46 South Africans have been invited to participate in the first ever Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) Washington Fellowship.
They will travel to the U.S. this June with over 450 other young African leaders for a six week program at one of 20 prestigious U.S. universities followed by a conference in Washington, DC hosted by President Obama.
The South African recipients were selected from almost 4,000 applicants and represent an extraordinary, diverse group of leaders already making important contributions in entrepreneurship, public administration, and community service in their communities.
“Together with President Obama, I congratulate this outstanding group of 46 young South African leaders who will represent their country on this first year of the Washington Fellowship, ” said U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Patrick H. Gaspard. “The participants from South Africa are among the most inspiring and talented young people in the country and we are excited to provide them with this opportunity to network with other leaders on the continent and in the U.S.”
“Our only regret is that because of space constraints we were not able to send all of the qualified and worthy candidates who applied this year,” continued Ambassador Gaspard. “But this is only the first year of this important initiative for our government in Africa. So I encourage all unsuccessful applicants to reapply next year and also to consider our other educational and professional exchange programs which can be found on our website: southafrica.usembassy.gov.”
Participants will be departing for Washington in mid-June and returning in August. Over the coming weeks we will be profiling the South African 2014 YALI fellows on our Social Media platforms.