In his remarks, Zelenskyy drew inspiration from Steve Jobs’ famous "How to Live Before You Die" commencement address given at Stanford in 2005.

"This is one of the most famous speeches ever given at Stanford,” he said. “It's about believing in dreams and overcoming the impossible. This is the same as my story. I am just a common guy from a common family from a common industrial town in Eastern Ukraine. Yet here I am today at Stanford, because everything is possible."

He continued, “It is the same for Ukraine. Many people look at us and think that it will be impossible to achieve the goals we hope for. But we know that our critics are wrong. The people of our country love democracy and freedom and will not let threats take those things away. We know that anything is possible."

Looking to the future, Zelenskyy outlined the steps his administration is undertaking to bring increased digitization to Ukraine. These efforts include launching fully electronic passports, moving business and legal services online and expanding the scope of e-goverance. The hope is that this meld of new technology will help curb corruption while simultaneously creating more equitable opportunities and better access to public services for more Ukranians.

Speaking on the ambitious scope of these plans, the president acknowledged, “There will be resistance to the changes and innovations that we are going to make.” Nonetheless, he remains committed to the work ahead of strengthening democratic institutions in Ukraine and building on the progress that has already been made.  “We do not have a ‘Ukrainian Dream,’ yet,” he said. “But we have a ‘Ukrainian Goal’ and a ‘Ukrainian Mission’ to make the future we want for our country.” An edited recording of his remarks is below.

Keeping with Stanford tradition, Zelenskyy took questions from the audience after his prepared remarks. A variety of students and Stanford community members from Russia, Burma, Belarus and beyond had the opportunity to engage the president on a range of issues including U.S.-Ukraine relations, armament sales abroad and concerns over Russian aggression in Crimea and influence Eastern Ukraine. Of particular meaning was Zelensky’s affirmation and support for the democratic movement in Belarus led by Svaitlana Tsikhanouskaya, whom FSI hosted earlier this summer at a faculty roundtable.

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Students and faculty alike were appreciative of the president’s candor and good nature in addressing difficult topics.

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Following the formal remarks, President Zelenskyy and First Lady Zelenska had an opportunity to meet with Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne in the Memorial Church Courtyard. Prior to leaving, the First Lady also sat down with leaders and students from Stanford's Office of Accessible Education (OAE), an area of interest she would like to support and better develop in Ukraine.

For FSI, the president’s visit was another affirmation of the special connection between Ukraine and the Stanford community. Since 2016, the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law has hosted the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program, which provides a 10-month academic training fellowship in support of mid-career practitioners working actively as policy-makers, legal professionals, entrepreneurs and leaders of civil society organizations in Ukraine.

Speaking to this shared history in his opening introductions, FSI Director Michael McFaul emphasized the crucial need for ongoing support and intellectual investment into Ukraine. “The fight for democracy and independence in Ukraine is one of the most important causes in the world today,” he affirmed. “Not just for Ukrainians, but for all who cherish the ideals of democracy, liberty and sovereignty.”

To President Zelenskyy, McFaul extended a future invitation: “You are always welcome back, either as president or in retirement as a professor.”

“With the classes you offer, I will think about it,” Zelenskyy replied with a smile.

This week we launched the long-awaited 17th year of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law's Draper Hills Summer Fellowship Program. Founded in 2005 with generous support from Bill and Phyllis Draper and Ingrid von Mangoldt Hills, Draper Hills is an executive training program for world leaders striving to promote democracy. For the next two weeks, Fellows will participate in workshops led by an interdisciplinary team of faculty to study new theories and approaches to democratic development.

Fellows in the class of 2021 were selected from among thousands of applicants for their ground-breaking work to defend democracy. These 34 leaders drawn from 30 countries around the world are pioneering new approaches and models to advance social and political change in some of the most challenging global contexts. Representing business, government, and the nonprofit sector, our fellows are working on the frontlines of democratic change to combat the global rise of authoritarianism and populism. In countries moving towards democracy, our fellows are working to institutionalize new systems and practices to support democratic transitions.

An Unconventional Year

Traditionally, Fellows would travel from their home countries to the U.S. and spend three weeks on campus at Stanford learning together. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the program is currently taking place virtually for the first time (for the same reasons, the program did not run in 2020). The shift to online programming posed a number of logistical obstacles – from what time to run virtual sessions when participants span over a dozen time zones to how to foster the sense of belonging and personal connections that occur more naturally in in-person settings.

