Gloria Majiga-Kamoto, a 2019 Mandela Washington Fellow at Kansas State University, recently received the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize for her work implementing Malawi’s ban on thin plastics. Her journey began in Malawi when a program for farmers that provided goats to them began to see rising deaths caused by goats eating plastic bags leftover from roadside snacks.
Majiga-Kamoto, originally from Malawi, came to K-State for the Mandela Washington Fellowship in 2019 with goals to lead change at home by learning from Americans and other professionals from throughout Africa. Her vision for the reduction or elimination of single-use plastics became a driving factor in her work that led her down the path to impacting change on larger scales.
“Gloria is a visionary and a changemaker. When we worked with her in 2019, she was focused on advancing policy and shifting attitudes toward the environment. It is powerful to see her impact on the region and the world as she leads change for a healthier community environment.” said Trisha Gott, Ed.D., associate director and assistant professor for the Staley School of Leadership Studies. “It’s no surprise to me and we are absolutely thrilled to see her accomplishments and the recognition for her work.”
This week, the Staley School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University was thrilled to welcome 25 of Africa’s emerging civic leaders for the 2021 Mandela Washington Fellowship. Due to the ongoing global pandemic, this year’s institute will be held virtually. K-State has the privilege of hosting and engaging these civic engagement leaders for a six-week Leadership Institute.
The 25 young African leaders hosted by the Staley School this year come from 17 different and very diverse countries, including Angola, Benin, Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Principe, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The Mandela Washington Fellows come into the Leadership Institute with a wide range of experiences, with 5-12 years of leading change in areas such as disability rights, gender equality, education, criminal justice, peacebuilding, food security, and agricultural development.
In this series, we will be highlighting the vital work that these fellows are doing to make progress on tough challenges facing the African continent and, indeed, our world. This series will also include reflections of fellows on their experiences during the Leadership Institute and important takeaways.
Onyedikachi Ekwerike, Ph.D., is a 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumnus, a graduate of the K-State Leadership Communication doctoral program, and the author of blog posts highlighting the 2021 Fellows.
Kansas State University is proud to announce its selection as an Institute Partner for the 2021 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. Beginning June 21, K-State will virtually engage 25 of Africa’s bright, emerging Civic Engagement leaders for a six-week Leadership Institute, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship, the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), empowers young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training, mentoring, networking, professional opportunities, and local community engagement. YALI was created in 2010 and supports young Africans as they spur economic growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security across the African continent. Since 2014, the U.S. Department of State has supported nearly 4,400 young leaders from across 49 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to develop their leadership skills and foster connections and collaboration with U.S. professionals through the Fellowship. The cohort of Fellows hosted by K-State’s Staley School of Leadership Studies will be part of a group of 700 Mandela Washington Fellows hosted by 26 educational institutions across the United States. Continue reading “Kansas State University’s Staley School of Leadership Studies to virtually host 2021 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders”→
Kansas State University is proud to announce that it has been selected as an Institute Partner for the 2020 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. Beginning in mid-June, K-State will host 25 of Africa’s bright, emerging Civic Engagement leaders for a six-week Leadership Institute, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.
This summer, the Staley School of Leadership Studies had the honor of hosting 25 of Africa’s best and brightest young leaders for a Leadership in Civic Engagement Institute through the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. The Mandela Washington Fellowshipis the flagship program of the U.S. Department of State’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). YALI was created in 2010 to support young African leaders as they spur growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Among these fellows were politicians, philanthropists, environmentalists, best-selling authors and humanitarians. They were citizens of 20 different countries, practiced various religions, spoke different languages, but all had the same infectious love to dance and passion for leadership. Four of these fellows have graciously chosen to share their stories, providing unique insight into what the Mandela Washington Fellowship looked like for them before, during and after their time at K-State.
“I am a politician as well as a businesswoman” explains Linda K. Sibs. “I am working on being a voice for the unusual and uncommon voices in the constituency I reside in.” Linda lives in Zimbabwe and spends her time fighting for the rights of her fellow citizens.
When asked how the Mandela Washington Fellowship influenced the way she approached her work, Linda said, “I now practice strengths-based leadership. I have become more receptive in picking up and identifying strengths of those around me in order to be a more functional unit.”
Prior to the institute, Linda’s main motivation for pursuing the program was finding technical solutions and skills to simply make her a better candidate for public office. However, she gained so much more than that.
“Taking part in the [Mandela Washington Fellowship] gave me foundational leadership training that will develop and mold me into a much more competent member of parliament in the future.”
Linda believes she is now better equipped with the knowledge and experience to be a culturally-sensitive, understanding and successful leader in her country.
“I am so grateful and feel like the luckiest human in the world to be an alumni of the Mandela Washington Fellowship and the Staley School of Leadership Studies.”
Known in the cohort by his last name, Olalekan Sipasi has helped to impact hundreds of thousands of people through his organization, ProtectOzone.
“I have taken leadership in the space of food insecurity in my home country, Nigeria, where I train children, youth, women and farmers in sustainable agricultural practices to alleviate extreme poverty.” says Sipasi. “Having been blessed with so much fertile land, natural resources and man-power, we should not have any business with extreme poverty and hidden hunger.”
