The Staley School of Leadership at Kansas State University is honored to host a cohort of 25 leaders representing the Mandela Washington Fellowship. Established in 2014, the Mandela Washington Fellowship is the flagship program of the U.S. Department of State’s Young African Leaders Initiative. Each summer, more than 700 leaders, ages 25-35, from across sub-Saharan Africa are selected to broaden their knowledge and build upon their impacts through study at colleges and universities across the United States. Selected from over 37,000 applications, participants in the 2024 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders represent the extraordinary promise of an emerging generation of entrepreneurs, activists, and public officials. The Staley School has proudly hosted fellows since 2016.
The Fellows will be on campus from June 19 to July 28. We invite the university community to engage with the fellowship in the following ways:
Welcome Reception
4-6 p.m. Friday, June 21: RSVP for the Welcome Reception
Attend the Mandela Washington Fellows Welcoming Reception on Friday, June 21, from 4-6 p.m. in the lobby of the Leadership Studies Building. The event will feature welcoming remarks from fellowship coordinators and instructors, refreshments, and networking with the fellows. We hope you’ll join in providing a warm welcome to our cohort!
Participate in the fellowship’s Peer Network
3-5 p.m. Wednesday, June 26: RSVP for the Networking Reception
While they are in Manhattan, we hope to connect our Fellows to a professional network in the local community. This network will be a way for the Fellows to connect with community members who share a passion for civic leadership and positive social change. We believe this network can and will cultivate relationships focused on sharing best practices, working through leadership challenges focused on change, and building cross-cultural professional relationships.
The Staley School will organize a few formal meetings and have set aside additional times for the Fellows to meet with members of the network. Outside of those times, you may hear from Fellows, and we invite you to contact them as well for coffee meetings, dinner invitations, weekend excursions, etc.
If you would like to engage with the Fellows through the peer network this summer, please fill out this short survey. Responses will be collected until 5 p.m. Monday, June 17.
We hope you will join us for one or more of these unique community opportunities. Additionally, stay tuned for details for the Graduation Ceremony, 4-6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 25.
Thank you for considering this opportunity to network with these outstanding change makers. For questions, email Catherine Obiribea Ofori-Bah at cooforibah@ksu.edu.
