maybe you're still at home maybe you fell asleep by the fire and you're simply dreaming that you're in the lecture room maybe you're actually in an astrophysics lecture dreaming that you're in the philosophy lecture that could be that could happen you could be having the very same sensations with a quite different cause they can't put this point in a lot of different ways you see as well maybe there could be a malicious demon causing those sensations maybe your roommate is an evil neuroscientist who whipped your brain out just as you were about to set off for lecture and is stimulating you to think that you made it the physical world could be radically different to the way you think it is the idea that you're living in a university town with lots of other people around that you're in the room with tables and chairs this is one hypothesis among many to explain the sensations you're having and this is not just an idle speculation there really are people that are the insane there are the dreamers who think you're having the sensations of a unicorn at midnight there may be no unicorn it may not be midnight but you could be having those sensations anyway or as Descartes more prosaically gives the example you could be looking at a square tower from a distance and it could seem round so even in the worst case though suppose that you're an insane madman who's fallen asleep and is dreaming about a square tower that that actually just looks round right suppose there's nothing there but a collection of mistaken sensations in your part do you still know of your own existence you could be completely wrong about every aspect of the physical world none of it might be as you think it is but do you know about your own existence even in that worst case Descartes says you still know of your own existence he famously says this proposition I am I exist that's necessarily true whenever it's put forward by you or conceived by your mind so the physical world might not be there but you still know of your own existence so you can't be a physical thing because your knowledge of your own existence is greater is more certain than your knowledge of the existence of any physical thing that proposition I am I exist this is Descartes that's necessarily true whatever it's put forward by me or conceived by my mind so just to go over that argument the sensations you have are merely being caused by atoms in the world around you so those very same sensations could be caused in endlessly many different ways that means that your current conjectures about how the physical world is there does one hypothesis among many about the causes of your sensations so your knowledge of the physical world is always uncertain there's always something provisional about it is maybe just your best guess as to what's actually going on but your knowledge of your own existence is not like that so what is the self if the self is something non-physical then what is it and Descartes says well what shall I now say that I am what I am supposing that there is some supremely powerful and if it is permissible to say malicious deceiver you see the caution that if there really is some evil genius who's manipulating all your sensations to make you think you're sitting in a lecture room then you really ought to be respectful if you're going to say malicious you better do so cautiously but so I'm now supposing my sensations are just manipulations by some demon deceiving me but what can I say that I am can I assert that I have even the most insignificant of attributes that I said belong to the nature of a body can you say that you have a particular weight that you have a particular height that you have blood you can't say any of that stuff because all that might be just generated by the demon giving you sensations or being a particular height or weight or having blood or whatever so what is it that you always encounter when you think about what must be there what definitely exists no matter what is going on in the physical world yourself yeah but can you say a bit more about what characteristics of yourself but I'm very good right you have a thought at last I have discovered it you guys could do this in your own actually so okay so we just had functionalism and the mind is software and okay who said thought who said thought okay very good right that's what Descartes says all this could be a dream your thoughts are still there your thoughts are definitely there you have certain knowledge of your own thoughts in a way you don't have certain knowledge of anything else and that thinking you will always find when you find your own existence so the self as a thinking thing must be something non-physical that's the argument plenty enough yes oh good questions in the back one two wonderful somebody could be manipulating your thoughts yeah right that's really an interesting idea but notice that there's there's a way in which is quite commonplace to try to manipulate people's thoughts and that's what you do in a conversation right I try and make you have thoughts you try and make me have thoughts yeah manipulation suggest something a bit stronger that you've actually taken charge of what thoughts someone is having yeah but notice that even if someone has taken charge of what thoughts you're having even if Bill Gates really has got in there and is making me have all those thoughts when I think I am I exist I am still being confronted with thoughts I may not be in charge of them but they're still thoughts there if I weren't having the thoughts I wouldn't even there would be anything to be manipulated if you see what I mean and I wouldn't be able to say I am I exist because to say I am I exist is already to be thinking whenever I think even if I'm just a pawn in the hands of this evil wizard then still I have thoughts so it's not much of a claim if you see what I mean is it is not yet to say I am a free agent or something like that but it's just to say I exist and that thinking knowledge of my thinking is bound up with my knowledge of my own existence yep that is Descartes cogito I think therefore I exist yeah oh sorry there's no question so is it going away there's something no it's going away that's very good yes yes okay we're talking here just about what Descartes is really getting is when he says that proposition I am I exist is necessarily true whenever is put forward by me yeah so what he's getting is the existence of the self at a moment that's the certain thing and you're certain of that in a way that you couldn't be certain of the existence of any physical object yeah but when you say I remember happy days in ancient Egypt or as one does right or when you say I remember that weekend back in 1970 then if possible those memories are implants yeah it's possible your memories of what happened yesterday are implants you could have been got at maybe though the truth will just be revealed to you later you your current memories are implants yeah so when you say I'm the same as that person back then that's not certain yeah it's just the existence of the self at a time well okay one two three yeah if you yeah I mean it's not even it's not all the schizophrenia if I say well Campbell thinks you know I just got a bit taken away with my taking away with myself say well you know set of saying my view is well you know this is a combo yeah that's one does right then that's not going to have certainty yeah because it could happen just as you say that you're you're carried away and you're saying Napoleon thinks yeah because you think you are Napoleon and so on yeah yeah these delusions so there is no certainty there even if I mean who knows maybe I'm actually a millionaire playboy and I just think I'm a humble philosophy pedagogue yeah then when I say Campbell I'm actually that's just a mistake that's not me no such person exists yeah so that's not certain it's really something special about the use of I to refer to yourself that has a kind of certainty but you use of a name doesn't and that's what your example brings out I think oh you maybe there's no physical stuff oh boy right that I agree that's the next move if we're getting it that the existence of the mind is a completely certain thing then why not say look the physics the atoms and so on and there just projections of the mind to yeah I agree that's a very good move that but where we got to is we started out by thinking about the flower that you encounter yeah and taking everything for granted and then physics blows that up and what you're talking about is really the revenge of the mind if you see what I mean he's okay now we blow physics up and we say that's just a projection of the mind that again is an important move yeah yeah yeah I don't wish to say any more about about this at this point except to say that is a big important idea that needs a lot of discussion yeah yeah last one yeah yes we can both relate to this I think that that's a very natural idea and the and it