A Fellowship that Transformed into Strategic Partnerships: My Experience as a Mandela Fellow at Texas Tech University, Texas, USA

 I am Teopolina Namandje, a 2019 Mandela Fellow. I represented my country, Namibia in 2019 as a Mandela fellow in the Public Management Track at Texas Tech University (TTU), USA.

Mandela Washington Fellowship

The Mandela Washington Fellowship is a leadership programme for young emerging leaders of Africa. The Fellowship begun in 2014 and is a flagship program of former US President Obama's Young African Leaders Initiative (mandela). It empowers emerging African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training, mentoring and networking at various American universities for six (6) weeks. Its aim is to foster connections and collaborations with U.S. professionals. The program is fully sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and participating universities are the executing agencies.

Eligibility and selection criteria

The programme is open to African youth between the age of 24-35 who have demonstrated leadership capabilities and are keen to making differences in their communities. The application process is quite intense as there is a series of essays to write. I went ahead with the application process and demonstrated my leadership capabilities through the essays. For example, one of my leadership roles was when I was heading a small government office, Ministry of Trade and Industry between 2011 and 2015 in Namibia. Around January 2019, I received an invitation for an interview at the American Embassy Windhoek, Namibia. As a shortlisted candidate, you will be interviewed at the American embassy in the country you applying from, and final selection is done in Washington, D.C. For 2019 intake, 700 fellows were selected from a pool of over 30 000 applicants across Sub Saharan Africa. Fellows are then placed at various participating universities in the United States in cohorts of 25 fellows per university. The programme places emerging leaders into three tracks; Public Management, Entrepreneurship and Civic Engagement. I was selected for the Public Management track and was placed at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech University is a public research university with a beautiful campus, and there was always something to do.

My fellowship experience at Texas Tech University, USA

I departed for USA around mid-June of 2019 with 15 other Namibian fellows headed to different states and universities. I safely arrived in Lubbock. It was a beautiful welcome. I was impressed by the professionalism and commitment the staff members of Texas Tech University demonstrated during the fellowship.

I spent five weeks doing academic work and site visits together with 24 other fellows from different African countries. The cohort comprised of economists, bankers, doctors, agriculturalists, accountants and researchers just to mention a few. My stay at Texas Tech University provided me with the opportunity to experience American culture as well as meet and exchange ideas with students, American officials and other fellows.

As a cohort, we visited places like banks, municipalities and key government offices where we learned about their services and models as well as non-governmental organizations who are making great impacts for the less privileged. We volunteered in some activities to give back to Lubbock community. I have also learned so much from my fellows about the work they are doing in their specific countries. It was inspiring to hear their success stories and what roles they were playing to better their communities as emerging leaders.

Besides the academics, there was also opportunities for dialogue and exchange of ideas. As fellows, we attended networking events where we met and connected with American professionals and business community. The key point was to network and engage for collaborations, and I was very keen on this.

During my free time, I was seen at the university recreation center indulging in some fitness activities. I visited the Buffalo Springs Lake, I loved the natural beauty and the tranquility. I played volleyball with students, and wined and dined at various restaurants around the campus. With other fellows, we had fun together and we shopped until our pockets dropped at the nearby malls.

Leisurely, the university prepared various excursions outside Lubbock to various places; Dallas, Austin and Palo Duro canyon, the second largest canyon in the United States, where we explored, attended one of the most famous outdoor event in Texas and had great time together as fellows. We created so many beautiful memories.

Summit and closure

Upon the completion of five weeks academic courses at our respective universities, all 700 fellows convened in Washington DC for the summit and official closure. This was a one-week event where we participated in panel discussions with various American professionals. Upon completion of the official programme, fellows are given a grace period of 30 days to stay in America at their own cost. I grabbed the opportunity with a Namibian fellow, and ticked off Disneyland in California. This was a unique, beautiful vacation of a lifetime.

Reciprocal exchange and partnerships

From the beginning of my fellowship journey, I wanted something profound out of it. The fellowship has a latter component; the Reciprocal Exchange, which provides American professionals with the opportunity to travel to Africa to build upon strategic partnerships. Being a Mandela fellowship alumnus gave me courage to apply for a Reciprocal award. Upon returning home, I sent an email to one of my professors, Prof Conrad Lyford whose areas of specialty are behavioral economics and food security if he would be interested in collaborating with me for a project in Namibia. We submitted our proposal, and in April 2020 we received our congratulatory email that our project proposal has been selected for funding as part of the Reciprocal Exchange of the Mandela Washington Fellowship.

The project in Namibia

Since food security is one the major challenges in Namibia, and the country is highly dependent on food imports, I thought my professor could come and impart his knowledge of behavioral economics and food security. The project aims to provide a workshop to about 65 participants on behavioral economics with applications in food security, illustrate this approach with successful example interventions, and provide an opportunity to apply this to the Namibian context while recognizing the opportunity to specifically enhance productivity of women in agriculture. The project is expected to bring a number of unique and interesting opportunities for accomplishing meaningful food security work in Namibia.

Because of COVID-19 travelling restrictions, my professor could not travel to Namibia as planned. However there is always hope. I look forward to welcoming and working with Prof Lyford in Namibia in 2021. I am excited about this collaboration! Finally, my Mandela fellowship experience was rewarding and exciting. To the incoming TTU fellows and the rest of the fellows, my advice is this: network and make the best out of the fellowship.