A group of 25 young leaders from Africa will spend six weeks in downtown Phoenix to explore issues such as education, disability resources, gender and immigration as part of the inaugural Washington Fellowship.
ASU was one of 20 universities selected to host fellows from the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders exchange program, said Heather Beshears, director of communications for ASU’s College of Public Programs. A total of 500 young leaders will be at schools around the country taking leadership courses and discussing topics such as conservation and ecology, immigration, human rights and political engagement. Each school is designated to focus on civic leadership, business and entrepreneurship, or public management — the fellows at ASU will study civic leadership.
The fellows will spend six weeks in Arizona working with faculty programs and nonprofit businesses to learn “new tricks of the trade,” said Jessica Smith, web communications specialist for the College of Public Programs.
At the end of the program, all 500 fellows will go to Washington, D.C. for a summit where they will have the opportunity to interact with President Barack Obama, Smith said.
Cindy-Lee Cloete, a fellow from South Africa, started a joint group to “promote leadership for youth in South Africa,” she said, adding that she will take the skills she learns in the program back to the organization.
Cloete said she will be going into schools and working with communities to teach leadership skills while in Phoenix and Washington, D.C.
Though the summit marks the end of the fellowship, a few of the fellows, including Cloete, will be staying in Washington, D.C. for an additional three months to intern at various organizations. Cloete will intern at the North American Association for Environmental Education.
In addition to attending lectures and working with nonprofit organizations, the fellows have taken time to explore Arizona. They recently visited Tucson, where they met with law-enforcement and Border Patrol agents to explore immigration issues. They will travel to Flagstaff before the program ends.
“It’s so diverse. I love the vibe,” Cloete said of downtown Phoenix, noting that she was surprised at the friendliness of the residents, something that reminds her of the friendly and open people of South Africa.
Mike Shafer, an ASU School of Social Work professor and director of the Center For Applied Behavioral Health Policy, said the program is “terribly exciting,” both personally and for ASU.
Shafer, who instructs the fellows during “Essential Questions” seminar classes, became involved with the program after visiting Africa twice this past year. He said it is an excellent opportunity to help shape civil society, and ASU’s involvement is one reason to be a proud Sun Devil.
The Young African Leaders Initiative website states that the “Washington Fellows’ U.S. based training will be only the beginning of the United States’ long-term investment in these young leaders. … The investment in young leaders will continue in Africa with opportunities for networking, ongoing professional development, seed funding for entrepreneurs and community service.”
Beshears said the Washington Fellows Program “fits within the College of Public Programs and ASU,” and the university is excited to be a part of the program.
Other schools participating in the program include Yale University, Dartmouth College and Northwestern University. The fellowship program is expected to end in late July.
Contact the reporter at Samantha.Shotzbarger@asu.edu