To begin addressing the latter, Fellows were sent welcome packages to build excitement and foster community both within the program and at Stanford. Upon receiving hers, Aisha Yesufu of Nigeria shared, "I am so excited at the different people I'll be meeting from all over the world, and also learning from different people, lecturers, professors... It's going to be quite interesting, and, for me, that is what I am most looking forward to."

"One of the most important things I have ever been involved with."

Opening against the backdrop of the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in Afghanistan, the importance of the Draper Hills program and the need to promote democratic change is now more evident than ever.

The inaugural session for the 2021 cohort began with Francis Fukuyama introducing the fellows to several of the esteemed faculty they will be learning from over the next two weeks, including Larry Diamond, Erik Jensen, and Michael McFaul. McFaul shared that not only did he found the program, but "it is one of the most important things I have ever been involved with." Jensen later added that "participating in this program is one of the great pleasures I have every year."

More to Come

Throughout the next two weeks, our Draper Hills Fellows will examine the political development, democratic transitions, and the relationship of law to economic development, public administration, administrative law, transitional justice, food security, and global health policy, among others. The group is eager to learn, and we look forward to seeing the many great things the training they receive here will enable them to do in their home countries and beyond.

Meet our Postdoctoral Scholars 

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Each year the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law invites several pre and/or postdoctoral scholars to Stanford. Our fellows work in any of the three program areas of democracy, development, and rule of law.   Over the course of the academic year, scholars use their fellowship to complete their projects, participate in seminars, and interact with each other and the resident faculty and research staff. 

This year we are very excited to have Nathan Grubman, Salma Mousa, and Leah Rosenzweig with us at the Center. We talked to them about their research interests, what they're working on while at Stanford, and why they chose to come to CDDRL. 

Nathan Grubman
Yale University

About Nathan: 

Nathan expects to receive his PhD in political science from Yale University in December 2020. He is currently working on a book project on the question of why party systems in some new democracies tend to lack left-right cleavages that are often found in established democracies. In particular, he looks at the case of Tunisia after the 2010-11 uprising. Nathan recently presented his research in the talk "Nostalgia and Populisms in Contemporary Tunisia" for the CDDRL Seminar Series. 

Why did you choose CDDRL?

"I’ve followed CDDRL for a very long time. It has a unique mix of people who are focused on democracy and democratization in parts of the world where it doesn’t receive as much attention, and scholars focused on democracy in the US as well. I’m also really excited by some of the people at CDDRL—those who focus on the Arab world but also those who focus on Eastern Europe and democratization more generally. They can help me broaden the scope of my research."

Learn more about Nathan's research in this interview with Associate Director for Research Didi Kuo.

Salma Mousa
Stanford University 

About Salma: 

An Egyptian-Canadian raised in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Canada, Salma Mousa received her PhD in Political Science from Stanford University in 2020. She is currently working on two research agendas. The first is about the tools and strategies we have for building social cohesion, primarily between migrants and host societies, but also between religious and ethnic groups in the Middle East and the US. Her second research focus is how we can best integrate refugees in the US economically and socially. She will be presenting her research for CDDRL in the upcoming talk "Building Social Cohesion through Soccer in Post-ISIS Iraq". 

Why did you choose CDDRL?

"I’ve been floating around CDDRL during my time at Stanford, including teaching for Professor Fukuyama. But for me it was a natural home given that my work is very interdisciplinary. Work on intergroup contact and prejudice reduction and integration has a lot of implications for economics, social psychology, political science, sociology, and I draw on methods and theories from all of these places. At the same time I try to make my work as policy relevant and as situated in the real world with real world interventions as much as possible. To get that interdisciplinary exposure and to have the chance to pick the brains and workshop my ideas with a group of scholars who are so policy oriented really fit my research model."

Hear more about Salma's work in this interview with Mosbacher Director of CDDRL Francis Fukuyama.

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Leah Rosenzweig
MIT

About Leah: 

Leah Rosenzweig holds a PhD in Political Science from MIT. Her current project looks at social voting in semi-authoritarian states. In places where elections aren't competitive why does anyone even vote? Her answer is that there is social pressure--not out of civic duty to the state, but rather to the local community. People see elections as a way to gain benefits and help their local communities. She tests this theory in Tanzania and Uganda. She recently presented her talk "Informing Government Response to COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa" for CDDRL. 

Why did you choose CDDRL?

