“Some of the best disability rights leaders in the world are right here in this room!” chimed Susan Sygall, CEO and Co-Founder of Mobility International USA, awe-struck upon greeting alumni from a range of MIUSA exchange programs, countries, and years.
In March 2025, MIUSA hosted a virtual reunion for MIUSA alumni to reconnect with MIUSA staff and homestay families. The goals were to celebrate alumni accomplishments, share in our amazing community of global change-makers, and make calls to action to advance MIUSA’s mission to disability rights and leadership globally. With about 100 MIUSA alumni and homestay families tuning in from 46 countries spanning the globe (and time zones!), the event surpassed our wildest dreams!
Of the MIUSA alumni in attendance, approximately half had graduated from MIUSA’s WILD program, the Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability. We also welcomed those who had joined a MIUSA workshop as high school exchange students, now grown with families, careers, and lives of their own. Other individuals, from both the United States and non-U.S. countries, had participated in one of MIUSA’s leadership exchange programs for young adults, professionals, athletes, and more.
Virtual Reunion by the Numbers
- Over 100 MIUSA alumni and homestay families attended the reunion!
- MIUSA alumni on the call represented 46 countries, including: Armenia, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Georgia, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Malawi, Mali, Macedonia, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Serbia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sweden, Turkiye, United States, Vietnam, and Zambia!
- Armenia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the United States were well-represented, with 5 or more MIUSA alumni representing each country!
- For language access, the call also included a team of American Sign Language interpreters, Certified Deaf Interpreters, Spanish interpreters, and a CART captioner!
For the first part of the reunion, we devoted time and space for our alumni to share about themselves and their lives, both since having participated in a MIUSA exchange program up to the present. It was especially powerful to listen as they described their personal and professional achievements, from furthering their education, to participating in non-MIUSA exchange programs and fellowships, to advancing as leaders, and often making significant contributions to improve the lives of people with disabilities and their communities. (See, “Congratulations, MIUSA Alumni!” below for some of the highlights alumni shared.)
During the second part of the reunion, MIUSA staff invited alumni to further MIUSA’s mission to advance disability rights and leadership globally by participating in several calls to action:
MIUSA exchange programs have a focus on disability leadership, but disabled people should have the option to participate in other kinds of international exchange programs, too! People with disabilities should take advantage of the same opportunities as non-disabled people to participate in a global professional fellowship, study a language in another country, teach abroad, and more! That’s why MIUSA also administers the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE), which is supported by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The NCDE is a free service designed to promote more disability inclusion in the field of international educational exchange, and to connect people with disabilities to the broad range of international opportunities that are out there, beyond MIUSA exchange programs!
MIUSA alumni can be an ambassador for international exchange to other disabled people in several ways, including:
MIUSA’s approach to disability rights is by partnering with disability-led organizations in other countries. When we have the opportunity to partner, we try to think of who we know, and which of our alumni are doing similar work. Recent MIUSA partner countries include Mongolia, Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Haiti, Bahrain, Armenia, Nepal, and more.
Partnerships can take different forms. Sometimes MIUSA receives a grant award which allows us to provide a sub-award or contract to a partner organization. Sometimes we partner with individual alumni and contract with them to provide support to our partners in certain countries. We’ve sometimes been able to partner with alumni to develop an exchange program. Sometimes our alumni have their own connections to funding and approach MIUSA with their ideas for how to work together. So please reach out to us, because it’s so important that we work with our partners around the world to make the lives of people with disabilities better.
One of MIUSA’s greatest strengths and resources is our valuable network of MIUSA alumni around the world! With over 2,300 incredible individuals from over 135 countries (including the United States), MIUSA alumni are the most important network that we have to make changes in the world for people with disabilities. If we want to change the world, we need to learn from one another and find ways to collaborate. We want to highlight the impactful work you do and explore potential for collaboration on future grant projects, subcontracts, and more. Here are some ways you can stay connected to MIUSA!
Our time together on the virtual reunion flew by too quickly, a whirlwind of warm greetings, mutual admiration, and encouragement among old friends, homestay families, and people meeting for the first time but still connected through community. We also want to acknowledge and send greetings to those alumni who were not able to attend but who are in our thoughts all the same!
Susan Sygall invited alumni to envision what MIUSA’s future may hold, and ways in which MIUSA can continue to engage its alumni. Together they also enthusiastically dreamed of the possibility of having an in-person reunion sometime in the future, allowing time for those interested to raise funds to travel to Eugene, Oregon. Many alumni were also open to the possibility of coordinating a reunion or meetup of MIUSA alumni in their specific country or region. We received a generous invitation from our alum in Mexico City, suggested that we hold a disability leadership alumni reunion in Mexico!
To close this impactful event, Susan thanked everyone involved for making this virtual reunion possible, and shared what the event meant to her personally:
“I’m feeling so much energy around my MIUSA family, as if I spent the day with all my relatives. Let’s stay connected so we can keep making the change in the world – and you are the people to make it happen! So you will stay in my heart and in the hearts of all of us for many, many, many days after this. As we say, this has been rough waters here in the United States, but today has given me hope and positive energy and the feeling that we are going to keep going – no matter what.”