is it is still an important idea that idea that social life and communication is a big piece to have in place here because somehow isn't that just as basic as having a mind in the first place being embedded in a community yeah that's an important idea but remember that part of the way that physics destabilizes just going back quite a bit here part of the way that physics destabilizes our picture of what's going on is that it seems to raise the possibility that your sensations might be entirely different to my sensations so when I talk about redness I'm talking about one kind of sensation when you use the word red you're talking about a quite different kind of sensation it might be the sensation I call green it might be the sensation I have when I hear middle C on an organ it might be something completely alien you know those sensations might be completely different so ordinary the impact of physics here is to really destabilize ordinary communication to yeah because you're just a collection of atoms I'm just a collection of atoms there can be these causal interactions and you're interpreting it in terms of the other person having the same kind of sensations you are but that might just be a mistake yeah that's what I mean about the loneliness of the picture generated by physics huh that poignant note let me make some last remarks about problems with dualism I hope is fairly clear the dualism is it has something going for it it's not just a daft idea in fact it's still popular today dualism but although this argument that so this argument your knowledge of the existence of the mind is more certain than your knowledge of the existence of anything physical actually maybe we shut the door it's just on free so there's gonna be a lot of racket from things so I just talk for another 10 minutes or so and then we should get sections going yep yes doubting yourself doubting your own existence that's kind of hard who is it that's doing the doubting do you think I know what you mean don't even exist I think but isn't it right that where it's natural to say that is in a social context what are you saying don't you what you mean is don't you even realize that I exist you pigs I'm sorry maybe maybe this is just autobiographical but you see what I mean but really to doubt your own existence it's hard to see how that even makes rational sense because somebody's got to be doing the doubting so who is it that's doing the doubting if not you you see what I mean that was really the point about Descartes saying I think therefore I exist that doubting that you think doubting that you exist doesn't seem to make any sense except in that social kind of way this is important we will come back to it as you might challenge this but I just want to get over the what Descartes is thinking you see what I mean yeah that's right that's right yes exactly the demon may be cheating me in every possible way but I have to be there to be cheated for this to be going on yeah that's the point yeah no that's very good okay so Descartes thinking like this there are two kinds of stuff in the universe there's a physical stuff that's made out of atoms and governed by mathematics and there's the ectoplasm or whatever you call it the stuff that the soul is made out of now the thing is once you put it as bluntly as that there's two different kinds of stuff there's the ectoplasm and there's a physical stuff then a number of things become obvious first of all if they're turned out that there was ectoplasm I mean it's not made out of atoms it's not governed by regular mathematical physics physicists would just be delighted the physicist who demonstrated that this was so would immediately be extremely famous and popular I'm because what you'd want to do is say well how can we find out about the ectoplasm how do we find out what I mean with dark matter that's exactly what happened they said this is not the regular physical stuff made out of regular atoms this is made out of something else and it's all very exciting to find out what it is so to say there are two kinds of stuff is actually it's a perfectly I mean it really could be true that there are two different kinds of stuff I do not have have you guys ever come across the amber spyglass no you're really missing out as it put your hand up if you've read the amber spyglass put your hand up if it's any good it's great right it's an absolutely fantastic set of books by Philip Pullman I mean they're aimed at 12 year olds why I'm glad I'm not alone here but they're absolutely wonderful but I'm Pullman in late in the series this is a little bit of a spoiler it's not much of a spoiler but it turns out that there's a kind of gold and dust and there is what's responsible for consciousness and the great thing about the amber spyglass is that unless you see the golden dust so you'd you know doubtless see huge billowing clouds over over the room at the moment if you kind of looked out as all this mental frenetic mental activity is going on and the thing is if you think well there is that ectoplasm there is the golden dust that generates consciousness and it's not like regular physical stuff well that really might be true and then you'd have to find out how there can be such a stuff but the thing is it's not as if the problems you have at that stage are any easier than the problems you had before I mean your knowledge of your own existence is still going to be more certain than your knowledge of the existence of the golden dust or the ectoplasm or whatever it is and then you're still going to have the question how can that be generating a mind the physiologist Susan Greenfield said what really got me into physiology this must have been about 40 years ago I guess but what got her into physiology was looking at a human brain and thinking that it's all there as you sit here at the moment a flame with intellectual curiosity longing for coffee memories of your family thinking of your friends it's all there how can that be that's that really is the that's the kind of basic puzzle about the mind how can your life be being sustained by that that seems so amazing how could that be happening and it doesn't really help to say well maybe it's not a brain maybe it's golden dust or maybe a ectoplasm I mean that you still have that same basic puzzle how could that stuff be generating this my whole conscious life yeah that's that's the fundamental puzzle and moving to saying well I've got a kind of ghostly brain here doesn't help a bit you just shuffled it off and if you say as Descartes says something like thinking is the essence of the soul the soul I mean when you that sounds pretty deep right yes come on you guys shouldn't be doing philosophy that doesn't seem pretty deep but the thing is when you think about what is actually saying thinking is the essence of the stole you're just saying well look the soul is a kind of ectoplasm or golden dust or something and it just does that it just does thinking that's all you need to know and that's really just a fake that is a phony explanation and look here's an analogy suppose that some intelligent Martians I mean everybody knows that Martians are extremely smart right suppose that some very smart Martians landed on earth and they start finding out all about us and our civilization and they make a lot of progress they understand us pretty well but TV really puzzles them for some reason they look at it and they think I just can't see how they're getting those colored images in the screen that's really weird it defeats their best physicists they don't understand how that works how do TVs work but then someone says look we've all been working on the wrong track the reason we're finding it so hard to understand how TVs work is they're not physical at all they're made of a special TV stuff and it's TV stuff if you ask how TV stuff is generating all those brightly colored images well that's of the essence of TV stuff that's just what TV stuff does and people say that's brilliant and there's a career to be had there but the whole thing is obviously fake and similarly if you're puzzled about how the brain can generate the mind it doesn't really help it's just a fake to say well actually the brain doesn't generate the mind and what we've got here is some special ectoplasmic stuff an ectoplasmic stuff well that's just the kind of stuff that generates minds that hasn't made any progress at all and what is TV stuff how does it make those images what's its relation to physical stuff that's what you really want to know so postulating a special TV stuff wouldn't help with any of the problems that you're trying to understand how can your knowledge of this thing be so certain for example and so postulating mental stuff doesn't really solve the problems about mind and brain it's just making them obscure because with the brain we at any rate know what that is we you can look at it you know what the thing is you know how to study it when you