It was a nice experience to be a fellow of the Dalai Lama fellowship. The Dalai Lama Fellowship offers emerging leaders a rigorous, interdisciplinary program on ways to be a different kind of leader, a leader that connects and cares for self, extends genuine compassion to others, and works for the common humanity. Fellows cultivate practices in mind-training for increasing self-awareness, self-care and resilience, for connecting with others and working across differences, and in building solutions for generations to come. Over the course of the year, with the support of mentors and coaches, each fellow designs and implements an original field project addressing a global challenge. Upon graduation, fellows join a lifelong community, where they connect with and support each other while continuing to advance their leadership journeys. The program awards year-long Fellowships to next generation leaders that are working on social change projects in local communities to address one or more...

Canada Vs. New Zealand Canada will be looking to book their place in the last 16 of the FIFA Women’s World Cup when they take on New Zealand at Stade des Alpes after a victory in their opening game and the Canadians will guarantee a place in the second round with victory in this match. Canada and New Zealand go into this encounter on the back of a narrow victory and heartbreak respectively. Canada managed victory against Cameroon by only a lone goal margin while New Zealand suffered a heart-wrenching experience when Netherlands score in injury time to take all three points. These two teams last met at the 2015 World Cup in Canada in the group stage in a match that ended in a goalless draw. The Football Ferns wouldn’t mind a similar outcome or even better this time around considering the could be potentially fighting for their survival against Canada if the Netherlands beat Cameroon in the other match in group E which kicks off earlier on Saturday. The Ferns will be counting on domin...

England Vs. Argentina England will be looking to run riot against Argentina on Friday after edging out victory against auld rivals Scotland by a single goal margin in their Group D opener. The Lioness are one of the better teams in the competition and will fancy their chances of remaining involved deep into the competition. This should literally be a walk in the park. England are ranked 3rd in the world while the Albicelestes are ranked a staggering 34 places below them in 37th. To put the disparity into contest, Thailand who were victims of a record 13-0 thrashing at the hands of the USWNT are ranked three places above Argentina! Such is the enormity of the task on Borrelo’s side hands and if England does really get in their stride, we are looking at another one-sided match once again. The last time the two sides met in 2007, Argentina were thrashed 6-1! Argentina did hold last edition’s finalist Japan to a draw in their first match, albeit it was a really poor and weakened Japanese s...

USA Vs. Thailand Match Preview Talk about arriving late but fashionably so; The United States Women National Team will be brimming with confidence as they begin the defence of their title against lowly ranked Thailand. USWNT, the reigning champions and most successful team in FIFA Women’s World Cup history, begin their France 2019 campaign late on Tuesday. Thailand is making its second ever appearance at the Women’s World Cup, after debuting at the last edition four years ago in Canada. They actually gave a good account of themselves in 2015, finishing third in Group B with three points (behind Germany and Norway). Their form coming into this game is terrible, however they have lost five in a row and 11 of their last 12. Thailand does feature a pair of players that are based in the US, both college soccer players: Suchawadee Nildhamrong of Cal and Tiffany Sornpao of Kennesaw State, the only members of the squad to ply their trade outside Thailand. Both players would need to be at t...

Canada Vs. Cameroon Match Preview Canada, who are probably the least fancied of the favourites to win the tournament take on the last edition's overachievers Cameroon in a tricky encounter. Although Cameroon are ranked 46th in the world, the third lowest of those in the competition, but with the trio of Gabrielle Onguene, Ajara Nchout and Raissa Feudjio in their team, they would be looking to cause an upset. In a quirk of fate, they will make their grand entrance at the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 against the country in which they created their greatest national-team memories: Canada. They are a strong side and we respect them, said Nchout, a forward who, rather curiously, wears the No3 jersey but football is not an exact science on the pitch, anything can happen. We have prepared well for this match and for the World Cup as a whole. At Canada 2015, Cameroon’s first appearance on women’s football’s greatest stage, they succeeded in reaching the Round of 16, and the inf...

Nigeria vs. Norway Preview Host, France opened the 2019 Women's World Cup in superb style as strikes from Le Sommer and Henry came either side of two Renard headers in a 4-0 thrashing of South Korea. Four goals and a clean sheet is definitely not a bad way to kick off their tournament. A record attendance for a women’s football match in France with the 45,261 spectators smashing the previous record of 25,907 is the kind of response to women’s football we have been clamoring for and we can only hope it gets better from here. All of the talk ahead of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, especially where Norway are concerned, is that the best female player in the world will not be competing in the tournament. Ada Hegerberg –winner of the 2018 Ballon d’Or Feminin – continues to have unresolved issues with the Norwegian Football Federation meaning she will not take part here which is a huge loss for not only Norway but the tournament itself. The Norwegians who are ranked 12...

*Excitement in the air - Come today when the French and their South Korean counterpart would be slugging it out in the opening game of group A, many would be rooting for the Les Bleues to follow in the footsteps of France's men's team by winning football biggest trophy. To be the best, you have to beat the best, which is something France's players have been keen to stress whenever asked if they can picture themselves becoming world champions on home soil. Fate has given them the opportunity to put that maxim into practice when they take on the 1995 édition winner Norway and Nigeria, who have never failed to qualify for the competition, and South Korea in the group stage games. So, here's a preview of the 2019 Women's World Cup, which begins today [caption id="attachment_312" align="alignnone" width="300"] fifa.com[/caption]in Paris, including a preliminary look at the best teams and few selected players. *Favorites - USA, Franc...

Did you see the Under-20 men world cup in Poland? Pity our country couldn’t make it past the round of sixteen. Don’t you worry; we are about to be treated to another major event in sport; the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France. Guess what? Our dear country, Nigeria, ladies would be donning the bright green to do us proud. As part of our motivation for the female child, we would bring you the best of the events with our various packages; one is which is, “Five Questions with a Sport Mavin.” So, who is our maiden mavin? Ugochi Desire Oparanozie is a Nigerian football forward, who is currently part of the team that would be representing Nigeria at the tournament in France. She is the captain of the Super Falcons. She had previously represented the country in 2011 and 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cups and the 2010 and 2012 FIFA under-20 Women’s World Cups, scoring three goals in the latter. She represented us at the 2010, 2014, 2016 and 2018 African Women’s Championship, winning all four and ...

Tears rolled down Adanna's cheeks. Who would have thought that they would choose Jude over her? But Jude was a guy. Their organization was well known for their gender inclusive nature. Didn't it mean that it had to be her over him? Adanna groaned and held her tummy tight. It hurt to think they would kick her to the sidelines like this? After all she'd dreamed and imagined. Adanna was an executive at Hans Enterprises. She and Jude had been employed the same year and worked almost as hard as each other to get to where they were today. The only difference was that while Ada celebrated her little wins, Jude went on to get two extra qualifications and volunteered to go to the field even though he was an executive. "But you don't have to," their General manager, Rhoda had said the first time Jude was promoted as an executive but still wanted to keep going on field work with the rest of the staff. "I want to," he had replied, "Don...