U.S. Embassy Announces Annual Humphrey Fellowship Program

Riga, April 4, 2012

U.S. Embassy Seal

Riga, April 4, 2012. – The U.S. Embassy is pleased to announce the launch of this year’s competition for the Humphrey Fellowship Program for academic year 2013-2014. The Embassy encourages all qualified candidates to apply.

The Humphrey Program provides mid-career Latvians with an opportunity to enhance their professional capabilities through participation in a specialized year of graduate-level, non-degree academic course work and professional development activities at selected U.S. universities. Programs are individually designed to include course work, independent projects, internships, consultations with U.S. experts and special seminars. So far seven Latvian professionals have received the Humphrey Fellowship.

By providing these future leaders and policymakers with a shared experience of U.S. society and culture and current U.S. approaches to the fields in which they work, the program intends to provide a basis for lasting, productive ties between Americans and their professional counterparts in other countries. Thus the Humphrey Fellowship Program fosters an exchange of knowledge and mutual understanding through which the United States joins in a significant partnership with participating countries.

Humphrey Fellowships are granted competitively to professional candidates with a commitment to public service in both the public and private sectors, specifically in the following fields:

• Agriculture and Rural Development
• Communications/Journalism
• Economic Development
• Educational Administration, Planning and Policy
• Finance and Banking
• Higher Education Administration
• HIV/AIDS Policy and Prevention
• Human Resource Management
• Law and Human Rights
• Natural Resources, Environmental Policy, and Climate Change
• Public Health Policy and Management
• Public Policy Analysis and Public Administration
• Substance Abuse Education, Treatment and Prevention
• Teaching of English as a Foreign Language
• Technology Policy and Management
• Trafficking in Persons, Policy and Prevention
• Urban and Regional Planning

To be eligible for a Humphrey Fellowship, applicants must have the following:

• Latvian citizenship or a Latvian non-citizen passport;
• A university degree;
• Five years of substantial, post-university professional experience;
• Demonstrated leadership qualities and a record of public service;
• English language proficiency (Note: candidates will have to take TOEFL)
• No more than limited prior experience in the United States.

Applicants can apply for a Humphrey Fellowship electronically at the following website: https://apply.embark.com/. The deadline for applications is August 31, 2012.

For more information about the Humphrey Fellowship Program, please visit http://riga.usembassy.gov/, or http://www.humphreyfellowship.org.