Aspen New Voices Fellowship Announces Call for 2014 Nominations
mke...@westga.edu
The Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellowship today announced a call for nominations for the 2014 Fellowship class. The groundbreaking program is designed to amplify expert voices from Africa and other parts of the developing world in the global development discussion. The Fellowship initiative, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, offers development experts a year-long program of media support, training, research, and writing under the guidance of experienced mentors and trainers to help them reach a broader global audience through both traditional and new media and speaking engagements.
Candidates for the 12-14 Fellowships awarded each year must be experts in fields relating to global development, ranging from global health and food security to governance, education and social entrepreneurship. Fellows must be from a developing country, and ideally work and live in their country of origin or another developing country.
“Experts from developing countries are underrepresented in the global development discussion despite the fact that they often have the clearest, most direct and most personal understanding of the challenges and opportunities ahead,” said Andrew Quinn, director of the New Voices Fellowship at the Aspen Institute. “Our program aims to promote their stories, and connect them to opinion makers around the world.”
Over the course of a year, the Fellowship works to prepare and support Fellows to become recognized thought leaders, helping amplify their insights and ideas rooted in experience on the ground. They will be given training and support to speak at major events; write conversation-starting op-eds and thought pieces for major outlets; and create social media platforms. The Fellowship is non-resident, but includes travel to training workshops as well as opportunities for travel to select international conferences.
The recipients of the inaugural Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellowship are 12 accomplished African men and women from 10 different countries across the continent. They are entrepreneurs, doctors, community leaders, academics, and educators with on-the-ground experience on a range of issues: medicine, HIV/AIDS, gender equality, public health, civil unrest, climate change, and poverty.
Current Fellows have had their work featured in media sites ranging from CNN and Al Jazeera to the Huffington Post, Think Africa Press, and AllAfrica.com. Fellows have been interviewed by news organizations including the BBC, CNBC, and National Public Radio (NPR), and been invited to speak at events including TED.