Lehigh University in Bethlehem is playing host this summer to 25 of 700 participants in the national 2024 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders.
Scott Koerwer, executive director of the Iacocca Institute at Lehigh, which promotes international business education, said it is an honor to be included in the program, which is spread between 28 institutions across the country.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the Mandela Washington Fellowship is the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative, which provides leadership training, academic coursework, mentoring, networking and professional opportunities with a strong emphasis on community engagement.
This is the 10 th year the initiative has been held. Lehigh has participated in six of those years, through a competitive selection process for host institutions.
“Lehigh does this because it introduces us to critical parts of the world emerging nations that have challenges we want our students to be able to address that might be different from what we’re experiencing here,” Koerwer said.
During their six-week stay the young leaders will travel to New York City and Philadelphia but will also meet with local elected officials and business leaders to discuss how different challenges, such as food and housing insecurity, can overlap with other socio-economic issues and how to face such challenges holistically.
“We take on issues happening right here in our community, but we also think about these things in a global context,” Koerwer said. “I think we get more out of this than the participants.”
One of the Young African Leaders, Diana Namases, of Namibia, was a 2022 participation in the fellowship and has come back as a coach and guide for this year’s participants.
“I really gained a vast amount of information on innovation,” Namases said. “It helped me secure contracts when I got back to my country and helped me make a positive impact back in my community.”
Koerwer said that while it is a very intensive learning program, they also have fun.
He said his favorite event is a NASCAR-themed teambuilding program where the participant act as the “Pit Crew” to change the wheels on an actual race car.
“It shows how different problems intermingle between different systems and how to come up with solutions,” he said.
He said people with the wheels need to interact with the people with the jack and people with the drill and remember that their “customer” in the scenario is the driver and needs to be communicated with as well.
“This is what happens in organizations,” Koerwer said.
Namases said she found that particular exercise to be very educational.
“It was an interesting challenge. We had a conversation about it after we got back to our dorm. You need to be able to work with your coworker or your staff member or your customer and you need to be patient,” she said. “It helps you to restructure yourself in how you do things.”
Since it began, the fellowship has helped nearly 6,500 young leaders from every country in Sub-Saharan Africa have benefited from the program.
Funding is provided by the U.S. Government and administered by IREX.
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