Congratulations, MIUSA Alumni!
We are so proud of what our alumni have accomplished, both in pursuit of their individual goals and dreams as well as their many contributions to their communities and fields. Of those who shared during the virtual reunion, here are just a few of their many, many achievements:
Academic milestones
- Nadia, Jordan: Earned an MBA from a university in Malaysia
- Ahmed, Egypt: Earned an MS in Computational Linguistics at Montclair State University in New Jersey
- Raluca, Romania: Completed masters studies in Psychology after studying in France and Romania
- Mariana, Moldova: Finished a PHD in philosophy
- Jagoda, Macedonia: Earned MSc in Business Psychology in London, UK
- Asia, Jordan: Continuing studies for Special Education masters degree in London
- Haris, India: Earned a masters in English literature, now pursuing a Masters in Education.
- Mila, Brazil: Finishing master’s degree at the University of São Paulo with a research topic on women with disabilities.
- Oleg, Russia/Germany: Four years of theological studies in the U.S.
Fellowships and awards
- Karine, Armenia: Participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). Most recently received a full scholarship for the 2024-2025 International Women’s Forum (IWF) Leadership Fellows class, which includes training at INSEAD and Harvard Business School
- Ida, Indonesia: Earned masters degree in the Philippines
- Arrey-Echi, Cameroon: Completed the Goldin Institute Fellowship Program
- Raluca, Romania: Participated in the Erasmus program for students and youth workers
- Anjana, Nepal and Weng, Philippines: Duskin Leadership Training in Japan
- Ahmed, Egypt: The YES scholarship program for high school students, and the Fulbright program for college students
- Loan, Vietnam: Ford Foundation Scholarship program
- Hellen, Nigeria: Mandela Washington Fellowship program
- Jagoda, Macedonia: Community Solutions Program
Professional highlights and achievements
- Asia, Jordan: Became a Senator
- Mause, Haiti: After working for UN Women in Haiti, is now working for special protection and justice for women in New York
- Aarthi, Mauritius: Developed a toolkit for learners with visual impairments in inclusive schools
- Abia, Pakistan: Advancing disability rights legislation in Pakistan, and leading the Global Forum on Women with Disabilities
- Liseth, Guatemala: Working towards disability-inclusive employment
- Ottmar, Germany: Wrote a novel about people in sheltered workshops who are fighting for their rights
- Loan, Vietnam: Inclusive education for children with disabilities in Vietnam
- Oleg, Russia/Germany: Developed an international YouTube channel for Russian-speaking audience on blindness-related issues.
- Santiago, Mexico: Formed an international independent living organization and transformed the lives of more than 27 thousand people with disabilities who are wheelchair users in Mexico and all of Latin America.
- Ekaete, Nigeria: Accepted a position with the United Nations in Nigeria as Inclusion Coordinator
- Anders, Sweden: Teaching young people in Myanmar and organizing welcome dinners for newcomer families in Sweden
- Janeth, El Salvador: Developed a national Common Agenda for the defense of the rights of women with disabilities
- Jaime, United States: Became a board president for a new nonprofit in Minnesota advocating for accessibility in programs & outdoors
- Jagoda, Macedonia: Worked on reproductive rights of women with disabilities in Macedonia
- Edward, United States: As an inaugural ABLE ambassador, helped pass the ABLE Adjustment Act
- Breanna, United States: Collaborated with a friend to create peergalaxy.com, a website with free resources for people in recovery from trauma, addictions and sharing disability rights and other useful information, all for free
- Maria Camila, Colombia: Working as a professional and as an activist
- Jemimah, Kenya: Successfully pushed for a Disability Bill, which was passed in February 2025
- Saima, Pakistan: Worked towards ending gender-based violence against women and girls with disabilities in Pakistan
- Arrey-Echi, Cameroon: Joined World Pulse as a Community Board Member
- Mariam, Georgia: Created an online training course for public bureau HR officers on inclusive employment opportunities for persons with disabilities
- Caroline, South Sudan: Currently working with the Global Network of Refugees with Disabilities, under the auspices of UNHCR in Uganda, to empower refugee women with disabilities
- Rasha, Jordan/Canada: Worked 13 years as a teacher for disabled children, and is now a digital marketing specialist in Canada
- Ida, Indonesia: Published an autobiographical story in Disability Debrief about obtaining a wheelchair during a MIUSA program in 2010
- Mila, Brazil: Leading trainings on the leadership and empowerment of women with disabilities in Brazil
- Wioleta, Poland: Lecturing at the university in the Accessibility Coordinator program
- Shafiq, Pakistan: Designing an inclusive curriculum of medical universities in Pakistan as well as teaching doctors to learn sign languages
- Neema, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Founded Hero Women Rising in DRC, and in 2023 was listed among the 100 most inspiring and influential women in the world
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