by Tiffany Williams-Cobleigh, program assistant, Program of African Studies
The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), empowers young leaders from Sub-Saharan Africa through academic coursework, leadership training, mentoring, networking, professional opportunities, and community engagement. Since 2014, the U.S. Department of State has supported nearly 4,400 young leaders from 49 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa to develop their leadership skills and foster connections and collaborations with U.S. professionals. The Program of African Studies has hosted fellows on Northwestern’s Evanston campus for this fellowship since the program’s beginning in 2014 – except for last year when the fellowship was cancelled and this year that the fellowship was held virtually due to the pandemic.
Last year was a disappointment to not be hosting the fellowship and missing the opportunity to interact with a bright, diverse YALI cohort, but as disappointing as it was for us, it was a much greater letdown to the fellows who were selected to be 2020 participants and notified in early March 2020. Northwestern hosts 25 of the 700 fellows who were told they must wait a year for their opportunity to travel to the U.S. for cultural exchange and professional development. When there were still uncertainties in March 2021 across the U.S. let alone across Africa, the State Department decided that the fellowship would be virtual this year.
Screenshot of YALI class.
For the past several years, PAS has worked with Kellogg School of Management to host the fellowship at Northwestern, and both offices quickly switched gears to develop virtual content for this summer. It was challenging, constantly getting new updates and guidelines from D.C. about exactly how programming needed to be scheduled and done, all the while considering the different time zones across Africa as our fellows could come from Cabo Verde to Mauritius and everywhere in between. Luckily we had faculty in Kellogg willing to develop needed asynchronous business content as well as deliver synchronous classes throughout the summer for the professional development aspect while staff at PAS supplied virtual cultural and community service activities for the cultural exchange aspect.
As challenging as it was to shift all of our programming virtual this yar and as sad as it was that fellows did not have the opportunity to visit Evanston and make in-person connections, we were able to easily include YALI fellows from past summers in virtual networking events which produced great connections for cross-country collaboration. We also paired fellows one-on-one with coaches to help them with their focus project, and since the program this year was virtual, that made it easier to schedule meetings in a way since the issue of transportation logistics was removed.
All in all, I think fellows had a good experience in the fellowship this year though the cultural exchange and networking were not nearly as rich as they would have been in person. But the certificate they receive is the same as the one they would have received in person, and that piece of paper unlocks doors to career advancement as well as the connections they made. Hopefully one day they will have the opportunity to visit Evanston and the people they saw on the Zoom meetings, and we will be more than happy to welcome them.
This article appeared in the PAS newlsetter Fall 2021, Volume 32, Number 1