Washington, DC – The International Leadership Foundation (ILF) welcomed their 2021 Civic Fellows cohort at a Virtual Kick-Off Orientation on Saturday, June 5th, 2021.

Amongst the speakers included both Founding President, Chiling Tong, and Founder, Joel Szabat, and ILF Executive Director, Linh D. Hoang. Teddy Liaw, CEO of NexRep and Boardmember of the Leaders Forum, provided motivating and encouraging keynote remarks. The program directors for the Civic Fellowship Program, Tina Wei Smith and Amy Cheng Tarnoviski outlined their goals and activities for this summer.

This year’s cohort boasts of 23 accomplished and civically-minded Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) undergraduate students from distinguished colleges and universities. They will be interning in government agencies from across the U.S. federal government, congressional offices, think tanks, etc. Each Fellow will participate in leadership and professional development seminars as well as have the opportunity to engage with various business, government and community leaders. This will all help equip the fellows with tools and skills, help them build their networks, and train them to be civically engaged leaders.

“This year’s cohort is an exceptional group of undergraduate college students,” said ILF Chairman, Dr. Paul Hsu, “We look forward to working with each and every one of them. Despite how early they are in their careers, we commend them for their dedication to community service, advocacy for the AAPI community and a desire to be effective leaders in the private and public sectors.

“The ILF Civic Fellowship program aims to build a pipeline of emerging young leaders who are civic-minded and community-focused,” said Executive Director Linh Hoang and he further added, “ILF Fellows are the future leaders in government and private sectors. The Civic Fellowship Program assists our Fellows by jump starting their work at government agencies, equipping them with skills and a deeper understanding of how the government works to impact change in their communities.”

• Raj Aryal, University of Michigan, Hudson Institute
• Jonathan Chen, Columbia University, Federal Aviation Administration
• Richard Dong, Brown University, U.S. Department of Treasury
• Eric Fan, University of Washington, National Institutes of Health
• Justin Fernando, Michigan State University, U.S. Department of the Interior
• Victor Ficarra, Penn State University, U.S. Department of the Interior
• Megumi Fukuzawa, University of Maryland: Baltimore County, U.S. Rep Kathy Castor (FL-14)
• Nina Gohel, Rutgers University, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Sora Heo, University of California San Diego, U.S. Agency for International Development
• Nicole Li, Yale University, U.S. Department of Labor
• Maya Lu, University of California San Diego, U.S. Agency for International Development
• Chloe Majzel, Michigan State University, U.S. Department of Treasury
• Ishani Mehta, University of Pennsylvania, U.S. Agency for International Development
• Victoria Mui, University of Wisconsin, U.S. Department of Treasury
• Angie Sohn, Colby College, U.S. Agency for International Development
• Munahil Sultana, Franklin & Marshall College, U.S. Agency for International Development
• Choetsow Tenzin, Harvard University, U.S. Agency for International Development
• Andrew Wan, Rice University, Federal Aviation Administration
• Angie Xiao, University of Chicago, Hudson Institute
• Grace Xu, Georgetown University, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs
• Jasper Yu, Syracuse University, Hudson Institute
• Carolyn Zhao, University of Chicago, U.S. Department of Justice & Englewood (CO) Presiding Municipal Judge
• Michael Zhu, Harvard University, U.S. Department of Justice