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Category: Mandela Washington Fellowship

All are welcome: Mandela Washington Fellows Graduation Ceremony

Posted on by Staley School of Leadership

The Staley School of Leadership at Kansas State University invites the public to the Mandela Washington Fellowship Graduation Ceremony. Join us 4-6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 25, at the Leadership Studies building (1300 Mid-Campus Drive N. Manhattan, KS, 66506). Please RSVP here.

A posed group photo of the 2024 cohort of Fellows from the Opening Ceremony.

Guests will enjoy brief reflections of each Fellow’s work and their experiences during their six weeks at K-State and in Kansas. After the program, cocktails and heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served in the lobby, with time to mingle and connect one last time before they return home.

We encourage the community to attend to gain understanding of the impact of this program on both the Fellows and our surrounding communities. The relationships and partnerships formed by the Fellows will continue to foster positive global impacts. Learn more about the 2024 K-State cohort here.

K-State and the Staley School have hosted 25 Mandela Washington Fellows for a Civic Leadership Institute. The Mandela Washington Fellowship is the flagship program of the U.S. Department of State’s Young African Leaders Initiative. Fellows come from more than 20 different Sub-Saharan African nations and were selected for the program because of their civic leadership work.

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The Mandela Washington Fellowship is a program of the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by IREX.  For more information about the Mandela Washington Fellowship, visit mandelawashingtonfellowship.org and join the conversation at #YALI2024.

Building leadership practice to impact climate change networks in Ghana

Posted on by Staley School of Leadership

Kerry Priest, Ph.D., professor in the Staley School of Leadership, and Shaibu Fuseini, 2023 Mandela Washington Fellow Alumnus and co-founder of AgricConnect, were recently awarded a Reciprocal Exchange Grant to support network building among climate change leaders in Ghana.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders—the flagship program of the U.S. Government’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI)—was created in 2014 to invest in the next generation of African leaders.

The Reciprocal Exchange component provides U.S. citizens and Fellowship Alumni with the opportunity to build upon strategic partnerships and professional connections developed during the Fellowship through collaborative projects. These exchange programs are a unique opportunity to implement a co-designed project for the purpose of forming lasting partnerships, expanding markets and networks, and increasing mutual understanding between the United States and Africa.

Left to right: Sipasi Olalekan Ayodele, Kerry Priest, Shaibu Fuseini

Priest and Fuseini’s project was entitled, Fostering Community Leadership: Cultivating Innovative Skills to Tackle Climate Challenges in Ghana’s Agricultural Sector. The Climate Change Workshops took place June 1-5, 2024, in Kumasi, Ghana. The facilitation team for this project also included Sipasi Olalekan Ayodele, 2019 Mandela Washington Fellow Alumnus and doctoral candidate and graduate research assistant in K-State’s Department of Horticulture and Nature Resources. Jon Ulmer, Ph.D., and Nellie Hill, Ph.D., in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication served as consultants on the program design. Continue reading “Building leadership practice to impact climate change networks in Ghana” →

Networking to make global connections

Posted on by Staley School of Leadership

All members of the Kansas State University and Manhattan community are invited to make global connections as a member of the 2024 K-State Mandela Washington Fellows Peer Network.

A reception will take place 3-5 p.m. Wednesday, June 26, at the Leadership Studies Building. 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.

For questions, email the K-State Mandela Washington Fellows coordinators at mandelafellows@ksu.edu.

Campus community invited to engage with 2024 Mandela Washington Fellows

Posted on by Staley School of Leadership

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. 

Revealing how to lead change in Africa by Africans: A review of It Takes a Village 

Posted on by Staley School of Leadership

In this book review, Chibuzor Azubuike takes a deep dive into It Takes a Village: Leading Social Change in Africa (2023) by Nigerian scholar Onyedikachi Ekwerike, Ph.D., who is currently a lecturer at the Institute for Leadership Advancement in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia.  

This begins with a foreword from Nyasha GuramatunhuCooper, Ph.D. She writes with the endearment of a mother who is proud of her son’s achievement, and yet firmly charges readers, using parables, to not only read this book but implement Ekwerike’s submission. As a Zimbabwean leadership scholar, she is excited to read a leadership book by a fellow African, given that African scholars are under-represented in leadership curriculum and literature. She, however stated that she could be scared if anyone reads this book and does not take positive actions towards social change. 