Sipasi’s greatest take-away from the Mandela Washington Fellowship was the importance of active listening.
“I realized I don’t listen to people,” Sipasi explains, “ I learned during the fellowship that you don’t learn when you don’t listen to people.”
Sipasi reports that this newfound respect for active listening has greatly impacted his organization, as intelligent ideas are being nurtured that might not have been noticed if he hadn’t taken the time to listen to his employees.
As Sipasi thinks back on his time as a Mandela Washington Fellow, he is filled with gratitude.
“I just want to thank the Staley School of Leadership Studies for giving us [the opportunity] to connect with Kansas State University and the Manhattan community. This has brought a great and life-changing opportunity to me.”
“I am a human rights lawyer who has, for the last six years, dedicated her service to one of the most vulnerable groups globally — refugees,” Hortense Khayisia Minishi explains. A proud mother of three, Hortense lives in Kenya and works at an NGO called RefugePoint.
“Refugees are skilled and have so much to contribute to their communities [if they are] given the right legal and socio-economic environment,” explains Hortense.
Before the Mandela Washington Fellowship, Hortense says she would constantly look to authority figures to exercise leadership.
“I grew up exposed to an environment where leadership was so much masked with titles or positions.” Hortense elaborates, “During the Mandela Washington Fellowship, I learned that leadership is [about] influencing others and that anyone can lead anytime, anywhere.”
Hortense believes her greatest take-away from her institute experience is that leadership is a process.
“Leadership requires us to learn, relearn and practice.”
Hortense hopes to use the skills and experiences she gained from the Mandela Washington Fellowship to influence refugee and migrant policies on a global scale.
Though there were constant stressors of being away from her home and family for so long, Hortense loved her experience at K-State.
“In it all, I was assured of one thing— that I was surrounded by people who believed in me, loved me, cared for me, were championing me on, challenging me and wishing me the very best.”
“For more than three years, I have been focusing my strengths on youth empowerment and capacity building,” says N’zoret Innocent Assoman.
Innocent lives in Cote D’Ivoire and is a country ambassador for PYAFRICA (Progressive Youths for African Empowerment and Leadership Initiative).
“I think youths who constitute the heart of the next generation need to be nurtured with proven skills and competencies.”
Innocent believes the Mandela Washington Fellowship gave him confidence and challenged him to consider issues from various perspectives, making him a better mentor and leader.
“One of my biggest take-aways from the Mandela Washington Fellowship is: If you are not practicing what you are learning then you are learning something else.”
Innocent is confident he will use what he learned in the institute to build strong relationships and a sense of community in his workplace.
Among some of Innocent’s favorite memories from the Mandela Washington Fellowship are: the opportunity to meet Governor Laura Kelly, celebrating the Fourth of July and sharing in community meals with the fellows and institute staff.
“[It would take] pages to relate my stay,” concludes Innocent. “K-State is the best institute of the fellowship because our experience was unique and great. I am KSU Wildcat forever.”
2019 Mandela Washington Fellows
Two months post-institute and the Staley School of Leadership Studies greatly misses its 2019 cohort of Mandela Washington Fellows. The distance between us may be great, but we are enjoying being a witness to their successes from afar. Though we have all gone our separate ways, we will always be connected by this incredible experience.
On one of the final days of the 2019 institute, a fellow by the name of Babacar Diop told me, “We are one people. Do not ever believe we have borders. We are together.”
That, we are.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by IREX. Kansas State University was a sub-grantee of IREX in the summer of 2019 and implemented a U.S.-based Leadership Institute as a part of the Fellowship. For more information about the Mandela Washington Fellowship, please visit mandelawashingtonfellowship.org.
It’s hard to believe that it was just a year ago that I was graduating from college and stepping into a whole new adventure. While I had secure plans for the summer, I was in the thick of searching for a job and still very unsure of how I would use my degree in public relations and my minor in leadership studies beyond July. It would have been easy for me to feel panicked by the unknown, but to the contrary, I was excited to step into the summer and see what doors might open.
Dr. Trisha Gott, Associate Director and Assistant Professor, and Dr. Tim Steffensmeier, Associate Professor and Director of Research at the Kansas Leadership Center (KLC) traveled to Dakar, Senegal this past March to engage in meaningful work with leaders and cyber-activists.
With open arms and friendly faces, Tamara Bauer, leadership studies instructor, and Kait Long, program administrator, were welcomed into the country of Ghana this October. Bauer and Long had the unique opportunity to facilitate adaptive and strength-based leadership training to African leaders working in both the environmental and health-care sectors while deepening their relationship with two of our Kansas State Mandela Washington Fellows graduates: Ruby Goka and Stephen Ofori.
Gloria Majiga-Kamoto, a 2019 Mandela Washington Fellow at Kansas State University, recently received the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize for her work implementing Malawi’s ban on thin plastics. Her journey began in Malawi when a program for farmers that provided goats to them began to see rising deaths caused by goats eating plastic bags leftover from roadside snacks.
Onyedikachi Ekwerike, Ph.D., is a 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumnus, a graduate of the K-State Leadership Communication doctoral program, and the author of blog posts highlighting the 2021 Fellows.
