Dear Young Leaders: The MWF Experience

Dear Young Leaders,

My name is Josephine Kamara and I’m a 2021 Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumna from Sierra Leone.

Let’s talk about my experience

To start with, I applied three times and three times I was rejected. But this Fellowship was just one thing I was never going to give up on.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship comes with great prestige, and repeatedly not getting it made me believe that I was not good, talented, or special enough. The standard of excellence seemed far from my reach. At least that is what I told myself on my first attempt. Therefore, let me start by reminding you that the inner voice telling you that you are not good enough is wrong.

The fact is, these failed attempts taught me that I needed to work on myself, master my craft, be more committed to service, acquire more knowledge – I needed time to grow and make myself an irresistible candidate.

This reality check was important to my growth. Before you open that application form – if you haven’t done that yet, or before you continue if you’ve already started – stop and evaluate where you are right now and where you want to be.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship doesn’t come easy. This is not meant to scare you, but to spark that hunger and thirst to be exceedingly above average and to ignite your commitment to service and excellence because you are the leader Africa is waiting for. You cannot afford to be average. 

Self-realization over doubts

After this realization, the first thing I did was to take a pause on applying for the Mandela Washington Fellowship and change my route to the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) Regional Leadership program. I was accepted into this program on my first attempt and traveled to Ghana for a six week civic leadership training. I paused because I realized I needed to grow.

This is the part most young people despise. Most people don’t want to crawl before they walk, they just want to walk and fly. Your path might not be the same as mine, but whatever that crawling stage means for you, don’t try to dismiss it. It might be just finding a mentor, volunteering your time to a community project, staying committed to learning and growing your work, starting a business, taking that course, etc. These experiences will help you stand out of those millions of applications.

I’ve titled this article “The MWF Experience”, so let’s get back to it. I now refer to my Fellowship squad as the #PandemicCohort! 700 of us (out of tens of thousands of applicants) were shortlisted in 2019, but COVID-19 disrupted the program and prevented us from traveling to the US. It was heart-breaking when I received the email informing me that the Fellowship was going to be virtual, and considering the part of the world I am from, with challenges of internet connectivity and electricity, I thought it was going to be impossible to do this Fellowship online. Still, my mind was ready and I was determined to go for it – especially after my three prior rejections.

Our virtual Fellowship was no doubt challenging – most of us had to balance work, family, and the Fellowship on any given day – but I can say for sure that it was a great experience. This cohort proved that tough situations have a tendency to build tough leaders who can pull through with grace and flair. The entire Fellowship experience has also taught me to never doubt my strength.

The new normal

I participated in six weeks of virtual “Leadership in Civic Engagement” training at the Presidential Precinct – this was a space where I formed my thoughts among 24 other exceptional leaders from all corners of Africa. We debated topics, shared ideas and cultural views, had great conversations with professionals and lecturers from Presidential Precinct partner universities – the University of Virginia and William & Mary. We also engaged in virtual community service opportunities and networked with US professionals.

One of the things COVID-19 has taught us is that we must prepare to embrace this new normal – our zoom reality. Education can not and should not stop. The world, more than ever, needs strong leaders to step up and lead through this pandemic with clear vision. This was what the Presidential Precinct, IREX, and US Department of State teams did as they ensured that education through the Fellowship would continue in a safe manner.

Yes, we didn’t go to the US and benefit from the in-person US experience, but we learned new ways of doing things and we thrived. The courses were available on an easy to access platform called Canvas, and it made provisions for one to download lessons and return to read or listen to lectures.

I started using Zoom in early 2020 when the organization I work for – Purposeful, decided to go virtual to protect staff from the risk of catching the Coronavirus. It was hard at first, but our organization’s productivity magically shot up. Well, really, it’s not magic, we did the work needed to be done to double our efforts to support girls during the pandemic.

Now I see that these experiences prepared me to a certain extent for the virtual Mandela Washington Fellowship experience; and yet, we may never be fully prepared in our efforts to balance work, educational programs like this one, and children like my three year old daughter who was on school break and thought we were on break together!

