I work as a project manager with GDIT at the Centers for Disease Control, USA, specifically on virus projects. My Fellowship covered the use of forestry in communities in Germany. The people I met during and immediately after my time in Germany led me to completely change my life's path.

I reassessed the blessings of my early life, working as a farm labourer, travelling in Europe and the Middle East, sailing, visiting areas associated with World War Two. Meeting people with the widest range of skills and abilities, from various nationalities, and listening to the old, the learned, the knowledgeable, the weary, the strong, the confident, the unsure and the sensible made me realise that all had something to give. I felt it was one way, until I learnt to take each of their messages as lessons.

So what does my current job do to reflect all those early experiences? Well, it gives me security and funding so that I can spend my spare time helping others. I do not publicise what I do, but I would like to share that outcomes from a Fellowship can take many turns, in my example unsung actions behind the scenes with folks who need at a minimum someone to listen and others who need much, much more.