The McLarty family today announced two University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service students, Arjola Limani and Yvonne Quek, have been selected as this year’s McLarty Global Fellows. During their fellowships at Vital Voices Global Partnership, Limani and Quek will conduct research projects focusing on human rights and advancing women’s economic empowerment.
“We are excited to welcome Arjola and Yvonne to the McLarty Global Fellowship program,” said Donna McLarty. “Both of these remarkable young women have demonstrated the kind of intellect, activism, and global outlook that will enable them to make significant contributions to Vital Voices and their mission to empower women leaders around the world – and we are proud to support their important work.”
Arjola Limani will help monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the Vital Voices Global Freedom Exchange Program, which seeks to end child sex trafficking. A native of Albania, Limani is a second year student at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. She is a graduate of European University in Tirana, Albania with a degree in law, and she previously worked for Don Bosko Center for the Youths, where she helped implement and support youth activities. Limani spent the past summer working with Heifer International in Peru, evaluating gender roles in coffee plantations.
Yvonne Quek will join impact assessment efforts for the Vital Voices GROW Fellowship, a business accelerator and leadership development program for women owners of small and medium sized businesses in Latin America, the Caribbean, Middle East, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Born and raised in Singapore, Quek is a graduate of the National University of Singapore with a degree in law. Before attending the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, she worked as a corporate attorney in Singapore and assisted with fundraising for Saigon Children’s Charity in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Over the past summer, she worked in Peru on evaluating the social return on financial investment in the country.
“We are most appreciative of the McLarty family’s generous support of our students and our programs,” said James “Skip” Rutherford III, Dean of the Clinton School of Public Service. “These opportunities are both life-changing and career making for Clinton School students.”
Limani and Quek are the third class of McLarty Global Fellows to be granted semester-long fellowships at Vital Voices. Anna Applebaum, a Clinton School of Public Service alumna and a previous recipient of a McLarty Global Fellowship, will be granted a renewal of her Fellowship in order to continue her work for a second year as a Hillary Rodham Clinton Research Fellow at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. Past Fellows have included University of Arkansas students from the Sam M. Walton College of Business, who have studied abroad in
Brazil, Argentina and Spain through the Thomas F. & Donna McLarty Endowed Study Abroad Scholarship; and students from the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, who have participated in the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress Presidential Fellows Program.
About the McLarty Global Fellowship Program
The McLarty Global Fellowship Program was established in 2002 by Donna and Mack McLarty, along with their sons Mark and Franklin, their daughter-in-law Gabriela and their granddaughter Brianna. The three-part program funds University of Arkansas students in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Sam M. Walton College of Business and Clinton School of Public Service through international study, fellowships with Vital Voices Global Partnership and the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, and workshops with the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress in Washington, D.C.
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