ATLANTA, USA – The president of Aventure Aviation, Zaheer Faruqi, spoke to recipients of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders at a “Lunch N Learn” session at Clark Atlanta University on July 11.
During the one-hour lunch discussion, Zaheer discussed Aventure’s path to entrepreneurship, its growth, experience on the African continent, and lessons learned. Several fellows are building companies and brands in manufacturing, import/export and aviation-related fields, and were especially eager to learn from Aventure’s experiences.
This was the fourth consecutive year that the University hosted the fellows, which included 25 of the best and brightest emerging business, entrepreneurship and civic leaders from Sub-Saharan Africa. Starting June 16, they have been embedded at the U.S. University for an intense six-week academic, entrepreneurship, and leadership training sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.
The Fellowship is geared towards outstanding young leaders who have several years of professional experience and a proven record of accomplishment in leading and promoting positive change in their organizations, institutions, or communities.
In 2017, the entire program will bring 1000 of Africa’s most promising young leaders (selected from over 1000,000 applicants) to top U.S. universities.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship (formerly President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative), is the flagship program for the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), which empowers young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training, mentoring, networking, and follow-on support.
Mandela Washington Fellowship Recipients at Clark Atlanta University.