By David W. Chen, nytimes.com
New York City lost out to Chicago in the bidding for President Barack Obama’s presidential library and center, but the Obama Foundation is now fulfilling a pledge it made in 2015 to “maintain a presence” here.
This fall, Columbia University, Mr. Obama’s alma mater, will launch a program for international fellows, the foundation and school planned to announce Thursday.
The yearlong program will bring an inaugural group of 12 fellows to Columbia, providing them with stipends and paying their expenses. One scholar in the initial class is the co-founder of a foundation in Bulgaria that aims to create and promote digital tools to enhance civic engagement. Another is the co-founder of a Singapore nonprofit that provides reusable menstrual products to women in poor communities. Still another is a partner at a Nigerian company that simplifies budgets and public finance documents to make government more transparent.
