OBAMA FOUNDATION FELLOWS
TWENTY REASONS TO BE HOPEFUL
When we put 20 outstanding, innovative civic leaders together in one room, we knew powerful things would happen. In the spring of 2018, we invited our inaugural class of Obama Fellows to meet for the first time, and to begin a two-year journey that would collectively push their work forward.
During the first year of the Fellowship program, the leaders have built on their impressive work in an effort to create transformational change. After meeting in Chicago and hearing from President and Mrs. Obama, they immediately established connections and found opportunities to collaborate. Later, amidst training sessions and guided conversations, they reflected on their first year together at the Obama Foundation Summit. In their first year, our Fellows have expanded their work and continue to model the powerful truth that each of us has a role to play in civic life.
Fellows Moussa Kondo and Sandor Lederer unearthed a powerful connection: both had strong, personal experiences with corruption that drove them to tackle the issue, though in different, innovative ways. Celina de Sola and Nedgine Paul Deroly drew a wealth of support from each other as they worked to overcome inequality in El Salvador and Haiti. And Clarissa Delgado and Veronica Crespin-Palmer bonded over their shared work of expanding education to alleviate poverty and trauma, even if that work happens a continent apart.
Each of our Fellows will continue their journey for another year, taking advantage of the individualized support, resources, and connections the Fellowship provides to deepen the impact of their work. In the second year of their Fellowship, they’ll begin to collaborate with and learn from a new cohort of 20 leaders—the class of 2019 Fellows. We’re excited to grow the Fellowship community from 20 to 40. We can only imagine the powerful things that will happen next.