talk about a special ectoplasmic stuff that's not physical all you know for sure is I have no idea what that is or how you go about studying it it's true I mean Descartes was really right about this and this is a problem that is still alive and well today is very hard to see how the mind can be physical but the trouble is it's not really just a problem about how the mind can be made of atoms it's a problem about seeing how the mind can be made of any kind of stuff at all so it really doesn't help to postulate non-physical stuff we should really if you can bear it it's kind of a gory photo I promise you that I won't show this in any other classes but but really we should just stick with the problem how can that be generating the buzzing blooming world of every day sensation that is the puzzle we should be sticking with and okay let's couple of questions and then another dimension yeah right very good that's really a wild idea that's interesting I've never heard that before that's really a wild imaginative idea okay so I don't know people got that the idea is that there are the physical dimensions then there's an extra dimension that the mentalism is that a way to put it yeah yeah I mean it's a great idea and I don't want to just close it off the basic starting questions though would be the ones I just raised and we need to know how could you know if this is a dimension how could your knowledge of it be so much certain more much more certain than your knowledge of any other dimension how is that working how come that the other dimensions don't do sensations and this one does you know the demand to understand what's going on is just starting here yeah so but I don't want to close that off I've never heard that I often you have that Jackson okay we don't know that but it really is interesting it's not it's not just a dafter or it's any of it let me put it like this there's no dafter than most of the mainstream ideas yes yes I Descartes certainly thinks there are interesting aspects or ability to think about the infinite but on the face of it I mean are our minds really infinite we can think about infinity but that's not the same thing as yourself being infinite yourself if you see what I mean I mean do you get tired I mean I'm constantly aware of my mind running out on me and I constantly I'm wishing that I had something a bit better and bigger and sharper yeah so I my own sense is that my own mind is highly finite I mean it would be good to read Descartes look at the Descartes passages with questions about infinity in mind yeah because he does say interesting things about that but that's not what I mean the argument we were disemphasizing was your knowledge of this thing is provisional and uncertain yeah it might all be a dream and so on but your knowledge of your own mind is not so that can't be the same thing as a mind yeah and if you think about yourself I mean it's that that thing you said at the start about smelling and tasting it and so on that I mean I know that whenever I look at that it makes me think of how would that be fried anyway I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that anyway what we're just talking about yeah the basic thing is if you think of your own conscious life at the moment the basic puzzle is imagine the top of your head sliced off and you're given a mirror on a stick so you can look at your brain from the top and it looks kind of like this and you're being asked to believe this is all the same thing my conscious life right now all my sensations and memories and thoughts that's the same thing as that stuff how could that be yeah so it's not really something special about infinity it's a much more basic difficulty of understanding than that okay so for next time try and look at those 10 pages of the meditations make as much progress as you can and right now your task is to bond with your GSI


Hi everyone, I'm Britta Burenlin with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State. Today we're going to talk to you about the Mandela Washington Fellowship, which I've had the great pleasure to work on for the last year and a half. I had a chance to speak to some of you a couple of weeks ago during our first live Q&A program for the 2015 application process, and we received a lot of great questions. I encourage you all to get your applications in. The deadline is November 5th and that is less than a week away. Nelson Mandela said, It always seems impossible until it is done, and that may be how you're feeling about the application right now. And for you today, we have a very special guest who can answer your questions. Halawi Sunet is a 2014 fellow and he is joining us via video feed from Ethiopia to answer your questions. This is a great opportunity to speak with someone directly who not long ago was just like you, a person in Africa struggling to finish his application. Now he's a 2014 fellow back in Ethiopia with new inspiration, friends and skills. Let me just start by saying a few introductory words about the fellowship. As you probably know, the Mandela Washington Fellowship is the flagship program of the President's Young African Leaders Initiative, or YALI, President Obama's commitment to invest in the next generation of Africa's leaders. The fellowship aims to build and sustain a network of young African leaders across critical sectors and to cement stronger ties between sub-Saharan Africa and the United States. Through this initiative, young African leaders are gaining skills and connections to accelerate their own careers and to contribute more robustly to good governance, economic development, and peace and prosperity across Africa. So now a few main points about the program. It is a six-week academic and leadership institute in one of three tracks, business and entrepreneurship, civic leadership, or public management. For the 2015 summer program, we will select 500 of sub-Saharan Africa's top young leaders aged about 25 to 35 to participate. Fellows will participate in groups of 25 at one of 20 institutes. Held at diverse universities and colleges throughout the United States, the institutes include academic study, practical leadership training, workshops, site visits, networking opportunities, and mentoring. And at the end of the institutes, all 500 Mandela Washington Fellows will convene in Washington, D.C. for a three-day summit as we did this past year. During the summit, fellows will have the chance to meet and interact with each other, as well as with President Barack Obama and other prominent U.S. government business and civic leaders. The 2014 summit was a highlight of the program, and with the feedback from last year's cohort, the 2015 program should be even more dynamic. Up to 100 fellows will remain in the United States for an additional six to eight weeks after their academic institute and summit to participate in internships in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors with organizations throughout the United States. Then fellows will return home to Africa, where they will have access to additional programming, including leadership centers, mentoring, community service opportunities, and internships throughout Africa. Now, just a couple months ago, I was with a group of 2014 fellows after a visit to the White House. One of the fellows came up to me, and it was Halawi, who I'd met a couple of times. He asked about the recruitment for 2015, and he told me enthusiastically that he had seen this very program last year, and he had found it helpful. He asked if we might consider including a fellow for the next program, and I thought that was a great idea. In fact, his idea was so great that I asked him if he'd be willing to take part himself. And I'm so excited that everything has worked out, and he's joining us live all the way from Addis Ababa. And so I'd like to introduce Halawi Sunet. Halawi is an architecture working on innovative, green, and affordable housing alternatives for lower-income neighborhoods in Ethiopia. He researches and lectures for the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction, and City Development, and is the founder of the journal Building Ethiopia. Halawi received his bachelor's degree in architecture from Addis Ababa University and a master's in advanced studies in urban design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Hi, Halawi. Okay, I can't hear him. Okay, Halawi, how did you hear about the fellowship? Can you hear me now? Yes, there we go. Okay, do you want to say a few words about yourself? Yes, I'm a 2014 Mandela Washington fellow from Ethiopia. I was in the public management track at the University of Minnesota, and I also had the opportunity to intern in Maryland for the follow-on internet program. Okay, so I'm going to ask you a few questions about your application process and about your fellowship. How did you hear about the fellowship? I heard about the fellowship about one year ago from the Facebook page