700 fellows. 48 sub Saharan African countries. 3 days. 1 incredible experience. To say that the past two weeks working at IREX has been an adventure, would be an understatement. On July 29, all of the 2018 Mandela Washington Fellows from 27 institutes across the country descended onto downtown Washington DC for the annual Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit to close their fellowship experience. This summer, my internship working with the YALI (Young African Leader Initiative) team involved pouring over spreadsheets, looking through passports and tax back forms, and running errands all over the city. While I learned tons from my co workers, especially with technical skills in excel and salesforce, I eagerly awaited getting to meet our fellows in person. Last Sunday, all of the YALI team packed our bags and moved into the Omni Shoreham Hotel, where the Summit was to take place. The days were long and tiring […]

Last summer at the end of my internship my coworker told me her favorite quote, “One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested”- E.M. Forster. But as a I packed 28 boxes filled with cell phones, insurance cards, and hundreds of papers, to be sent to universities across the country earlier this week, I could not help from thinking that maybe 40 interested people may actually be useful. In all seriousness though, that quote has really stuck with me over the past year as I traveled abroad to Namibia and now as I have begun my CAPS placement at IREX in Washington DC.   IREX is an international nonprofit that focuses on development. In the past I have worked with several very small NGOS, often with a local staff of 2-3 people. IREX though has a staff of over 400 world wide and 178 locally, so when […]