Introducing the 2023 McCarry Leadership Award winners!

Driven by a passion for promoting intercultural understanding through meaningful face-to-face exchanges, Jaime Fahy joined One To World four years ago, and went on to take on a number of roles and projects at the organization.  

Jaime is now the Managing Director at One To World and in her current role, she supports the Executive Director and is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the membership organization, including K-12 programming with Global Classroom, international student and Fulbright enrichment programming, partnership management, finances, and human resources. Most recently, Jaime led One To World’s J-1 Intern & Trainee Sponsor designation application, and is looking forwarding to building out this new NYC program and connecting with the J-1 community.  

She has 10 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, working both in the US and abroad. Before One To World, she worked at a community ecopark in Ramallah, West Bank, and undertook her undergraduate studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. 

Adrienne Jacobs is a senior program officer for the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders at IREX, and is currently also supporting the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program in Pakistan (Global UGRAD-Pakistan). 

In this role, she supports multiple aspects of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, including the planning and implementation of Fellowship events, such as the annual Summit, program operations including travel coordination, congressional engagement, and more.  For UGRAD-Pakistan, Adrienne is supporting the team to implement a large-scale Alumni conference taking place in Bangkok, Thailand in 2024. 

Prior to IREX, Adrienne worked for the United States Senate Committee on the Budget for nearly two years. She has since been able to translate this experience into supporting the advocacy efforts of the Fellowship’s Institutes and other partners. She is also happy to share her insights with projects and staff across IREX on best practices in informing government representatives about the important work IREX does. Adrienne has a M.A. in peace research and security policy from the University of Hamburg, and a B.A. in international relations and diplomacy from Schiller International University. 

From a very young age, I was drawn to learning about cultures and people around the world. Along with this global interest, I realized I truly just wanted to be everyone’s friend. A friend helps out each other. So, with this in mind I went on to receive a B.A. in International Development and a minor in African Languages- Swahili from Hamilton-Lugar’s School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University. During this time, I had the amazing opportunity to study abroad in Tanzania for a full academic school year and a separate Summer semester which would impact my life and career more than I knew at the time. I would later go on to receive my Masters in African Studies for International Development. 

My thoughts were that if I could learn the techniques of development that are succeeding in some of the harshest socio-economic environments (like East Africa), then I could apply those techniques to help those all around the world. Later on, through this education I came to learn more about the extreme faults that arise through a large array of different developmental approaches which would make them unsustainable. Along with that, I truly didn’t feel called to a certain field providing development services. That was until I remembered my time abroad. International Exchange is a developmental practice that I truly believe is a sustainable approach to fulfilling the gaps in societal needs. Being able to learn and live with others achieves infinite constructive possibilities. Through connection, relationships, and cross-cultural understanding a problem is not specific to a few but can be approached with the strength of many.