Weekly quiz

I'm going to sound like a broken record, but I need to thank you for your loyal readership. (Who remembers what a "record" is?)

We have set pageview records for seven straight days. Our readership this month is up more than 50% from last month, which was well up from January. Such participation on your part helps motivate us.

A small request: If you have a question that you think we should examine in a post, consider sending us a note or posting a comment. If there is a technique you think we should use, send us an example. If we are doing something wrong or just badly, tell us. We are brand new at this, and we can learn from your social media expertise.

An update on the admissions process: Many of you have been interviewed already. Some will be interviewed in the next few days. The Bologna Admissions Committee will meet before the end of the month, and all candidates will be notified in the first week of April by email.

Now, the quiz.

What does this photograph depict? And what does it have to do with SAIS?

Next week we hope to have posts on cooperative programs, our various concentrations and a mock interview session held in Bologna this week to help current students prepare for career chats.

Nelson Graves

Japan and SAIS's raison d'être

Japan's trauma is being felt around the world and of course also at SAIS. We have Japanese students -- two at the Bologna Center this year -- and 42 SAIS Bologna alumni from Japan. Beyond those connections, the suffering and uncertainties have moved the SAIS community.

As a graduate program in international relations, SAIS has always combined the practical with the theoretical and offers  both academics and practitioners. The crisis in Japan has stirred efforts to help those on the ground as well as debate over the future of nuclear energy.


My goal here is neither to raise funds for Japan nor to enter into the nuclear discussion. I merely note that  moments such as this are part of SAIS's raison d'être. We strive to educate individuals who will be able to grapple with the kind of complex issues that have arisen in the past week in Japan: issues pertaining to policymaking, crisis management, preparedness, leadership, communication, energy resources.

Some concrete steps at SAIS:

- SAIS Bologna students have launched a fund-raising effort to support a Japanese NGO called JEN. Shoko Sugai, a Japanese national studying at the Bologna Center, has worked at JEN, which she called "one of the few disaster relief/conflict management NGOs in Japan" with "a fantastic reputation both domestically and with the government."

- Students at SAIS DC have launched a Facebook page called SAIS Japan Relief Team. You can read more about the team here. It aims to inform about the situation on the ground in Japan and on ways of helping. It is raising donations in Washington this week.


- The SAIS Alumni Relations Office has tried to contact all known graduates living in Japan to check on their well-being.


- In Bologna, alumnus Marco Dell'Aquila, who teaches a course on renewable energy, and Director Kenneth Keller, who has extensive experience in nuclear power, led a round-table discussion today on what the crippling of the Fukushima reactors might mean for the global energy industry.


- Mari Tanaka, a 2010 graduate of SAIS, works at The Nippon Foundation, which has set up a special relief fund. Her choice of career is not unusual among alumni.


- SAIS community members are not unaware, either, of some of the donation scams that have emerged or even of the debate over whether Japan needs -- or wants -- donations. It's no use having blinders if you want to tackle international relations.


Nelson Graves

Welcome

I'd like to extend a warm welcome to the U.S. candidates who have been admitted to the Bologna Center for the next academic year. It's been a pleasure following your candidacies, and I look forward to welcoming you in person for what -- judging from the experience of 6,500 of your predecessors-- will be a momentous year for you in Bologna.

Some of you may be wondering, "Candidates have been admitted? I haven't heard anything!"

A word of explanation. U.S. citizens and permanent residents who want to attend SAIS Bologna apply through the Admissions Office in Washington. The admissions procedure and timeline are a bit different. Candidates were notified earlier this week.

Non-U.S. citizens who want to go to the Bologna Center apply through SAIS Bologna. The Bologna Admissions Committee will be meeting at the end of this month, and decisions will be communicated to candidates in early April.

So this post is aimed at those of you who learned earlier this week that you have been accepted to SAIS with the possibility of studying at the Bologna Center starting in the fall.

(I actually don't remember the day I learned I had been admitted to SAIS Bologna. That does not mean it was not an important moment for me. It's simply buried in the mists of time. In hindsight I can say the SAIS experience changed my life. Some of our readers will already know that SAIS was the springboard for my career as a foreign correspondent. The first stop on that career was covering international finance in Washington. Without my two years at SAIS, could I have made a serious stab at that job? No way.)

Enough personal stuff. Those of you who have been admitted -- congratulations and here's to your future.

A couple of housekeeping matters:

• Admitted candidates, whether they passed through the DC or Bologna offices, will have many questions. Before turning to email or the phone, please read your admissions packet carefully. If you don't find your answer there, do feel free to contact the appropriate office.

• There will be an Open House for admitted candidates on Wednesday, April 13, at SAIS Washington. Information on this is in the admissions packet.

• On Thursday, April 14, there will be a reception at SAIS Washington for Bologna Center alumni. Those of you who have been admitted to SAIS Bologna will be invited to the reception. Not everyone lives near DC. But if you've been admitted and are nearby, come meet SAIS Director Kenneth Keller, alumni and fellow admitted candidates at the reception. (I'll be there too ...)

• On May 5 & 6 in Bologna, we will be holding an Open House for admitted students. Again, not all admitted candidates live near Bologna. But if you can make it, we'd love to have you here. More information will be made available later.

