A visit with Vice President Joe Biden was the highlight of a trip to the United States for Ade Barokah and Mariani Yanti, both from Indonesia.

The two were here as participants in the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Professional Fellows Program, sponsored by the Office of Citizen Exchanges of the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and managed by ICMA. Ade is a program manager for Poverty Eradication and Economic Governance, Partnership for Governance Reforms in Jakarta, and Mariani is head of the Economic Division, Regional Planning and Development in Jambi.

The program brings several hundred emerging leaders from around the world to the United States each year for intensive fellowships designed to broaden their professional expertise.

The most recent group of Fellows—14 professionals from Indonesia and Timor-Leste—recently returned to Washington, D.C., after three weeks in communities around the country. Dubuque, Iowa, was the host city for Ade and Mariani, and Dubuque Assistant City Manager Teri Goodmann arranged an opportunity for them to talk by phone with the vice president. The phone call led to an invitation to meet when they returned to Washington.

Angelo Moniz Jong from Timor-Leste enjoys a flying lesson.

For the 14 Fellows, the primary purpose of the trip was to learn about the legislative process and governance and how U.S. local governments encourage public engagement. And a side benefit was a glimpse of life in a country quite different from their own. Among the new geographic, social, and cultural experiences they reported were snow, the Grand Canyon, potato salad, golf and flying lessons, an oyster roast, and Halloween.

During their stay, the Fellows reflected on their day-to-day experiences from October 11 through November 2 in Dubuque; Coconino County (Flagstaff), Arizona; Emporia, Virginia, and Crater Planning District; Lenoir, North Carolina; Middleton, Wisconsin; Tallahassee, Florida; and Tulsa, Oklahoma. During their stay in the host communities, they also visited other cities and counties in the surrounding area.

They toured government offices and departments, farmers’ markets, newspaper offices, libraries, schools, museums, and other cultural attractions. Here’s a sampling from Angelo Moniz Jong, country program manager, Credit Union Foundation Australia, from, Dili, Timor-Leste, writing about his stay in Middleton: “formal meetings, city council meetings, business development meeting, regional economic development meeting, municipal conferences, business conference, business expo, visiting business and company bases, visiting interesting places and meet with different people with specific expertise where we are honored on every occasion and able to learn and share with them.”

Fellows learned about historic preservation in Dubuque, Native American culture in Tulsa, youth engagement initiatives in Tallahassee, “a prison with a human face” in Catawba County, N.C., water treatment facilities in Lenoir, public service values in Emporia, a business empowerment program for entrepreneurs in Coconino County, and a senior center in Flagstaff. At the senior center, residents were entertained as Andrea Adhi, technical assistant with the Monitoring & Evaluation Working Group, National Team of Acceleration for Poverty Reduction in Jakarta, Indonesia, played “a few simple songs” on the piano.

Many marveled at the quality of roads and other government services and the friendliness and helpfulness of community residents. Following their community visits, the Fellows returned to Washington for a debriefing at the ICMA offices, a visit to the White House, and a Professional Fellows Congress with all program participants.

ICMA partnered with Local Government Managers Australia (LGMA) and the Association of Indonesian Municipalities (APEKSI) to select the Asian/Pacific participants and identify host country communities for outbound American fellows. LGMA and APEKSI are ICMA International Affiliates.