A group of young civic leaders from all over sub-Saharan Africa visited Drexel over the summer to develop the skills to lead changes in their home countries. The University was one of 39 institutions to host a cohort of Mandela Washington Fellows, who made it through a highly selective admissions process to be part of the program, which was sponsored by the LeBow College of Business’ Institute for Strategic Leadership and the Office of International Programs.

The fellows spent six weeks attending workshops on decision making, social innovation, public policy and leadership, and met with leaders at Drexel and in the surrounding community, including President John Fry.

“Evidently the way we’ve been leading Africa until now hasn’t been working, and we need to come up with other approaches that work,” says Unopa Makanyanga, a Zimbabwean. “It’s an opportunity to take what we learn and create hybrid solutions to solve our problems.”