Nominations for the Acumen Fellowship Program 2023 are now open. The Social Changemakers fellowship is an intensive leadership development program designed to provide a pipeline for tomorrow’s social change actors.
The Acumen Fellows program aims to create a community of leaders who challenge the status quo, overcome differences, and inspire their communities to believe in a brighter future.
Most importantly, the Fellows remain in their jobs and come together for five seminars, each lasting 6 days, throughout the year. Attendance at each seminar is mandatory. Fellows are expected to participate in and complete online readings and assignments between seminars.
Table of contents
About the Acumen Fellowship 2023
Over a year, the members stay in the workplace, participate in five intensive, multi-day classroom seminars and use online content between the seminars.
The program design focuses on group learning, self-reflection, and practical application. Fellows receive training, hands-on tools, and space to explore their leadership paths as they communicate with Acumen’s local and global community innovators.
The scholarship program is offered in Colombia, East Africa, West Africa, India, and Pakistan. The program is aimed at people currently leading or part of an initiative to eradicate poverty.
Clever people see opportunities, whereas others see desperation. They have an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion to drive change in their communities. Does it look like you?
Find your region below.
- Colombia: This is a historic moment in Colombia to develop a new narrative of conflicts. The Columbia Fellows program brings together several emerging leaders who bring about change through bottom-up approaches and restore the country’s social fabric.
- East Africa: The East Africa Fellowship Program brings together the best and brightest entrepreneurs, innovators, and emerging actors in the region’s transformation. Their candidates represent a variety of cultural, geographical, and socio-economic contexts from Uganda to Ethiopia.
- India: Every year, the India Fellows Program brings together dynamic people committed to making significant changes in their country. Applicants come from almost every area and have demonstrated their ability to influence their sector.
Pakistan: The Pakistan Fellows Program provides founders, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, policymakers, innovators, and movement builders with the education and support they need to solve Pakistan’s most severe problems and challenge the status quo. - West Africa: West Africa has some of the fastest-growing economies in the world, but it needs a different kind of leadership to ensure everyone benefits from the fruits of that growth. It requires leaders based on integrity and relentlessly seeking fairness and justice. The West Africa Fellows program brings together entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and builders from public and private sector organizations who demonstrate leadership and commitment to do more.
Seminars usually take place in or in big cities. In the past, they took place:
Program for East Africa:
Nairobi, Kampala, Kigali, and Darussalam
India program: Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Mysore
Pakistani program: Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Murree, Peshawar, and Bahawalpur
For 2023, individuals will be notified of the exact dates of the seminars if they are selected as Fellows in early 2023.
Insights are invested not only in the growth of each fellow during the program but also in their development as actors in the fight against poverty throughout their lives. After the first year, scholarship holders can benefit from ongoing mentoring and mentoring.
Acumen also has a very active and growing network of global social sector organizations, thought leaders, and members. We involve all Acumen members in events, newsletters, and subsequent recruitment processes.
More About the Acumen Fellowship 2023
Eligibility for Acumen Fellowship 2023
- The Fellowship Program 2023 is offered in Colombia, East Africa, West Africa, India, and Pakistan.
- Scholarship holders are from all age groups, come from different cultural, geographical, and socio-economic backgrounds, and work in other sectors.
Host Nationality
Acumen Fellowship 2023 is being hosted in the Fellow’s Home country.
If you are an international student and you desire to study in the UK, Check out the best scholarships obtainable for study in the UK
Eligible Nationality
Social Changemakers fellowship 2023 is available for Colombia, East Africa, West Africa, India, and Pakistan citizens.
Searched members are:
- Social entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, and organizers.
- Social Entrepreneurs: Initiated or led their initiatives on social change.
- Social Intrapreneurs: Conduct an initiative for social change within an existing organization.
- Organizational builders: They are essential to building an organization for social change but do not play a fundamental role.
- People with a proven track record, commitment, and concrete connections to the region.
- Leaders with great personal integrity, unyielding perseverance, and moral imagination.
- Dedicated people are ready to embark on a year of personal transformation and enthusiastic leadership, followed by membership in the wider Fellowship community.
- People of all ages and levels of education can participate in an English-language program.
On average, they select 20 members per year in each region.
Aside from the Social Changemakers fellowship 2023, other scholarships are available to international students to study abroad. You can check our scholarship by country to access all scholarships available.