"CDDRL covers a lot of the same themes and topics that I’m interested in within development and democracy. But mostly I was drawn to the interdisciplinary group of scholars engaged in policy-relevant research, whether that’s other political scientists like myself, economists, legal scholars, and others. The environment of all of these really great intellectuals engaging on these topics was what attracted me to the program."

Learn more about Leah and her work in this interview.

The CDDRL Pre and Post Doctoral Fellowship Program is now accepting applications. Please visit this site to learn more about the application process, and contact kdchandl@stanford.edu with any questions. 

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A Note from the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program

To our supportive community,

On behalf of all of us at the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program, we hope that you and your loved ones are remaining safe and healthy. We would like to provide you with a short update on the program.

Due to the evolving situation with COVID-19, our selected fellows in consultation with the program team have made the difficult decision to postpone the next year of the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program until 2021-22. The health of our fellows is most important, and recent limitations about in-person instruction would have made it impossible for our fellows to enjoy a fruitful experience this year.

That being said, we would still like to introduce you to our incoming class. We expect to be able to invite them for the 2021-22 academic year and sincerely hope you will join us in welcoming our incoming fellows at that point.

Finally, although we are deferring our fellows for a year, the Program will continue, and we hope the virtual format will provide new opportunities. We will keep you updated as to any program events we conduct over the course of this modified year.

We are very excited to have these three fellows join us as soon as it is safe and healthy to do so, and wish the circumstances would have allowed us to have them with us on campus sooner.

Sincerely,
The Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program Team

Yulia Bezvershenko
Ministry of Education and Science 

Yulia Bezvershenko is Director General of Directorate for Science and Innovation at the Ministry of Education and Science. The Directorate was created for policy development and implementation in the research, development and innovation sector.  

Since the Revolution of Dignity, Bezvershenko has been deeply involved in the reform of science development and implementation process. Her mission is to build knowledge-based Ukraine as economy and society based on knowledge, science and innovation. She has contributed to the Law on Science, which was adopted by Parliament in 2015. In cooperation with scientists and reformers she developed and actively participated in the creation of two new institutions, the National Council on Science and Technology and the National Science Fund. Bezvershenko currently works both on implementation of the aforementioned law and on its future iterations.

Bezvershenko holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics (National Academy of Science of Ukraine) and a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Governance from the Kyiv School of Economics. She has diverse experience in the research and development sector, having worked as a researcher at the Bogolyubov Institute as well as a senior lecturer on quantum theory at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Until 2019, Yulia was a Deputy Head of Young Scientists Council of National Academy of Science of Ukraine and Vice-President of NGO "Unia Scientifica" aimed to promote science and to advocate reform of science in Ukraine.

Denis Gutenko
State Fiscal Service/Ministry of Economy

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Before joining the State Fiscal Service, Gutenko had worked in the Ministry of Economy since 2015. Gutenko promoted deregulation and improvement of business climate agenda. He initiated and successfully lobbied Parliament to adopt laws on the liberalization of international trade and currency, the transparency of scrap metal exports, and the reform of a corrupt ecological tax policy. Gutenko also led the removal of administrative barriers and outdated currency restrictions, resulting in the increased flow of services and payments for Ukrainian freelancers and small and medium enterprises.

Prior to this Gutenko began his career in the private sector as a banker, auditor and agribusiness manager, experiences that sparked his interest in improving the Ukrainian state bureaucracy and fighting widespread corruption.

Gutenko’s focus while at CDDRL will be on good governance and public administration reform, both of which remain significant opportunities and challenges for Ukraine. He looks forward to being an active member of Leadership Network for Change, and to continuing to challenge himself while at Stanford.

Nariman Ustaiev
Gasprinski Institute

Nariman Ustaiev is co-founder and Director at Gasprinski Institute for Geostrategy. He is also an external advisor for the Committee on Human Rights, Deoccupation and Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories in Donetsk, Luhansk Regions and Autonomous Republic of Crimea, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. 

His work explores the multiple dimensions of Ukraine’s foreign and security policy and their intersection with good governance based on human rights. His areas of expertise are foreign policy; political and security challenges in the Black Sea Region; and human rights and Crimean Tatar issues. 

Prior to this Nariman had worked for governmental institutions responsible for Ukraine’s security policy, namely the National Security and Defense Council, the Secretariat of the Cabinet Ministers and the State Service for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol for many years. 

Nariman graduated from the Diplomatic Academy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Academy for Foreign Trade and Kyiv-Mohyla Business School.