Mandela Washington Fellowship 2023: Here is How I Tirelessly and Relentlessly Got into this Opportunity!
Have you ever heard of Mandela Washington Fellowship? Well, as entrepreneurs, one character we all celebrate is identifying and trying out opportunities that would propel our social businesses forward and bring us meaningful connections or partnerships.
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Back to opportunities, one of the most prestigious opportunities is Mandela Washington Fellowship, a yearly fellowship that offers a fully-paid 6-week USA experience or even more to various young leaders from different countries across Africa. Since 2014, the fellowship has hosted more than 5,000 young leaders from about 50 African countries, taking in about 700 fellows each year. It embarks on three major themes: entrepreneurship, civic engagement, and public leadership.
Well, for the 3rd time, I applied for this opportunity, and I luckily hit the jackpot. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am a Mandela Washington Fellowship Participant 2022/2023.
In this brief article, I will share my relentless journey to this victory and, possibly, inspire you who has never tried or is about to give up trying to just keep going, maybe a little differently! Ready? Let’s give it a roll!
NB: Details (including all the beautiful photos) about Mandela Washington Fellowship 2023 are coming up in Mandela Washington Fellowship Series here on #MiklahBlog, beginning with the next article that is exploring all that happened during our pre-fellowship orientation event.
NB: If you want one-on-one support when applying for this and many more other opportunities, explore our program, Miklah Funding Program.
Mandela Washington Fellowship 2017: How it all began!
I had always longed to be in the USA. So when I came across this opportunity, I tried my luck. Apparently, this YALI flagship program started as early as 2014. However, for some reasons, one being the fact that I really had not figured out any other serious purpose beyond my job as a nurse, I had not noticed it until 2017.
When 2017 applications were up, I tried applying for the opportunity.
I think I was an amateur in many ways and my application didn’t carry much weight! Miklah was The Complete You Project, and it had no clear business model, lol. As you would expect, I did not make it past the application evaluation phase. That was the first fail! Importantly, I failed forward!
I then stopped applying again. There is a year the competition didn’t happen or was probably virtual, probably 2019/2020 due to COVID-19 lockdowns. I didn’t want to try this opportunity when it was available virtually. So I had to forego that year!
Mandela Washington Fellowship 2021/2022
I didn’t give up! In 2021/2022, the Mandela Washington Fellowship returned. I tried and applied again!
Now, for this fellowship, there was too much competition. In general, they are always competitive, and they get crazier each year. Why?
First, the program is incredibly awesome, attracting the best of the best! Secondly, while the program takes as many as it can, it is fair to still assert that it takes in very few leaders across many nations, making it very competitive. Personally, I think they wouldn’t solve the competitiveness even if they increased the number of their in-takes! Thousands of young leaders per country apply, and this can only get bigger if they announced additional positions. Nevertheless, increasing the number of available posts wouldn’t hurt, would it?
In brief, you have national competition across your fellow countrymen, but the same is happening across other countries, with some countries like Nigeria having many applications, in thousands. In other words, the sponsor of the program must choose few from Uganda and choose other few from Nigeria, and more others from other countries. Very competitive.
Well, I applied for 2021/2022 opportunity.
I was lucky, and got selected for face-to-face interviews. I would love you to know that it is already a big win to have your application sieved through thousands many more, and get shortlisted for face-to-face interviews. And I am already grateful that I did pass through this serious phase.
I did my face-to-face interviews on 18th January 2022 at American Center, Uganda. My eyes were always in my inbox, every second, wondering and waiting; when was my interview status ever coming out? And when it did, what would it be?
They also kept me waiting!
The email finally came, and it wasn’t good! I had not made it, again! I had failed, this time after the face-to-face interviews. Well, this was progress, wasn’t it? At first (2017/2018), I didn’t get through to interviews. For this second time (2021/2022), I had made it to interviews! Progress, right? Always celebrate your small wins! Somehow the small wins work!