What kept me going was the belief that all this hard work was empowering me to be the leader I have to be in order to make this world safe for my daughter and every other girl. I hope that one day she will be proud of this foundation I am building.

Focusing on what is strong, not what is wrong

The most important highlight of my experience was completing the CliftonStrengths® Assessment to know and get an in-depth analysis of my top five strengths in leadership. This assessment prepares one to lead based on strength, which is a very strange concept for my context because I was socialised to think that improving my weaknesses is what will position me to be successful as a leader. I spent years doubting myself and identifying everything that is wrong rather than paying keen attention to my strengths.

The CliftonStrengths® Assessment does not advocate for ignoring your weaknesses – in fact it’s better to know those areas of weakness and thrive to improve them. Just don’t be like me – avoid spending years doubting yourself because you do not have a graduate degree, you are not the best writer, or you are not qualified enough. I limited myself with thoughts of weaknesses, but with this assessment, I realised that there are greater and more fulfilling results when leadership is based on strength.

In 2018, I used my strength to excel in my position as an Advocacy Manager when I led Purposeful and the Coalition for Girls Education to raise public awareness, influencing the Government of Sierra Leone to overturn the policy that banned pregnant girls from attending public schools and taking exams.

More recently, in 2020, I joined the Global Partnership for Education, using my voice and experiences to influence Global Leaders to invest in education for all.

These are two examples that I can now identify as me leading on strength – using my WOO strength – which is the natural ability to influence and win people over.

Other highlights from my Mandela Washington Fellowship experience

Within the six weeks of learning at the Presidential Precinct, I was assigned a personal Focus Project coach – Emily Voss, a Co-founder of Virginia Civics Education and the Education Director at Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution. Emily was extremely patient in the face of my worries, especially when I missed or had to postpone a meeting due to problems such as internet or electricity failure or childcare. Emily was very supportive throughout the Fellowship and her coaching sessions helped me define SMART goals and objectives for my five year leadership impact/focus project plan.

The most important connections I will cherish for the rest of my life are the ones I built with other Fellows at the Presidential Precinct. I was blown away by these extraordinary young leaders, their impact stories, and life-changing ideas. This experience will humble anyone and also shape their mindsets.

I teamed up with other Fellows from Sierra Leone to write and perform a beautiful song that captures the essence of the moment and called young leaders to action. The song, titled “We Can Do This”, is saying ‘we are the ones Africa is waiting for and we must rise and lead’.

At the end of the Fellowship, I received an unofficial superlative certificate from the Presidential Precinct team that says ‘Josephine Kamara is most likely to write a music that will make you smile.’ Sure, I also received the Fellowship completion certificate signed by President Joe Biden and other prominent US officials, but this personal recognition was most meaningful to me. The chosen superlative speaks directly to the kind of legacy I want to leave – the woman who made people smile with her work.

Leadership is a matter of the heart

In summary, the most important lesson I learned from this experience is that Leadership is a matter of the heart. It will be difficult to lead without passion because passion is what drives the act of service. Africa needs more passionate leaders, leaders who care for their people, leaders who listen and are committed to service, social innovators who understand the pain of the people they are trying to serve, and most of all, leaders who are hungry and thirsty for change.

Can you be that leader?

While you reflect on this question, watch the talk I delivered at the Africa Ideas Summit organized by the Presidential Precinct.

Yours Truly,

Josephine Kamara

Josephine Kamara is a girls’ rights advocate with more than 10 years of advocacy and voluntary social work experience. She is a senior advocacy manager at Purposeful – a feminist, African-rooted global hub for girls’ activism. Read her full bio page on the Presidential Precinct website.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders is a program of the U.S. State Department with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by IREX. The Presidential Precinct is a sub-grantee of IREX and is implementing a U.S.-based Leadership Institute as a part of the Fellowship. For more information about the Mandela Washington Fellowship, please visit: http://mandelawashingtonfellowship.org/