Alumni Enrichment Institutes

For 2021 Fellowship Alumni

A Journey Three Years in the Making

Participants hosted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst had a networking reception with local community members.

On July 16, nearly 200 young leaders from Sub-Saharan Africa arrived in the United States, and while it is certainly impressive to bring exchange participants to the United States during a pandemic, their arrival felt particularly special. This cohort applied for the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders in 2019; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, their program was conducted virtually in 2021, with select Alumni of the cohort only now traveling to the United States for an in-person exchange experience.

A group of people talk in an open atrium
Representative Karen Bass (center) meets Participants hosted by California State University, Dominguez Hills.

 The Alumni Enrichment Institutes were a unique opportunity for 2021 Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumni to travel to the United States to collaborate for three weeks with U.S. counterparts and each other to continue building the professional and leadership skills they developed during their virtual 2021 Leadership Institutes. Following welcome activities in Washington, D.C., they spent two weeks in cohorts of 25 participants at their Alumni Enrichment Institutes located across the United States…

Learn more in this piece from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

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