Double Try: Mandela Washington Fellowship 2023 & PFP Programs
You already know there are other related exchange programs, right? According to official statements, there are more than 20 US-funded exchange programs. For example, there is the Professional Fellows Program on Inclusive Civic Engagement.
Do you wanna keep tabs on all of these things?
I had tried applying for another exchange program called Professional fellow program on civic inclusion program.
This is an exchange program that focuses on work that is targeting special groups of people or leaders, mainly those working with disabilities. As you know, #MiklahLife has a special initiative, #MiklahForAlbinism, which focuses on customizing our initiatives for #PeopleWithAlbinism, making us a little bit unique in this sustainability and inclusion pursuit!
Well, leveraging on the work of that program, I applied for the 2021/2022 PFP as well. God was with me, I got through to the interviews. Interviews were held virtually. When final results came, about 3 months from the above 2021/2022 MWF rejection, I had been selected, only on alternate program for Spring cohort (June/July 2023).
Alternate means you are just on a waiting list in case one of the selected fellows can’t make it due to a number of reasons, including visa failures or other challenges. In most cases, the alternate really never makes it!
NB: Don’t forget to join our 2023 Miklah Funding Cohort programme for young entrepreneurs interested in seeking funding for their businesses. This year, we are helping all those interested to identify and apply for various funding opportunities and see their businesses grow forward. Do you wanna join us? See details here: https://miklahlife.com/funding or just call/WhatsApp +256779342057. Thank you.
I was a little hopeful. However, at the same time, I also applied for Mandela Washington Fellowship 2022/2023 (for the third time). I waited on both!
Well, the last email I got from PFP guys was that my waiting had not materialized into anything! I kind of expected these replies. So I, in the words of Mariah Carey, ‘Shook it off’
Failing is part of my entrepreneurship life. Additionally, besides Mandela Washington Fellowship, I have applied for tens of other opportunities, winning some and failing more! So I don’t take any failure personal! I move on. You will have to embrace that if you wanna get far, right?
See the PFP rejection email below:
I actually had prepared to apply for the 2024 PFP program. But I didn’t!
Why didn’t I apply for this PFP 2023/2024? Well, the answer is because I was later selected for Mandela Washington Fellowship 2022/2023, the best of all. Details about this are in my second article where I talk about the pre-fellowship orientation.
In brief, I have applied for these American Exchange Programs 4 times, that is, 3 times for MWF (Once, not reaching interviews; Two, reached interviews and not successful; Three, Reached interviews, selected as alternate, and then a finalist!) and 1 time for PFP (did interviews, selected as alternate, then unsuccessful). This is resilience.
Wait! You think it is resilience of the highest level? Never!
Someone, an MWF alumni just told us that he was selected on his 7th trial! Now, that is resilience and patience!
Mandela Washington Fellowship is competitive!
I mean, of all prestigious exchange programs that you know, MWF is one of the most prestigious (if not the best)! As such, it is very competitive!
In fact, according to official reports, for Uganda alone (2021/2022 MWF application), more than 5,000 attempted to apply, 2,500 went ahead and completed their application, 90 got shortlisted for interviews, and only 24 people got ! What! This is even crazy!
Anyway, that is a brief story of how I got into this prestigious program, the Mandela Washington Fellowship program.
In Mandela Washington Fellowship Series, I will get started with all the proceedings of Mandela Washington Fellowship 2023 of which I am gracefully part of. In the series, I will keep you updated with everything, from the pre-fellowship orientation event to the end of it all when we finally return from the USA and, probably, any other endeavors in line with the fellowship thereafter. I will keep you posted!
Just subscribe to Miklah Email List or just join Miklah WhatsApp group or do both and you will be in the loop, not for this alone, but very many more other opportunities related to people and the planet.
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The goal is to inspire another youth who has failed or is failing for a number of times to achieve his or her goal to not give up. True living is in the relentless chasing! At least that is what The Alchemist teaches us! So, yeah, keep applying!
NB: You may join our #MiklahFunding Program and you will have one-on-one support during applications for most of the funding opportunities, which we also organize and share with you. Join here.
Thanks for reading. Bye.
