Nebraska Ag Connection - Mandela Fellows Forge Global Partnerships at Nebraska

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Mandela Fellows Forge Global Partnerships at Nebraska
Nebraska Ag Connection - 07/20/2018

Jennifer Achiro traveled 8,200 miles to the University of Nebraska--Lincoln with a determination to help her home country. But, for the Ugandan native, the path to do so was not very clear.

Serving as a Mandela Washington Fellow at Nebraska in summer 2017, Achiro joined a group of 25 young African leaders for six weeks of academic courses, meetings and networking sessions, all exploring business and entrepreneurship, civic leadership and public management.

The experience forged lasting relationships in Lincoln -- both at the university and in the community -- that have paid dividends in furthering the mission of her non-profit, Child Mothers Initiative-Uganda. The project empowers rural teenage mothers and increases access to better education for their children by generating income-producing activities with locally available resources.

"The impact the fellowship has had on me and our organization cannot be measured," Achiro said. "It taught me to act locally but think globally.

"While at Nebraska, I made connections with the staff, students and the community. These connections have helped grow our organization income and exposure."

Two of those connections were with Linda Major, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs, and Linda Moody, assistant director of Civic Engagement. Both suggested Achiro work with students to increase exposure of her organization.

Major reached out to Nancy Mitchell, professor of advertising, to see if her students could help. The undergraduates in Mitchell's freshman honors course, Ethics of Persuasion, tackled Achiro's marketing questions while furthering their education.

"I think working on a real-world project like this, developing a plan and thinking critically about how to help somebody is good for students because it's more complicated," Mitchell said. "Beyond the experiential learning opportunity, it was also an opportunity to think globally, which the students said they really enjoyed."

Achiro said working with the students was the highlight of her post-fellowship experience.

"The students worked so tirelessly to come up with marketing strategy that we didn't have before," she said. "As a result, our sales have increased and more children have been enrolled into our school fees program."

The Mandela Washington Fellowship is the flagship program of the U.S. Department of State's Young African Leaders Initiative and brings 700 community leaders from 20 countries in Africa to take part in programs at 27 elite academic institutions, chosen as host sites. Nebraska is in its second year as a host institution.

The new class of Mandela Fellows started the Civic Leadership Institute at Nebraska June 20, and Major and Moody said they're seeing new mentorships, collaborations and friendships being formed.

Jennifer Agunloye, a 2018 fellow from Nigeria, said her Nebraska experience is laying a foundation that will be beneficial for her organization, which also helps young women find opportunities.

Agunloye said she plans to apply for a reciprocal exchange and bring a Nebraska mentor to Nigeria. The reciprocal program is a post-fellowship opportunity that fellows can apply for through the U.S. State Department.

"A lot of our training here has been activity based. We're really involved and that makes us think, reflect and engage," Agunloye said. "I want to invite someone from Nebraska to come to Nigeria and train our staff and interact with our community utilizing those methods, especially in the areas of leadership and entrepreneurship."

Andrew Zimbroff, extension specialist in textiles and apparel entrepreneurship, completed a reciprocal exchange in the Republic of Seychelles in 2017, where he taught an intensive entrepreneurship course.

Zimbroff encourages colleagues to do the exchanges because they make positive impacts and build global partnerships between the university and host countries.

Moody said future Huskers also gain from the partnerships built through the Mandela Washington Fellowships. Those include classroom projects such as the one Mitchell's students completed.

"We've had several embassies from the countries of Mandela Fellows reach out to us about undergraduate education," Moody said. "We're working with those countries to develop future study abroad opportunities."

The 2018 Fellows are celebrating the 100th birthday of the program's namesake, Nelson Mandela, July 18 with a tree planting and a reception at the Midwestern African Museum of Art. The Nebraska portion of the fellowship will wrap July 29.

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