Live at 6 | Maxwell Fellowship Program

Carmell Boykin Syracuse, N.Y. (CitrusTV) – Since its creation, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs has been selected to receive some of Africa’s brightest future leaders as part of the Mandela Washington Fellowship program.

The program was created by the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). This June,
the Maxwell School will receive 25 of these new rising leaders.

The program is highly-selective and chooses fellows from a pool of over 60,000 applicants. The students come from various Sub-Saharan African countries and have shown commitment towards improving their communities through business, entrepreneurship, civic leadership
and public management. Once selected, they travel to a U.S. university for six weeks to learn about their respective fields.

The Maxwell School, which specializes in executive education, gives a holistic experience. The students not only learn about public policy, but also how it integrates into various disciplines.

Professor John McPeak is a director of the program. He says that by the end of the session, students are able to look at their career goals and have a mapped plan for their next steps.

“We get a lot of media types because we collaborate with Newhouse, more and more we’ve been collaborating with the iSchool so they’re involved” he said.

Another vital aspect to the students’ experience is volunteerism. Throughout their time in Syracuse, the students will work with the VA Medical Center, make and serve sandwiches at All-Saints Church, and work with troubled secondary school students.

Once the six weeks are done at the Maxwell School, all of the fellows from across the U.S. meet in Washington, D.C. They engage in a networking panel with U.S. leaders from various professional fields. Then, they spend six-weeks working with non-governmental U.S.
organizations that align with their professional goals. This is where they put the skills they learned at Maxwell into action.

For more information about the program, visit www.YALI.state.gov.