Photo of the book cover: It Takes a VillageIn the book’s introduction, Ekwerike recounts his own story. Through leading a mental health organization in Nigeria, as well as being part of leadership development programs like the Mandela Washington Fellowship, he realized that there was a need for more in order to do more, which led him to a doctoral program and ultimately to writing this book. He went through the learning process and then wrote this book to teach young people how to learn social change effectively. This book is a product of qualitative research work for his Ph.D. dissertation.  

In chapter one, The Problem with Nigeria, Africa, you will notice that Nigeria is crossed out, coupled with the use of illustrations. Both styles are used in Okechukwu Ofili’s books, a Nigerian author who writes with sarcasm. In Ekwerike’s book, Nigeria represents Africa, as he says he is providing a holistic approach, while the context and research for this book is centered in Nigeria, the problems and processes to address those problems apply across the continent.     Continue reading “Revealing how to lead change in Africa by Africans: A review of It Takes a Village “ →

2022 Mandela Washington Fellows: Leading for Pan-Africanism 

Posted on by Staley School of Leadership

The Mandela Washington Fellowship is a flagship program of the U.S. department of state to support young African leaders. The program includes Entrepreneurship and Public Administration tracks, and the Staley School hosts an annual Civic Leadership Institute.

The Fellows come from diverse backgrounds and are doing incredible work to impact lives and transform their communities. In this blog, former Fellow Elizabeth Chunda analyses the employing of new leadership models and styles in advancing the pan-African agenda. She explores ways in which young leaders are advancing pan-Africanism in comparison to generations that have come before them.  

Pan-Africanism, which started in the 19th century, is now becoming overly pronounced and appreciated. Pan-Africanism now in modern times differs from Pan-Africanism when it first started, but it still has the same goal: to unify Africa, to bring unity amongst Black people, and to enrich the continent with development. Modern Pan-Africanism has continued to promote solidarity amongst Africans and Black people in general. 

Leaders in previous generations were leading the transition and progression of the continent. Their aim was to fight racism, inequality, and colonialism, but they were caught in Neo-colonialism or greed and corruption. Leading then was challenging because of the obstacles in their way; for instance, the previous generations did not have the civic platforms or freedoms of participation compared to the young leaders today. The difference in leadership now and leadership then can be seen in the number of young leaders that are leading. Many young people’s voices are being heard; they are standing up for what they believe in and standing up for what they want for their futures. They are more attached to defending their African heritage and identity, and most of these young leaders are not even aware that they are pushing forward the Pan-African Agenda. Ifor (2016) explained that this movement is not only limited to political development but also individual leadership development and this kind of development undoubtedly will project the continent to first world status.  Continue reading “2022 Mandela Washington Fellows: Leading for Pan-Africanism “ →

Cultivating Leadership for a Thriving Future: Staley School scholars present at international conference

Posted on by Staley School of Leadership

Kansas State University faculty and doctoral students participated in the 25th annual International Leadership Association (ILA) Global Conference. The conference took place online Oct. 3-4, 2023, and in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Oct. 12-15.

The ILA is the largest worldwide professional community committed to leadership scholarship, practice, development, and education. Their mission is to advance leadership knowledge and practice for a better world.

The conference theme, Cultivating Leadership for a Thriving Future, speaks to the essential role leadership educators, practitioners, and researchers play in convening and holding space, fostering rich and open dialogue, and creating opportunities for mutual learning and appreciation of different perspectives and ways of being. Through this kind of leadership, we can build a future based on hope, mutual respect and the common good.

Staley School scholars participated in both the in-person and online sections of the conference. Their scholarship reflects the Staley School of Leadership’s research priorities: advancing leadership learning and development, building civic capacity, and leading change.

“The scholarship presented by K-State students and faculty reflect the kind of collaboration and innovation needed to advance leadership education in higher education and public leadership research and practice,” said Trisha Gott, Ed.D., assistant professor and associate dean of the Staley School of Leadership.

Following is a list of the presentations and their contributors: Continue reading “Cultivating Leadership for a Thriving Future: Staley School scholars present at international conference” →