of the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa. And why did you apply? I applied for three main reasons. One was that the program sounded interesting, the fact that it presented this very intense, well-designed package in such a reasonably such a short time. And the second was that it's also an opportunity of follow-on programs once we return back in our respective communities in Africa. So I found that was something that I could invest my energy and time on. In that case, the wonderful opportunity to meet with President Obama was a very powerful motivator. And can you tell everyone what are the parts of the application that you found difficult or what do you think helped your candidacy? Part of the application that was difficult for me was the concept of understanding at the time of the concept of leadership. I used to associate it a lot with a position or a level of recognition and not understand it also. I understood it also as being largely about behavior and capacity and the ability to influence. It became a little easier for me and then it became about how to communicate and how to demonstrate what I've done and what was inside of me. And the question I think helped my candidacy was there was one question, an essay part that asked if there was initiative that we had taken part of and how we had gathered support for it. As you mentioned earlier, I was the founding member of the first architectural urban scientific journal in Ethiopia and then that I think really gave me the confidence and the comfort to apply once I saw this question. But in general, one of the challenges was the mental challenge I faced through the application. A lot of questions would pop in my mind reminding me and challenging me how tough this application and how competitive this application would be. So every time I had to come up with counterarguments to convince myself that I have to push on. So that was, I remember, through the application and also through the interview, one of my biggest challenges. I think that's a good point because I know we've gotten a lot of questions about what do we consider leadership. And so I just encourage anyone who's watching that you most likely are a leader in many different ways. And it's just a matter of thinking it through and really writing those essays that talk about your strengths and the things that you've done. So it's important not to doubt yourself and your experience and your leadership capacity. Okay, great. So I've got another question. I guess sort of following up on that, what would be your advice to applicants who are struggling now to fill out the application, which by the way has more questions than the application that you felt filled out? I would advise potential applicants to be bold and expressive and choose the right experience among the things they have done. Do a bit of research and think through and revise their application before they submit it. I also recommend that they think carefully because they're communicating to someone that doesn't know them. So what is that special thing they would like to communicate or that they want the reviewers to know about them? So I'd like them to think about these questions as they're writing the application. But whatever they do, please finish the application. At this point it is not decided who will be a potential and then a Washington fellow. So every second that is taken from this point on, even through the application process and through the interviews, has the power to determine whether you will be a potential fellow or somebody else. So I urge them and I encourage them to please compete and finish the whole process. By November 5th, because that is the deadline. And I have to agree with you that it's very important for applicants to be as specific as possible in answering their questions, to be specific rather than general, so that we as the readers and the selection committee really can get a feel for who you are. Okay, so Halal, we have another question for you. What should potential fellows expect in the program? They should expect first and foremost 24 other African talented, very positive, energetic and experienced fellows once they arrive in Africa because they're going to meet them the next day. And second, they should expect a very well-designed curriculum that is delivered by first class professors. Also an opportunity, an experiential learning opportunity to know about different organizations of the US, the culture of the US, and get to discover the America from inside out, basically. And they also should expect once the academic institutes are over with, they should expect to meet leaders from all sectors. And that's a very summit. I'm talking about the presidential summit that they will be having with the president and other US leaders. So they should also know, right, and those of them who are elected to participate in the internship, they will have the opportunity to apply what we have learned in the academic institutes and get an in-depth experience of how the US system and how the work environment in the US is. Can you tell us a little bit about that, the work environment in the United States? Can you tell us a bit about your internship experience? My internship I wanted to be very a great match because I had taken the public management track at the academic institutes and then I had the chance to intern at a private organization. The company I worked for was called International Green Structures. They were based in Maryland, so they provide affordable housing structures for customers all around the world, including Africa. So that was very interesting for me to get to work on their projects, especially in their operations in Kenya. I was closely working with the marketing department and developing marketing plans for their operations in Africa. But what was beyond my expectation was that my hosts have been going out of their way to make my experience wonderful and comfortable. And they really elevated my perception about Americans as individuals. And I'm happily compelled to call them my IGF family now. And we plan in the future to visit Africa. We talked about it. We definitely are keeping in touch right now one time back. So that was a very exciting closing for me. And that really touches on one of the main goals of the program, which is mutual understanding between people of the United States and people of countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. So I'm sure they learned so much about Ethiopia and about Africa from meeting you, and that's a wonderful story. Okay, I have another question. What is on the crest of potentially fast-moving and innovative progress? How do you feel the Washington Fellowship experience has better prepared you to be a leader in that process? When I was in Minnesota at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, we talked often about two interesting concepts. One was disruptive innovation, and the other was grand challenges. A disruptive innovation is right now some places in Africa are jumping to cells without ever having to see land by faults. So that was the concept of disruptive innovation. And then grand challenges was that some problems are not meant to be fixed. They are meant to be managed, especially problems that are noble, that are highly complex and that require resources beyond the capacity of one organization or one discipline or one sector. So these two concepts were discussing about them in Minnesota at the Public Institutes. And this fast progress that you talked about in Africa requires high-skilled workforce to sustain it. So what the Mandela Washington Fellowship has done for me is it has imposed me to the best practices of American knowledge in such a short time from the different professors we have talked to and from the debates and the discussions we've had among the fellows. And also it underlined the importance of collaboration, participatory processes and community engagement in soul and bringing about change and sustainable development. So those were my biggest takeaways from the Institute. And your career has focused on the promotion of environmentally sound design for housing. Did the Mandela Washington Fellowship bring new dimensions to your understanding of your field and your potential in it? Yes, most definitely. My internship company, International Green Structures, they had this amazing building material that was recycled from a straw of wheat and rice. It's a wall panel and that was what they used to build houses with. Interestingly also I had the opportunity to research this material two years ago back in Ethiopia. It was very interesting for us to look for innovative green technologies, building materials, recyclable materials for providing affordable housing solutions. So through the internship experience I've had the opportunity to experiment and explore innovative environmentally friendly techniques as well as building materials. So