As part of the U.S. Department of State’s 2024-2025 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program (HHH), a Fulbright exchange, 34 visiting international fellows will learn about U.S. higher education at 21 community colleges and share their professional expertise and cultures with these campus communities.
Humphrey Fellow Vagner de Alencar from Brazil will visit Jefferson State Community College from February 24-26, 2025. Vagner de Alencar is an educator and journalist from Brazil. His interests center around educational issues, marginalized populations, and community outreach. He is visiting Jefferson State Community College as part of the Humphreys Fellowship Program which seeks to join scholars and educators from around the world in a collaborative spirit to promote international good will, idea sharing, and problem solving for an increasingly internationalized world.
De Alencar hails from São Paulo, Brazil, a city of nearly 12 million inhabitants, the most populated city in Brazil and Latin America’s biggest economy. De Alencar plans to speak with several classes at both the Jefferson and Shelby-Hoover Campuses in addition to providing public lectures and presentations to faculty and staff interested in the areas of internationalization, poverty, global health, journalism, cultural enrichment, and intercultural communication. His visit here will assist him in becoming well-versed in how the U.S. community college system works. De Alencar will tour historic sites such as the Civil Rights Museum to learn more about the local culture and history of the area as well as enjoy events planned with faculty and staff.
Vagner de Alencar has over a decade of experience in the realm of journalism and education. He founded Agência Mural, a nonprofit news organization that centers on covering issues that affect impoverished communities of São Paulo, Brazil. He is well-known for his book, City of Paradise — There Is Life in São Paulo’s Largest Favela and has received numerous awards for his journalism. His degrees include a communications degree from Presbyterian Mackenzie University and postgraduation degrees in education from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo.
The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program enhances leadership among international professionals who collaborate to address local and global challenges and foster change for our collective good. Through academic study and professional development with U.S. counterparts, this growing global network shares best practices and builds expertise in fields of critical importance to advance societal and institutional capacity, promote human rights and freedoms, ensure sustainable environments, and develop thriving communities.
Each year approximately 140 Fellows pursue professional enrichment through graduate-level non-degree study and related professional experiences at selected American universities. The program has a network of over 6,900 alumni from 167 countries around the world working on priority issues including climate change, public health, and human rights. The Humphrey Fellowship Program is funded by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) and administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE).
IIE partners with various community college campuses across the United States, including some involved in the DOS funded Community College Initiative Program, to implement the HHH Community College Residency Program, connecting selected Fellows with participating community colleges based on mutual needs and interests. The HHH Community College Residency Program enhances HHH Fellows’ understanding of American values and increases Americans’ global competitiveness at community colleges.
For more information about State Department exchange programs, please contact the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at [email protected]. For more information about the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship, visit www.humphreyfellowship.org.
