A happy hour brought Oummu Kulthum and Meredith Rahn-Oakes (MBA23) together in 2023, where the two bonded in Iowa City over languages and a shared love of travel and learning.
A year later, the ambitious pair worked together teaching modern beekeeping practices to aspiring honey makers on the Comoros islands, located off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean.
Rahn-Oakes and Kulthum’s serendipitous relationship was sparked, as so many others have been, thanks to the Mandela Washington Fellowship program. The flagship program of the United States government’s Young African Leaders Initiative, the Fellowship brings hundreds of young leaders from Sub-Saharan Africa to college campuses across the U.S. where they study business, civic engagement, or public management.
Kulthum, who is from Comoros, was a participant in the six-week Fellowship at Tippie. Rahn-Oakes was in the midst of her MBA studies at the time.
“I went to a French-speaking school growing up and when I heard a group of Fellows all speaking French at the happy hour, I went up and introduced myself,” said Rahn-Oakes. When Rahn-Oakes happened to mention that she’d lived in Turkey for some time, Oummu “out of nowhere” started speaking Turkish to her new-found friend.
“It was a random encounter, but after that we met a few more times before her Fellowship ended and it was enough to feel like we had a friendship and connection,” she recalled.
“I never really expected to come to Iowa and find myself on the most extraordinary international adventure of my life,” said Rahn-Oakes. She grew up in Philadelphia and attended and worked at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Washington D.C. before moving to Iowa, where she now works as the governance specialist for University of Iowa Health Care.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship was a pivotal moment in Kulthum’s life, both personally and professionally.
“It gave me the skills and confidence to manage large scale projects,” she said. “Not only did I learn key business principles, but once you’ve done the Fellowship, you enter a huge family of people with that experience who all help each other.”
To encourage a continuing exchange of expertise and knowledge, the Fellowship program offers a reciprocal exchange program where Fellows can invite an American colleague to their home country to work on a business project. The aim is to help the emerging entrepreneurs build upon strategic partnerships and professional connections developed during the Fellowship.
Upon her return to her island home, Kulthum began thinking of ways she could connect her homegrown business, Island Organic Bee, with her newfound Mandela Washington Fellowship community. Recalling that her new friend Meredith was developing business management techniques as part of her MBA training, she made a bold proposal.
“To do the exchange, you have to implement a project with an American professional,” she said. “When I read that, Meredith came immediately to mind.”
Kulthum’s project was to share “modern,” sustainable bee keeping—in which the insects are kept alive for multiple harvests, unlike the traditional version practiced in the Comoros where bees are raised in clay pots and killed with fire after one season of honey making—with other potential entrepreneurs.
She would teach the beekeeping aspect to aspiring apiarists and Rahn-Oakes would teach business management techniques.
“I wasn’t sure if she’d say yes,” Kulthum laughed.
Rahn-Oakes, however, was undaunted—even though Comoros is one of the least-visited nations on the planet. A small country made up of three volcanic islands just north of Madagascar, Comoros has a population of just under one million and gets around 25,000 foreign visitors a year.
“It wasn’t a solo trip to an unknown place—it was a trip with my friend Oummu to a place unknown to me,” Rahn-Oakes said. “She was very much my guide and enabler of all things. That was something that helped make this trip so enriching.”
The pair held workshops on two of the Comoros islands, giving tips on how to raise bees and then extract honey while leaving the combs and hives intact, showing beekeepers how to produce more pure honey, and helping them envision how to market and sell it.
“The result is a more sustainable method,” Kulthum said. “This way, the bees can focus on producing more honey rather than rebuilding another hive. We give the bees a home so they can live in peace and tranquility and keep producing.”
Rahn-Oakes says what will stick with her the longest after her Comorian adventure is the warmth of the people she met halfway across the globe. She encourages anyone at the University of Iowa to get involved with the Mandela Washington Fellows when they are on campus and seriously consider a reciprocal exchange.
“The Fellows are the most extraordinary individuals,” she said. “You can’t help but be struck by how incredibly motivated, resourceful, and tenacious they are and how much benefit they bring to their communities.”