The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders is the flagship program of the U.S. government’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. Since 2014, nearly 4,200 young leaders from every country in Sub-Saharan Africa have participated in the Fellowship. Mandela Washington Fellows, between the ages of 25 and 35, are accomplished innovators and leaders in their communities and countries. To learn more, visit exchanges.state.gov or eca.state.gov.
In 2019, UGA became a Fellowship Institute Partner and hosted its first cohort of Fellows on the UGA campus. The Mandela Washington Fellowship is delivered through a collaborative effort between the Office of Global Engagement, the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, and the African Studies Institute at Franklin College.
Meet the Fellows
Since 2019, the Civic Engagement Leadership Institute at the University of Georgia has hosted 124 fellows on our campus.
View Fellow alumni profiles below by selecting the University of Georgia from the drop down list.
Featured Civic Engagement Institute Alumni (click to learn more)
2023 Fellows
2023 marks the fifth year of the Mandela Washington Fellowship Civic Engagement Institute at UGA. Over 6-weeks, Fellows engaged with the local Athens and UGA community, with site visits to organizations like Extra Special People and Community & Chess.
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2022 Fellows
This cohort’s arrival marked the first in-person Civic Engagement Institute at UGA since its inception in 2019.
2021 Fellows
In Summer 2021, UGA hosted a complete 6-week Mandela Washington Fellowship Institute, fully online. Although Fellows were virtual, they still engaged in community service, cultural connections in the Athens area, and networked with UGA faculty and staff.
2020 Fellows
As a result of the pandemic, and with the safety and well-being of Fellows and Partners as the highest priority, the U.S. Department of State postponed the 2020 Mandela Washington Fellowship until summer 2021.
During this time, a select few Institutional Partners, including UGA, developed enriching virtual programming for 2019 Alumni including:
2019 Alumni Networking and Reunion
This was a virtual social and networking program to reconnect Fellows with each other and to share updates on their current work that can be promoted through the Fellowship Alumni Network.
Increasing the Effectiveness of Public Health Campaigns and Crisis Communication: Lessons from COVID-19 Experiences and Community Engagement
The Fellowship Team at UGA brought aboard some of UGA’s top Public Health experts to discuss with Fellows how they can have a positive impact on their local communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Public Service Media Development
In partnership with the UGA Grady College of Journalism, this programming encouraged Fellows of NGOs, local government organizations, and other organizations that work in community-oriented projects to create their own audio-visual products, to distribute them to targeted audiences, and to develop sustainable business models for the production and distribution of these materials.
2019 Fellows
The University of Georgia became a Mandela Washington Fellowship Institute Partner in 2019, and this Institute includes the pioneering cohort of fellows.
This is a program of the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government, administered by IREX. The University of Georgia is an implementing partner.
