Fernanda De Conto

Fernanda De Conto comes to Montana from Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. Ms. De Conto is a trained nurse and is currently working as a nurse and coordinator of a chemical dependence treatment center in Santa Catarina. Ms. De Conto works for the Florianopolis City Hall as well as the University Hospital in Florianopolis. Ms. De Conto’s area of specialty is the treatment of patients with substance abuse problems. During her stay in the United States, Ms. De Conto hopes to learn new strategies to increase the access of treatment for people who use and abuse psychoactive substances in her country and to develop effective techniques to prevent and combat the drug problem in her area.

Zineb Djelfaoui

Zineb Djelfaoui is an agricultural engineer hailing from Algeria. She is currently the head of the Local Initiative Project committee in Ouargla, Algeria. Much of her work involves technical consulting, agricultural marketing cooperation and agricultural land use. Mrs. Djelfaoui works closely with farmers and other individuals to collect data that contributes to the preservation and cultivation of oasis. While studying in the United States, Mrs. Djelfaoui hopes to develop working tools to increase the confidence and motivation of local farmers, as well as to develop new projects involving Saharan agriculture, the second highest economic resource of Algeria after oil.

Emmanuel Beliard Edzongui

Dr. Emmanuel Edzongui comes to Montana from Congo (Brazzaville), Africa. As a physician and the current United Nations Population Fund, Youth, HIV/AIDS and Humanitarian Program Officer, Dr. Edzongui is focusing much of his work on current trends, challenges, and awareness of HIV/AIDS in his country. During his time in the United States, Dr. Edzongui hopes to study the vulnerability of adolescents and youth to the risk of HIV/AIDS. He also plans to explore the relationship between gender and protection- practices.

Audace Machado

Audace Machado is a journalist from “The Heart of Africa”, Burundi. Mr. Machado has worked as a journalist and radio producer for the independent Isanganiro Radio station (www.isanganiro.org) for the past ten years. His programs focus on key issues facing his country such as good governance, corruption and tolerance. In addition, Mr. Machado won the “Comesa Media Award” twice, once in 2011 and again in 2012 (www.comesa.int). He has also worked for African wide organizations such as the www.afdb.org and the www.au.int. As a journalist, and a blogger in his country, he has been a correspondent for international media organizations and has traveled to Japan, Burkina Faso, the USA, Ethiopia, Israel, the Great Lakes Region-Africa, and Malawi. During his travels he was able to engage with fellow journalists and key policy makers. While in the United States, Mr. Machado plans to interact with influential figures and organizations involved with journalism and communications. He also plans to study the concept of “trans-rationality” and its potential application to countries including his own.

Diógenes Melo

Diógenes Melo comes to the United States from Goiania, Brazil. As a trained Civil Engineer, Work Safety Engineer, Specialist in Waste Treatment and student of Environmental Engineering Master, Mr. Melo is the main author of Goiania’s Selective Collection Program and responsible for the operation and environmental monitoring of the Goiania Landfill. Mr. Melo also serves as a technical advisor to the Directorship of Collection which is responsible for the proper management of solid waste and urban cleaning in Goiania. Mr. Melo has also written numerous publications on sanitation, waste proper collection and disposal and their impact on the environment. Mr. Melo teaches in the Solid Waste and Wastewater Treatment and Final Disposal Course at Federal University of Goias, in the disciplines of Solid Waste Minimization and Composting. Mr. Melo will be learning about Natural Resources, Environmental Policies and Climate Change, as well as the operation of treatment facilities and environmental sanitation programs while in the United States.

Thu Ha Nguyen

Ha Nguyen is a political journalist from Hanoi, Vietnam. Ms. Nguyen is a senior editor at VietNamNet, Vietnam’s leading online newspaper. She is responsible for a number of columns that focus on politics, public policy and culture. Ms. Nguyen has written thousand s of articles on politics and economic and educational policy. While in the United States, Ms. Nguyen plans to improve her political analysis skills and become more informed about policy making processes.

Rose Myriam Origene

Rose Myriam Origene comes to Montana from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Ms. Origene is a trained nurse and nutrition and community health specialist in her country. Ms. Origene holds a Master’s Degree in Development/Community Health. She has worked on many projects including maternal and child health and Nutrition, Human Trafficking, and HIV/AIDS for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and as a Nutrition Program Manager for Plan International. Ms. Origene has served as a liaison for the UN Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO) in Haiti, monitoring and assessing the nutritional aspects in FAO projects conducted in her home county. During her stay in the USA, Ms. Origene plans to study Nutrition and Public Health, and also to develop strategies to decrease the malnutrition rate in developing countries, especially Haiti.

Andrés Pérez

Andrés Pérez is a police captain for the National Police of Colombia. Mr. Perez currently serves as the Coordinator of Information and Monitoring of the planning office of the National Police of Columbia. He advises the Director-General’s unit in order to aid in effective implementation of current decisions. Mr. Perez has fifty three public congratulations awarded for excellent performance in his public duties, some of which include the Merit Honor of the “Congress of the republic of Columbia” awarded by the Human Rights Committee, the Medal of Citizen Merit awarded by the local city hall of Ciudad Bolivar, the Emblem of Police Teacher awarded by the National Direct of Police Academies. . While in the United States, Mr. Perez will build on his competencies in public and academic leadership through the analysis of public policies focused on understanding the phenomena of public safety and co-existence.

Florin Bogdanel Priboi

Florin Priboi comes to United States from Romania and is a Roma. He has two BAs in Political Sciences and Law and he received his Masters degree in Public International Law. He is currently a PhD student in Communication Sciences. Mr. Priboi currently serves as a Parliamentary expert for the Romanian Parliament-Chamber of Deputies. Mr. Priboi started his research about Roma political representation in 2010, as a participant of the “Roma Political Participation Program”, an international program of the National Democratic Institute (NDI USA, Romania Office) financed by the National Endowment for Democracy. In 2011, Florin held the first scientific and political conference about Roma political representation and published the book, “The Increase of Roma Parliamentary Representation”, appreciated by The Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments (ASGP – IPU) as being the first book on this subject in South-Eastern Europe. In 2012, Florin received the National Democratic Institute Award. While studying in the United States, Mr. Priboi plans to focus his research on ways to increase the political representation of Roma people in the central and local authorities. Mr. Priboi is interested in learning more about the American legal process, human rights law and US constitutional law, along with American theories in the field of law.

Mian Shu

Mian Shu joins the University of Montana from Chengdu China. Mr. Shu currently serves as the Executive Officer for the Vice Mayor of Chengdu. Mr. Shu holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Law; a Master’s degree in Sociology and is a candidate for his Doctoral degree in Management Engineering. Mr. Shu hopes to gain first-hand experience working with the American education system while studying in the United States. Mr. Shu will have the opportunity to observe and learn about American educational practices that he can bring back to Western China in order to promote civic education. Mr. Shu also hopes to enhance understanding, exchange and cooperation between America and Western China on the topic of education.