The Professional Fellows
Virtual Program
VIRTUAL experience
From January through March, fellows engaged in in-depth virtual program. This included various trainings such as a week-long professional development course, a week-long project development course and monthly professional and cultural engagements. Fellows participated in over 28 hours of live trainings and met with 24 US-based professional guest speakers, exploring everything from Time Management to Design Thinking to Entrepreneurial Failure.
VIRTUAL fellowships
All 27 fellows completed a 4-week professional fellowship in one of four cities: Austin, TX; Chicago, IL; New York, NY and Washington, DC. The virtual fellowship included up to 30 hours per week of synchronous and asychronous work, allowing fellows to work closely with their fellowship hosts and teams. Fellows worked across various sectors including business, non-profit, social enterprise and accelerators on a wide range of projects and assignments.
FOLLOW-ON PROJECTS
A noteworthy component of the Professional Fellows Program is the development of a community-based project. During the virtual program, all 27 fellows developed a project aimed at promoting economic empowerment in their home communities or countries. Check out the video below to learn more about the 2021 Cohort's Projects and to see what they will be up to during the remainder of 2021!
WHAT DID THE FELLOWS SAY?
"It has been a great learning experience with fellow Tunisians, Moroccans, Lebanese, Egyptians, Tunisians & Americans. The possibility to connect with other entrepreneurs and change-makers despite the current pandemic situation in the world has been very motivating."
" I have been inspired and changed in many ways on a personal and professional level by learning values and methodologies that would have been rare to find anywhere."
"One of the best parts of the program is the friendships we gained. It helped lot especially during the first tough months of the pandemic. It was a perfect time to schedule time with some fellows and just chat, about the fellowships, how our work was affected, the impacts on our fellowship in the USA... all of that helped me know them more and appreciate each one of them."
"I felt that my ways in terms of team management start to change in a good way after our session about Empathy. I also had a clear vision about the project that I want to implement and how I can have a significant impact starting from a prototype or a first step of a new program about social entrepreneurship and economic empowerment."