that's what I also intend to continue working on and also collaborate with my internship hosts in the future in Africa. Great, that's great. So you met young professionals like yourself as you referenced all over sub-Saharan Africa during the fellowship. I'd love to hear a little bit more about how that has inspired you, have you maintained contact with them, and do you have any collaborative plans? Part of the 24 fellows met the Academy Institute. We were from 18 different countries. Basically we have been friends. We have social media, we keep in contact on Facebook groups and on WhatsApp. On the WhatsApp group we talk to each other every single day. So we encourage each other, we cheer, we tease, we communicate, we update, we wish each other happy birthdays and basically we're talking. And also to mention a recent example, we had two Zambian fellows in the Academy Institute and we have been wishing them, sending them our condolences about the passing away of their president in the last couple of days. So basically we're talking about keeping in contact. We have planned to meet one of our fellows in the class. She has offered to organize a summer meeting for us in seashells. She's from seashells. So currently we are planning to meet each other in seashells in 2015. Besides that, some of the fellows for work purposes who are traveling to the countries of the other fellows are keeping in contact and then they have been updating us the rest of us through WhatsApp and Facebook, their experiences so far. That's great. So it's really a vibrant network that you've created with that group. That's wonderful. The fellowship is also an incredible opportunity for individual growth, both personally and professionally. So just curious, how did it change you? The fellowship impacted me personally in my career in many ways. The first and foremost, of course, being the networks and conditions I have had the chance to make, both the African connections and the global connections are very valuable. The concepts I've learned at the academic institute, the courses I took, some of them as an architect, I've never had the opportunity to take them while I was studying for my bachelor, like strategic planning, financial management, separate practices, different concepts of community, engaging communities, etc. I have had the chance to learn these concepts in a more formal way and to discuss and meet with them. So this also was one of my biggest takeaways besides the networks and connections I have made. Also, I've energized and I'm stretching myself now. What I think is possible now is different than what I used to think was possible before. So it has also energized me to aim higher, dream higher, and I've been inspired both to the academic institute and the internship and the wonderful people I have met in Africa and from the United States. And what have you done to share that inspiration and the opportunity that you went through with others in your community? Because I was participating in the internship program, I just got back one month ago and after I got back, immediately the new application started. So mostly my work has been revolving around promoting the program, doing Q&As with the embassy for potential applicants, doing interviews on radios to explain about the program. So my work has evolved around this question and this new application process, but also we have been in contact constantly with the Ethiopian fellows and we are developing projects and proposals to do together. So that's also in direction. Okay, Halawi, now I am going to move to live questions and some of them will be for me and some of them will be for you. So here's the first question. This one I'm going to go ahead and answer. Can someone submit a second application or make corrections on a submitted application because I realize that I made mistakes and I'd like to edit the application? Do spelling and grammar mistakes affect your chances of being selected? So it's a couple of questions there, but to answer the first question, no, you should not submit a second application. You do submit an application, but all of your applications may be considered non-eligible. So just go ahead and leave the application that you have. I wouldn't worry too much about spelling and grammar mistakes. You know, we do understand that for many of you, English is not your first language and as long as you were able to kind of get your main points across about who you are and what you've done and what you would like to get out of the fellowship, I'm sure your application will stand on its own. Do not send in another application. Okay, I have another question. It is, I'm an African student studying in an outside African country. Am I eligible to apply for the fellowship? Okay, the answer there is yes. As long as you are a citizen of a Sub-Saharan African country and residing in or living in a Sub-Saharan African country, you are most certainly eligible to apply for the fellowship. So you could be Ethiopian and living in Kenya, for example, or Kenyan and living in Ethiopia. As long as you are living in an African country and a citizen of, it could be a different African country, you are definitely eligible to apply. Okay, so this question is for you, Halawi. What is the status of formally trained fellows? What impacts are they bringing in their community? For new fellows that are back, are doing a lot of outreach programs for the community. Some of them are also involved in their own businesses and some have gone to establish new enterprises. And some of us are backing our previous jobs and doing our best to contribute what we have learned through our communities and organizations. Okay, great. Here's another question. This one is for me. I'm an African student studying in another African country. In which country do I apply and where would I interview? Do nationals living in foreign African nations stand equal opportunities with the nationals in their own countries? Okay, I'll answer that as best I can. You don't actually need to worry about where to apply because the application should be submitted through the Internet. You can go to youngafricanleaders.state.gov to see that application. We will work out here at the State Department, we'll work out which embassy reviews your application, but most likely if you're studying in another African country, if you're selected, if you're selected as a semi-finalist and you need to come in for an interview, most likely you would interview in the country that you are studying in. But we will work that out and we will definitely let you know and I would not worry about it too much. It should not hurt your chances. Here's a question for you, Halaoui. For the fellows, what happens when you... It says when you are back from America. What programs are available? Many programs available through the Nellah Washington Fellowship follow-on programs administered by the USAID. Grants are available for those that attended in the business and entrepreneurship track. There are also internship possibilities in Africa. These are part of the formal programs, but there are also opportunities to develop your own projects and the connections you have gained for you in the US. So these are also a third opportunity that is available for you once you're back in Africa. Yeah, and just to add, I would say this program is unique in that it really doesn't end when you leave the United States to go back to your home country. There is, as Halaoui just mentioned, a very robust programming through the State Department, but mostly through USAID for all kinds of activities once you're back in your home country. Okay, I have another question. When are you announcing those that have been selected for interviews? Let's see, your application is due November 5th, which is next week, as you know, and most likely the interviews would take place in January and February. So if you are being called in for an interview, the US Embassy or consulate would arrange the interview with you, most likely bringing you into their office, but it could take place somewhere else, and that would most likely be in January or February. It is possible that some people would come in for interviews a little bit earlier than that in December, but most likely in the very beginning of 2015. Okay, here's another question. Are there any plans of increasing the number of fellows that are able to come to the US? Well, Halaoui heard this as well when we were at the 2014 summit with President Obama. He announced to all of the fellows and to the world that we'll be doubling the program and bringing 1,000 fellows in 2016. So those of you that applied last year and were not selected, not to worry, there's still many chances to apply and in 2016 we'll be bringing twice as many fellows and probably beyond 2017-2018. Okay, here's another question. What will happen if a person from a war-torn area is selected for an interview? Where will