I can't help thinking about those candidates who were not offered admission. I could say a lot of trite things: It happens. Don't take it personally. Keep a stiff upper lip.

But I won't. I do intend, however, to offer a post soon on rejection -- and how to get the most out of it. I know a thing or two about rejection. I'm almost an expert. So I hope my thoughts will be helpful to those who took the trouble to apply, whose desire to attend may be every bit as strong as those who were admitted, but who fell short. Let's make the most out of it.


Nelson Graves

Academics and practitioners

SAIS faculty and alumni are thinkers, movers and shakers in their fields. You've already seen the guide detailing the faculty's expertise.

Here is some recent activity:

SAIS graduate Abdul Ilah Khatib, former foreign minister of Jordan, was recently named the UN special envoy for humanitarian affairs in Libya.

Abdul Ilah Khatib (r)
 with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
(UN photo)

Prof. Karim Mezran discussed Libya on Italy's leading national talk show Otto e Mezzo.

Prof. Erik Jones and Saskia van Genugten, both SAIS graduates, authored an editorial on Italy in de Volkskrant, in the Netherlands.

Prof. Michael Plummer was noted in Johns Hopkins Gazette for his coming role as a speaker at the Singapore Economic Review Conference to be held in August in Singapore.

Fouad Ajami

In the past two months, Prof. Fouad Ajami has published pieces in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, the New York Times and  Foreign Policy magazine.

Prof. Eliot Cohen published an editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

SAIS Foreign Policy Institute Fellow Josh Muravchik had pieces in both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

Prof. Michael Mandelbaum wrote an editorial for Project Syndicate.

For more information on our faculty, click here.

Nelson Graves

Islam and Europe: a seminar

This week SAIS Bologna is hosting a two-day conference entitled, "Islam and Europe: Religion, Law, Identity".

The conference brings together leading academics from Europe, the United States and Iran. It is sponsored jointly by SAIS Bologna, the Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development (CCSDD) and The Protection Project of SAIS Washington.

We highlight this conference as an example of the kind of learning that goes on outside the confines of the classroom at SAIS. It is cutting-edge intellectual dialog, very much open to our students and faculty.

Below you'll see a copy of the seminar program and, below that, a video with CCSDD Director Justin Frosini, whom readers of this blog met last month.

Nelson Graves

Weekly quiz

We started this blog without quite knowing where it would go. We hope it's been informative and occasionally entertaining. We've noticed a steady rise in readership, followers and comments. Last week we had record readership again, and pageviews were up 27% during the first four days of this week compared to the same period last week, so we were on track to set another record. We have topped 10,000 pageviews since we launched in December.

A number of readers have sent us suggestions. We like to have feedback and comments because they help us know what our mini-community wants to read. It's pretty clear that readers remain focused on the application process, especially the interview. Posts on the interview have drawn the strongest interest.

Remember that there are several ways to keep in regular touch with this blog. You can sign up to have posts emailed to you by filling out the area marked "Subscribe via email" on the right side of the page. You can also receive the blog via RSS feed. To do so, go to the bottom of a post and follow the directions under "Subscribe to".

Feel free to drop us a line with your thoughts so we can tailor this to your wishes.

Our weekly quizzes have been a fun means of engaging readers. We'd like to use other ways of interacting: If you have any suggestions, pass them along.

Week in and week out, readers have found a way to penetrate the mysteries of SAIS to find the answer to the weekly quiz. Last week, Andreas was the first to identify Paul H. Nitze, U.S. statesman and co-founder of        SAIS, in the photograph. Don't ask me how he found out so fast.

So here is this week's teaser.

What is depicted in these pictures, and what does it have to do with SAIS?

Nelson Graves

A video peek at SAIS DC

Earlier this week we introduced you to Chidiogo Akunyili, a Bologna Center student from Nigeria. Several readers commented on her strong qualifications, including her five languages and substantial work experience.

Today I'd like you to meet Rebekah Lipsky. Rebekah attended the Bologna Center last year and now is at SAIS DC, in her second year. We met up in Washington, where she showed me around the SAIS DC campus and the surrounding area of Dupont Circle.

Rebekah grew up in Seattle and graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a degree in Communications Studies. She did public relations work in the entertainment industry in California before deciding to apply to SAIS -- and a host of other schools -- with a determination to make a career in international relations. You can read more about her here.

A couple of things to note. First, Rebekah made a radical change in direction when she came from California to SAIS. Not everyone has the willpower or the qualifications to do that, but it is by no means impossible. (A personal note: I taught high school after college, then decided SAIS would be a springboard for an international career. After SAIS, I worked in six different countries as a foreign correspondent. If I can do it, there is certainly hope for others, too.)

Second, Rebekah has not lost her poise in front of a camera despite having left California. Her tour was so flawless, and my video editing skills are so modest, that the video below is quite literally uncut. My apologies to Rebekah for not improving on the unedited version, but in fact I think it's a tribute to her professionalism and love of her studies at SAIS just as it is.

Some of you may remember that we offered a tour of SAIS Bologna in January. Now you have a chance to see SAIS DC, where almost all of the Bologna Center master's candidates spend their second year.

A big thanks to Rebekah for taking time out from her studies to show us around SAIS DC.



Nelson Graves