Acumen Fellowship Program Worth
- Acumen covers all-program related expenses during the fellowship year. This includes all costs associated with the seminars, including lodging, food, transportation & visas.
- Their Fellows Program centers around five in-person seminars designed to improve individuals’ capacity to innovate and drive change while remaining in their full-time jobs.
- Fellows receive training, practical tools, and the space to explore their leadership journeys while connecting with innovators across Acumen’s local and global communities.
- Their unique virtual content enables Fellows to connect with peers and continue developing the skills to make a lasting social impact between seminars.
- They provide the space and security for Fellows to practice self-reflection, broaden their perspectives and identify areas for personal development.
- They design content that is focused on being relevant and applicable to Fellows’ everyday lives and social impact work.
- Building a pipeline of leaders who understand what it takes to create lasting social change.
- Developing leaders who challenge the status quo and inspire their communities to build a better future
The Acumen Fellowship Program selection process comprises a total of three steps.
STEP 1: APPLICATIONS. Sunday, September 9 at 23:59 local time. All requests must be completed and submitted online. After the first submission, successful candidates will be invited to participate in the second stage.
STEP 2: ONLINE COMMITMENT (FOR PK / IN / EA / WA). Instructions for Phase 2 will be sent on Tuesday, September 25th. All tasks must be completed by Wednesday, October 10, and submitted online. Successful applicants will be invited to participate in Phase 3.
STEP 3: TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS (FOR CO). These will take place at the end of September. The Acumen team will contact all applicants to set a mutually beneficial time for the interview. Successful applicants will be invited to participate in the third stage.
STEP 4: SELECTION CONFERENCE. Stage 3 is a mandatory personal session day and will be held in each region in mid-November.
STEP 5: FINAL SELECTION: Candidates selected in the 2023 cohorts will be notified by December 2023.
Your selection team will carefully review the submissions and attendance at each stage and select candidates for the next step. At each stage of the application process, all applicants will receive communication from their team on their progress.
Select your region below to start your application:
COLOMBIA →
EASTER AFRICA →
INDIA →
PAKISTAN →
WEST AFRICA →
Apply online through the given link.
For more information, visit the Acumen Fellowship website.
For the Acumen Fellowship Program, 2023 Applications closed on August 11th for the 2023 cohort of Acumen Fellows. Here is the timeline for the application process:
- Select candidates will be invited to Stage 2 (online assignment) and Stage 3 (a selection conference in late November/early December).
- The new cohort will be announced in January 2023.
Acumen Fellowship FAQs
The Fellows Program is designed for individuals who are leading or are integral to building an initiative whose mission is eradicating poverty or injustice.
Our Fellows are of all ages, come from diverse cultural, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, and work across multiple sectors. Acumen Fellows understand that poverty extends beyond income levels and that the opposite of poverty is not income: it is dignity. Dignity is freedom. It is having control over decisions that affect our lives.
The program starts a journey toward mastering moral leadership skills, attributes, and values: a combination of empathy, immersion, understanding, and action. What binds our Fellows is shared values, a joint commitment to a world beyond poverty and injustice, a pledge to accompany one another, to help and celebrate one another, and to hold each other accountable.
No. As this is a part-time program, we do not provide scholarships, stipends, funding, or insurance.
Yes. All seminars and training are in English, except the Colombia program, which is in Spanish. Conversational proficiency in the language in the program will be conducted and is required to ensure Fellows can give and get the most from this experience.
Yes. We consider applications from citizens of the country or region. On an exceptional basis, we will consider applicants who demonstrate a concrete connection to the area (i.e., long-term employment, residency, the focus of the social change project).
Absolutely! Taking +Acumen courses before the fellowship is strongly encouraged.
Acumen covers all program-related expenses during the fellowship year. This includes all costs of the seminars, including lodging, food, transportation, and visas.
Editor’s Recommendations
- €15,000 up for Grab: Pitch AgriHack West Africa
- British Council’s Creative Hubs Programme for creative hubs in West Africa
- Fully Funded YALI West Africa Regional Programme, Accra Ghana – Cohort 8/ 5 Online
- Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program At University of Abomey-Calavi
- West-Africa-Civil-Society-Institute-Internship-Programme-for-young-west-Africans
- US PIRG Fellowship | APPLY NOW
- French Committee for International Solidarity Grants Program for West Africa
- UN Fellowship for Africans in Diaspora – Switzerland
- L’Oreal UNESCO Fellowship for African Women in Science
- $2,000 Bitch Media fellowship| USA