he, she be interviewed? Again, that would be up to the post, the embassy or the consulate in your country, and we will definitely make arrangements for you to be interviewed safely. And the embassy did work in these kinds of situations last year and we'll do everything we can to accommodate those interviews. Here's another question. If I have already applied, how do I submit all my supporting documents? Can I send my documents to IRX by email? Well, it's a good question, but unfortunately if you've already applied, that is your application and you can't add supporting documents. Here's another question. In the application, you talk about using the third person. Does it refer to the whole application or where it is only stated to? Can you give an example of given, middle, and surname? Okay, the third person is when I say he. I would guess that for most of the questions you should actually talk in the first person. So if the question is, describe the role you play in the community. You want to say, I am a leader in my community because where do you see yourself professionally? Again, you want to speak in the first person. Your first name would be, for instance, my name is Britta Suzanne Burenland. Britta is my first name. Your surname would be the name that is typically your last name. So I hope that's helpful. I know in some cultures and some countries it can be a little bit different, but I wouldn't get too concerned about that because you just need to get your applications in and if it's somewhat different from your... You should try to use the name exactly as it's given in your passport. If there are changes, we can adjust for that. Hallawi, do you want to add anything? Because I know with you sometimes we've seen your middle name and sometimes we've seen your last name. Maybe you can help out on that question. Regarding the name, for example, in Ethiopia here we use the middle name at the left name, but in our passwords it's written the surname, the grandfather's name is written as the surname. So I highly recommend you use your name how it is written in your password because that will be the basis for your official documents. So I recommend you use your name as it is written in your password. Yeah, agreed. Okay, here's another question. Is there any provision made for students who would be studying during the period of the fellowship? Well, if I understand the question, if you're a student who's studying during the fellowship that's going to be a little tricky as Hallawi knows it's a very intensive six weeks and seven if you count the experience with the summit, the coursework and the activities and the cultural programming and the network and the mentoring, it's very much a full day and I believe that it's pretty hard to continue with your studies. So if you should try to, as much as you can, carve out six weeks for yourself where you can really dedicate yourself to the program. Hallawi, do you want to add anything to that since you've really experienced it? Basically the whole week including the weekend is dedicated for different activities designed by university hosts. So I'm afraid there won't be that much opportunity to work on your studies, but of course you can still, during the evenings, communicate with your work organizations. For example, if you have to respond to some emails, there are also opportunities time opportunities to respond to emails back home. Besides that, the days are really scheduled and very busy and packed and also in the evenings a lot of discussions and debates and cultural events happen during the evening so those are also taken up. So I recommend, like Rita said, to finish your studies before or reserve some of the course work after you get back. Okay, here's another question. Can I be selected without much working experience? I am a dedicated and active young man in my community and college. How significant is being involved in volunteer activity in the selection process? You know, it sounds to me if you're a dedicated and active young man, if you're active in your college or university, that certainly could substitute for what we kind of traditionally think as volunteer opportunities. So I would just encourage you to apply. You don't need to have years and years of experience. You just need to really demonstrate an interest in doing something specific and real leadership potential. Hallowe, do you have anything to add? Even though the program says people between the ages of 25 and 35 should apply. For example, in my academic community in Minnesota, there was a fellow that was 22 years old and also that there were other fellows aged 20. So I think it will be possible for you not having too much work experience to make it to the final process. I would encourage you to complete the application process and demonstrate your leadership and influence the capacity. Yeah, and just to clarify, the eligibility criteria is 25 to 35, but candidates under the age of 25 will be considered. For this year, you do need to be at least 21 at the time of your application. So that's the clarification on the age questions. We encourage you to go ahead and apply. Okay, here's another question about selection. Do you use a quota system to select candidates? Do you give equal opportunity to different African countries? So it's a good question. The State Department has sort of soft targets for different countries, so we do have kind of a general idea of how many fellows we will take from each country, but it is not a hard number, and if we see a great number of really strong candidates from one country, we will include them. So there are soft targets, but there is equal opportunity, I would say. Okay, let's see if we have any other questions coming in. Okay, here's one. What techniques do you use in selecting fellows in order to give equal opportunity to everyone that is applying? Techniques. Well, let me just tell you a little bit about the selection process. So after you send in your application, every application will be read and scored by a reader. So the reader will look at the answers to your questions and how they match up to the criteria. So you should look at the criteria very carefully and actually give your application a score. They'll also look at your resume and other parts that you submitted. They will also either highly recommend, recommend or not recommend you, and those applications with their score and the recommendation will go to the U.S. embassy in your country, and the embassy can look through all the applications. They can see the full range of everyone who applied from that country, and they will make the decisions on who to bring in for an interview. Then they will send back to Washington their top names, and we have a committee in Washington that has members from the State Department, members from IREX and others who will go through all of those top candidates and make the final selections. And we have to do a lot of thinking about the cohort of 25 that Halawi talked about, making sure that each institute has a diverse group, a variety of different countries that there are the right number of applicants, the right number of fellows in each track, and so on and so forth. So it is really a three-pronged selection, and that's pretty much how it works. Here's a question for you, Halawi. If I want to get into communication with someone in my country who is a Mandela Washington fellow, how can I get in touch with them? I think of right now the easiest way for you is to go to the Facebook page of Mandela Washington Fellowship and you can send them a message saying I'm from this African country and I want to keep in touch with these fellows and then they can forward you maybe with the scent of the fellows you address this. Maybe that's the easiest way I can think of right now. Yeah, and I suppose that the embassy or the consulate in your home country might be having events, especially right now during the recruitment drive. I don't know if the question is specific to one specific leader, but if you're sort of interested in meeting other Mandela Washington fellows, you might go to some of those events if they're open to the public. Just a thought. Halawi, another question. During the fellowship, there are incredible young leaders like yourself, as you mentioned. Can you describe some of the qualities of the first cohort of fellows? What caliber of leadership should applicants be prepared to demonstrate? I would say they demonstrate a passion and an enthusiasm and an energy for change and for making positive contributions to their communities, to their countries, and to the public. I'm from La Nina, and I'm an engineer here at the University of Costa Rica. Like I mentioned earlier, I attended a public-management institute in Minnesota, so most of my cohorts, most of my fellow in my class were public servants ranging from a member of parliament to lawyers, to nurses, not to mention people in the business and