Campus has been home to some new faces over the past few weeks. For the second consecutive year, the College hosted the Mandela Washington Fellowship, a flagship program of President Obama’s Youth African Leaders Initiative, a State Department-led program that equips young African leaders with the skills and resources necessary to foster change in their communities.
More than 30,000 candidates applied for 500 fellowships. Dartmouth is one of the 20 host leadership institutions throughout the country that house the fellows, YALI academic director Amy Newcomb said.
The College welcomed 25 of these fellows earlier this summer to participate in a six-week business and entrepreneurship institute. The 25 young adults represent 17 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa and are among Africa’s brightest emerging entrepreneurs.
The six-week institute was followed by a week-long presidential summit in Washington where all the Fellows had the opportunity to meet president Barack Obama and other policy makers as well as network amongst each other, Newcomb said.
The six-week program is designed to educate fellows on how to develop and promote their businesses back home, with the ultimate goal being to improve the economies and infrastructures of their home countries.
The program also looks to foster productive relationships between the young entrepreneurs and companies as well as develop their leadership and communication skills.
“The initiative focuses on investing in young people and providing greater leadership capacities that help build relationships with these individuals that are going to be changing their communities for the better in some key sectors,” Newcomb said.
This is accomplished through a combination of lectures, workshops group-based project assignments and community engagements.
As part of the Institute, the fellows participate in weekly business site visits to companies whose work illustrates the core principles of design-driven entrepreneurship. This year the fellows took a trip to the New Hampshire seacoast to visit Timberland, the footwear and clothing retailer.
Newcomb said that the fellows met with the global president and corporate social responsibility team and looked at some of their sustainability initiatives. She added that they also looked at how the company structures its business and investments.
Throughout the program, the fellows also participated in weekly community service projects with LISTEN Community services, COVER Home Repair and Re-Store, the Haven, Willing Hands and more.
“Each week the fellows would go out and do community service with partners in the local area,” Newcomb said. “That was a really neat way for them to get a sense of the American value of volunteerism and engage with community members that may have not otherwise met if they stayed solely in Hanover or focused only business.”
Over the duration of the program, the institute team and the fellows learned a lot from one another. Emily Albrecht ‘16, who served as YALI’s communications student assistant, said that her greatest takeaway from the program was realizing how easy it was to get caught up with the stress of her daily routine and become disengaged from the rest of the world.
“All of the fellows were some of the most incredibly passionate and enthusiastic people I have ever met,” she said. “Being around them, it was infectious. I want to be able to take some of that energy back to my life.”
Emily Albrecht is a member of the Dartmouth Senior Staff.
Ludigo Andrew, a fellow and visual artist from Uganda, said that the best part of the program to him was learning about American culture.
“I have been humbled, I have been challenged and I have been inspired,” he said. “I come from a culture where my people take their time and sometimes there is a bit of procrastination. We get things done, but there is not a sense of urgency.”
Ludigo runs a company that is a platform for social change in Uganda. He said that he intends to build a creative arts center with vocational departments for children who cannot afford it in the near future.
He added that his plans are dependent upon how he utilizes the skills he learned from his experience at the Institute to improve productivity in his company.
Business aside, the fellows also engaged in social events on campus and experienced life in the Upper Valley. One of Newcomb’s favorite moments of the program was seeing the fellow’s faces light up after tasting Ben and Jerry’s for the first time.
“They looked at each other around the room and then went to the scoop shop and went through the line three times,” Newcomb said.
The program does not end here for the fellows. After returning home, the fellows receive another year of support through USAID and U.S. embassies.
Newcomb added that the program has plans to expand in the future. The number of fellowships offered will double in the upcoming years, and there may be an equivalent program hosted in Africa where young American leaders have the chance to learn from foreign entrepreneurial experiences.
