Indian Americans among finalist to White House fellows

Eight Indian Americans are among the 108 regional finalists to the prestigious White House fellows for the year 2009-2010 programme for leadership and public service in the US.

The regional finalists would be interviewed for the final list of about 30 outstanding women and men, who would then be appointed as a White House Fellow for one year by US president Barack Obama. The list was released on Wednesday.

While the White House did not disclose the names of the regional finalists based on the ethnicity of the successful candidates, PTI has identified at least eight of them as Indian Americans, based on their names. These outstanding Indian Americans who have made it to the list of 108 regional finalists, are Komal Bazaz Smith from Arlington in Virginia; Sudip K Bose (Chicago); Sreekanth K Chaguturu (Boston); Amar A Desai (Westlake Village, California); Anish P Mahajan (Los Angeles); Manish K Sethi (Brookline, Massachusetts); Minesh Shah (Bronx, New York) and Raj M Shah (Philadelphia).

Among the alumni of this prestigious fellowship are former Secretary of State Colin Powell, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr Sanjay Gupta, Travelocity CEO Michelle Peluso, and Dallas mayor Tom Leppert. 

White House fellows spend a year working as full-time, paid special assistants to senior White House staff, cabinet secretaries and other top-ranking government officials.      Fellows also participate in an education program consisting of roundtable discussions with renowned leaders from the private and public sectors and trips to study US
policy in action both domestically and internationally.

The fellowship was founded in 1964 by president Lyndon Johnson. There are a few other South Asian Americans in the list released by the White House. Prominent among them include Aysha A Chowdhry (from Chevy Chase in Maryland) and Moushumi M
Khan (from Ann Arbor in Michigan). Both of them are of Bangladeshi origin.