entrepreneurship track and the city leadership. So expect to meet people from various and from all sectors and be energetic and highly enthusiastic fellows. Yeah, you all were very enthusiastic, weren't you? Yes. Okay, here's a question for both of us. What does the panel look for in the area of personal statements since it seems that the bulk of the decisions are based on the essays? So it's a good question. It's a tricky question. I think my tip would be to be very specific, especially if the question asks for a specific example. You want to give one specific example. I would also say, you know, get to the point, be clear and concise. I would say be personal right in a way that lets us get a feel for you and your passion and what you're working in. Again, what the selection committee is looking for are those things that are listed in the criteria. Things like your leadership potential and your demonstrate accomplishment in either business and entrepreneurship, civic leadership or public management and sort of your thoughts for how you will apply what you learned in the fellowship when you return to your home country and a commitment to go back to your communities and your countries and share the skills and the networks and the things that you've learned with many, many other Africans. Howie, do you want to add something? Yes. I highly recommend that you select a few things and communicate them with the documents in the essays, in your resumes and in the supporting documents. You might have done multiple things, but choose the one that you think makes you special or can demonstrate your leadership capacity and abilities and really try to connect these different applications. You made the essays and the supporting documents so that the viewer and the reader that's reading your application get a picture and a whole image and understanding of what you've done. So I recommend you do your best to connect and communicate a coherent message through the different application pages. Yeah. Okay. I'd agree. That sounds good. Here's another question. The benefits for the Yali and Mandela fellowship are obvious for Africa and Africans. What are the benefits for America and Americans? It's a good question. I think all of our exchange programs with the Department of State and especially here at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs really strive to promote mutual understanding between citizens of the U.S. and citizens of countries of other countries around the world. Obviously, the Mandela Washington Fellowship bringing Africans to the U.S., all of the Africans who are spending six weeks on our U.S. campuses and coming to Washington, D.C. and meeting Americans, obviously, these Africans are learning a lot about American values, about American communities and really about who we are. You know, obviously, when you're living in a place, you're learning a lot about their culture and their people. But I think that this program very much tries to get the Africans out in the communities meeting Americans also so that Americans can learn a lot about these countries in Africa. Many, many Americans have never traveled. Probably most Americans have never traveled to Africa. Many Americans know very little about Africa. And so it's really wonderful to see my American colleagues and friends and kids learning more about not just Africa as a continent, but the specific countries that you all come from. I think there are very tangible benefits to Americans. I would also say that this program and President Obama's vision is really for these leaders to go home and promote economic development and peace and prosperity in Africa. And that's good for everyone. That's good for Americans. It's good for Africans. It's good for everyone around the world. Hallawi, can you talk about how you presented your experiences in your essays? The essay questions last year were different than these years. We had three essay questions. Like I said earlier, I gave my best to connect the question number one, essay number one, essay number two, and essay number three, and communicate a strong, powerful message by connecting the content. So I was very selective in the content. I was communicating in the three different questions of the essays. So that was the strategy or the method I used. I would add, too, is to not be too humble or modest. Of course, you want to be very honest, but you don't want to downplay your accomplishments. You really want to show that you're proud of your accomplishments. And I know sometimes people tend to sort of hold back on talking about how much they've done or their great leadership capacity, but this is really your chance to really talk about yourself and sell yourself to the reader. Okay, here's another question for me. For the internship component, is it possible to apply for an internship with a specific company? I have an interest in working with a particular U.S. company or organization. What should I do? It's not possible to apply directly to that organization technically, but what I would suggest that you do is, first of all, if you are open to doing an internship at another company or experience other than the one you have focused on, go ahead and apply for the internship. You can always make a note of this when you come in for your interview with the U.S. Embassy Representative that you're most interested in having an internship with XYZ Company, and they will note that. And if you are chosen for the internship, we will do everything we can to reach out to that company and see if we can make that work for you. So that's definitely a possibility. We're not going to make any promises, and you will need to be sort of open-minded to possibly participate in an internship in another organization, but we will do what we can. So, Halaoui, for you, what was the single most impactful experience of the fellowship? A very good question. The single most impactful experience I can think of is the whole fellowship itself. I mean, there is not even one... I can't rank the experiences. The internship was absolutely amazing. The Academy Institutes of Courseworks were excellent. The relationships and the connections we made with the other Africans, with our university hosts, with our internship hosts were really, let's say, powerful. And the summit was one experience by itself, so I would answer your question by saying the whole fellowship was the single most experience of my last summer. Okay, here's another question. How could the Mandela Washington Fellowship benefit a leader who is interested in human rights? I think no matter what you're interested in, let's say you're selected and you're interested in human rights, when we place you, we will consider that and put you at the university or the college that we think will best suit that sort of sub-interest. And then our academic directors at the 20 different universities and colleges in the United States really try to craft the coursework, the leadership training and all the networking and sort of site visits to the specific interests of the fellows. So if you're interested in human rights, and let's say you're going down to the University of Virginia, for example, they will do their best to include the kind of content that you're most interested in. And there's also a great opportunity for networking and sort of meeting American leaders in the human rights field. And that certainly is a theme in the U.S. that we do spend a lot of time on. And I think there are definitely leaders and experiences that you can share and things that you can learn. So as I said, it's really up to the Institute academic directors to kind of tailor the content to you. Hallawi, what impact do you think this program can have on the African continent? Another very interesting question. I personally think that this program has an impact of inter-connecting Africa. Right now, I feel that's not there yet. So through the networks and connections, we, the young Africans, are performing. That is to connect Africa in the long term. Another is it will show a glimpse of Africa's future, because we, the young, are the future of Africa. And basically, if you can read through the biographies of Mandela, Washington fellows, and read through their goals, their dreams, you basically understand the future of Africa. So it has an impact of showing a glimpse of Africa's future. Okay, here's another question for me. Can candidates from a French-speaking country apply without taking the TOEFL exam? So the answer is yes. You are not required to take the TOEFL exam for this program. I know it is difficult for some people coming from French-speaking countries and other languages. And I just encourage you to do your best. I know many of the fellows that I met this last summer who were from Senegal or Cote d'Ivoire, you know, many of them said, oh, my English is not very good. And actually, their English was wonderful, was lovely.  