Twenty-five leaders aged 25-35 will be hosted by the Clark Atlanta University – School of Business as part of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), for the third consecutive year.
The YALI, which was established by President Barack Obama through the U.S. Department of State, began on June 17th. The 25 leaders will take part in a six-week intensive program of academic, entrepreneurship and leadership training at the CAU campus.
Obama’s Young African Leadership Initiative intends to empower sub-Saharan African leaders through leadership training, networking and professional opportunities. It is open to fellows with established records of inspiring positive change in their communities and countries.
Although just 25 fellows will be staying at CAU, they are part of a larger group of 1,000 fellows being hosted by fourteen different higher education institutions throughout the U.S. At the end of the six week intensive, fellows will attend a Presidential Summit in Washington, D.C., and some individuals will stay for six more weeks of professional development training.
The program at Clark Atlanta was developed by economics professor Mesfin Bezuneh, who works closely with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational affairs. The six-week CAU program will invite fellows to study innovation, green entrepreneurship, decision-making tools and human design thinking, among others.
The effects of the program can have impressive and important results. According to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the work of a single CAU Fellow in 2014 — Temitayo Etomi — has employed and trained over 100 Nigerians with the intention of creating 1.2 million new jobs for Nigerian youth by 2020.