Fellowship Recipient Meets Hillary Clinton

Fellowship Recipient Meets Hillary Clinton

Tim Fadgen just completed his PhD at The University of Auckland in July and is now heading to Samoa after he successfully earned a prestigious Fulbright-Clinton Fellowship.

Initially called the Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship, the Fulbright-Clinton Fellowship has recently been renamed in honour of the former Secretary of State of Hillary Clinton.

As if receiving the fellowship wasn’t enough of a thrill, Tim and the 22 other recipients got a surprise meeting with Clinton at a reception in the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington DC last month.

For Tim, who grew up in Massachusetts and completed BA, MA and Law degrees in the United States before moving to New Zealand to complete a public policy focused PhD in Political Studies, meeting Clinton was akin to meeting the President.

“It was exciting. She’s been a pretty poignant public figure since I was in high school.”

Clinton had been involved in establishing the fellowship while serving as U.S. Secretary of State and was also involved in moving the programme into Myanmar for the first time this year.

“You could tell this programme is very important to her and she remains genuinely involved in it.”

The Fulbright-Clinton Fellowship allows fellows to serve in professional placements as “special assistants” in foreign government ministries or institutions and to gain hands-on public sector experience in participating foreign countries while simultaneously carrying out an academic study or research project.

Tim, 36, will swap his island home on Waiheke and head to the island nation of Samoa on 16 September.

During the 10-month fellowship Tim will assist Attorney General Ming Leung Wai on the formation of a community law centre and on criminal justice matters. Tim’s research project will examine Samoa’s disaster response policies and how the policy process involved village governance structures.

Tim has already served as an Assistant Attorney General to neighbouring American Samoa, but with his latest placement he hopes to gain a deeper understanding of the rest of the Samoan people and their policy making process.

ENDS

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