LU president meets US president

LU participation in Mandela Washington Fellowship program leads to brief meeting in D.C.

Lincoln University President Kevin Rome, left, had the opportunity to meet with President Barack Obama earlier this week as part of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders program.
Lincoln University President Kevin Rome, left, had the opportunity to meet with President Barack Obama earlier this week as part of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders program.

It's always a good opportunity to put the name of a local university in front of the United States president.

At least that's what Lincoln University President Kevin Rome had to say after meeting with President Barack Obama earlier this week as part of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders program.

Lincoln University recently hosted 25 African fellows and was the only university in Missouri to be part of the program, which was started in 2014 as part of Obama's Young African Leaders Initiative that seeks to empower young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training and networking.

The program involved 1,000 people from Sub-Saharan Africa, 25 of whom spent six weeks at Lincoln before heading to Washington, D.C., for the presidential summit this week.

There, Rome was able to have a brief meeting with Obama before the president held a town hall with the fellows for several hours Wednesday.

"Any time you can put the name of your university in front of the president, it's great," Rome said. "The president was gracious, he greeted all the representatives from the school.

"It was a great experience."

Rome attended Obama's town hall with the fellows where he responded to questions and encouraged them to continue working toward greater progress in their home nations.

Rome said programs like the Mandela Washington Fellowship allow the university to form greater connections to the national and international community.

"Many of the fellows who were exposed to Lincoln talked about siblings and relatives that they have back in Africa who would benefit from an education at a school like Lincoln," Rome said. "They were really impressed with our location and the perceived safety of a small town environment and thought that's the type of experience that their fellow country people should be looking for."

Another benefit of the program, Rome said, is it helps to expose more Americans to the diversity of Africa and the intelligence and ingenuity of the African people. Just like anyone else, he said, they are concerned about things like education, leadership, climate change and government.

"Many times in the United States, Africa is depicted based on violence and poverty and malnutrition," Rome said. "But they don't show the many positive things - the culture, the intelligence, the education - that they are real human beings, just like we are I think that message is important to get out in our country for people who really have this false sense of what Africa really is."

Rome said he hopes the university can continue to participate in the program, if the program itself is continued by the next White House administration.

"We hope that future administrations continue to support the program, that Congress sees the benefit," Rome said.