On February 14, during this year’s Black History Month, Class XLIV was hosted by ALF Fellow Milan Balinton at the African American Community Service Agency (AACSA) in San Jose. Milan provided rich learning for his classmates about AACSA, Black history, and current leadership, as well as work with Black community members across generations and diverse experiences, including supporting Black women-owned businesses for coffee and lunch for the class!
For their Civic Responsibility session, the Fellows engaged in reflection and dialogue to explore issues of civic responsibility related to capitalism and the current state of the federal government and U.S. democracy. They shared about challenges and opportunities they are grappling with in their organizations and communities and learned from each other about different ways to respond to Executive Orders and threats to DEI, funding, jobs, immigration, and more.
Additionally, as they look forward to joining the Senior Fellow network after graduation in March, the Fellows were inspired by the panel of Senior Fellows featuring Tom Giles (Class XXXVII), Bloomberg News, Camille Llanes-Fontanilla (Class XXXVIII), Sobrato Philanthropies, and Toni Vanwinkle (Class XXXIX), Adobe, Inc.