So, again, don't be too modest about your language capabilities. You do not need to take the TOEFL exam. Your English will be assessed through your application. So do your best to write good English in your application. And it will be assessed during your in-person interview. No need to take the TOEFL. Here's another question. Is it possible to apply with an expired passport? You do not need to have a passport at the time of your application. If you are selected for the fellowship, you will have hopefully enough time to get your new passport. I believe many fellows did last year. They were able to get their documents in time. But you will need a passport, obviously, in time to travel. Halawi, what was the biggest challenge for you during the 2014 Mandela Washington Fellowship? I would have to say, I would have to say, because I was there for three and a half months, six weeks at the attack institutes, and eight weeks of work at home was fighting out. So, keeping in touch was, I could say, one of the biggest challenges. But to tell you honestly, this has been one of the best summer experiences that I've had. And there isn't that big of a challenge that stands out right now. Halawi, I thought you were going to say that the biggest challenge for you was the American food, because we always have participants complaining about our food in the U.S. I love it. No, no, I love it. Well, we love Ethiopian food, too. Okay, Halawi, here's another question. Is there a platform for us to share our fellowship experiences in our communities once we come back from the fellowship and to start giving back to our communities? Yes, there's a platform through the embassies. For example, our embassy in Addis Ababa has, in partnership with a local NGO, has designed a one-year activities and program and created a platform for us, the returning fellows, to give back to our communities. Through the embassies, through USAID, there are platforms designed for you to give back once you're back. Yeah, and it's very much a main goal of the program. I have another question. How long is the fellowship? When does it take place? So the fellowship is six weeks long. It will take place, and we don't have the exact dates, but it should be similar to the last year, mid-June to the end of July for the actual six-week institute at a U.S. campus. And then you will come to Washington, D.C. for a summit experience that is about three to four days. And then if you were chosen for an internship, a small group of people might be chosen for an internship, and those are, last year they were eight weeks long. Halawi, what are the academic institutes like? Are they academically challenging? Do you have time to experience American culture? Yes, to both questions. The academic institutes were positively challenging. So in the mornings, for example, in the institute I was in, in Minnesota, in the mornings we had academic sessions, a class or a professor would come to us and he would speak, but it was a very interactive session. So there were dialogues, debates among the fellows with the professors, so they were very interactive and challenging. In the afternoon we've had site visits to different organizations, and then when we go to those organizations there would be people waiting for us and then again explaining to us about the different systems and structures of that organization, and that also included different question and answer sessions and interactive discussions. During the weekends, there were times dedicated to experience the American culture through the sports, go to museums, and also in the evenings we were invited to different sessions where we had the opportunity to interact with other Americans in the community where we were staying at our universities. So I would say yes to all of your questions. Can I just ask you a follow-up question in terms of the academics? Did you have homework in the evenings? Yes, we did. We had assignments, we had group works, very interesting assignments we had that allowed us to work together in groups with the fellows, and also we had given the chance to present back to our professors. So that was a very interesting part of it. Okay, here's another question for you, Halaoui. As a fellow architecture colleague, how has the Mandela Washington Fellowship helped you professionally in your community? Like I said earlier, it had given me formal education and knowledge that never formally had before. That was one boost to my career. Another is the connections I developed, definitely I believe will have an impact in the future. I intend to keep them, to maintain them, to sustain them, and potentially collaborate. Okay, here's another question. This one is for me. Can I submit my supplemental documents in a language other than English? I would say that English is definitely preferred, especially if it's something like a recommendation letter, but I could see a possibility where if you had something that was like a transcript or maybe some article that you wrote or maybe even a recommendation letter if the person does not speak English that you might need to send it in your language. And I guess we will try to figure out a way to review that. But if you can send supplemental documents in English, that is the best route. And I would also suggest that you try to choose those kinds of documents that would be in English. Halaoui, what type of supplemental documents did you submit with your application that you thought were important? While thinking of what to select for my supplementary documents, I thought it would be best to complement the projects I had mentioned on my essays and on my resume. So I used one of the supplementary documents, on two of the supplementary documents out of the pictures of the projects that I explained or the initiatives that I explained on my resume and on essays to give them a bit of a visual of what I was talking about. And I also used one recommendation letter from my supervisor at work. Which I think is helpful because then we do know that you have the support from your supervisor to take part in the program, which of course is important for you in terms of getting here. Okay, I have another question. This one's about the internships. What is the criteria for selecting the 100 candidates who remain in the United States for internships? So if you are interested in applying for an internship, you will indicate that on your application, and you will answer a short essay question about why you want to take part in the internship. When you come in for your interview, if you're selected as a semi-finalist and you come in for your interview, the embassy representatives will be asking you a little bit about why you want an internship, what your goals are for the internship, for the U.S. experience, and what you would want to do with that experience when you come back to your home country. We're also looking for people who are self-starters, people who can sort of survive in a U.S. workplace. And I mean that in just that a U.S. workplace may feel different to you than your home workplace. And we want to make sure everyone is comfortable in sort of the U.S. work environment. So the embassy will get at these kinds of things in your interview and then send along a recommendation to the selection committee who will look at that when we're choosing our interns. We do try to have an intern from all of the countries that are participating in the fellowship. So where you are coming from is also a consideration. Okay, Halawi, we're about to wrap up, but I think we have one more question. I have to say it's been really great to see you live here all the way in Addis Ababa. Before we get to the last question, or do you have any parting words you'd like to share with the audience? Again, I would like to say to all of you 2015 Mandela Washington Fellowship applicants, whatever you do, please finish, finish, and complete the application. That is what I would like to say at this point on. I would have to agree. I want to just once again underscore the importance of this exchange between African Americans and the President Obama's hope for a better future for Africa and the faith in the capacity of young African leaders throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, whether you're chosen for this program or not. We really do believe in you. I agree with Halawi. Please get your applications in. The deadline is coming up very, very soon, but I believe Halawi was one who waited till the very last minute to get his application in, and he was selected, so it can happen for you too. We are out of time, so thank you for all the great questions. We want to thank you so much for your wonderful and active participation, and we encourage you to visit yali.state.gov to apply, and again, remember the deadline is November 5th. Thank you, everyone, and thank you, Halawi. Thank you, Britta, for having me, and thank you all the audience for your wonderful questions. And good luck.