Dalai Lama Fellows
The Dalai Lama Fellows, a new global educational program, aspires to improve the well-being of the human community by engaging university students and early-career citizen sector professionals in advancing the values that have distinguished the life and teachings of the 14th Dalai Lama: compassion, contemplation, courage, interconnectedness, collaboration, and service. Each year, the Program will select Fellows and equip them with new perspectives, tools, structures and networks, designed to help each of them make a significant and measurable impact on major social challenges facing the world.
This unprecedented Fellowship carries the personal authorization and involvement of the 14thDalai Lama, recipient of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize. The outcome of the Fellowships will be the advancement of leadership and action in addressing four major and persistent global challenges:
1. encouraging cross-cultural and inter-religious understanding and cooperation;
2. mitigating income and wealth inequities;
3. diminishing violence;
4. promoting environmental sustainability.
Founded on the proven principles of fellowship programs worldwide, Dalai Lama Fellows includes three interconnected components: independent identification of promising Fellows by a select group of universities and international citizen sector organizations; mentorship of Fellows to equip them with new understandings and capabilities; and lifelong participation by all Fellows in a Global Learning Community that will strengthen each individual’s capacity to lead and will foster a sense of collective global responsibility and action.
University Fellows will receive a year’s support to undertake mentored projects and integrate their findings and insights into the lives of their campuses. Early-career professional Fellows with approximately ten years of work experience will receive support for substantive year-long projects to enhance alignment between their organization’s external mission and internal operations.
The first cohort of Dalai Lama Fellows will be selected in April of 2011 and the inaugural convening of the Global Learning Community will take place in late spring. Inaugural partners in the university sector include Amherst College, McGill University, New York University, Oberlin College, Princeton University, Stanford University, the University of Nairobi and the University of California, Irvine; citizen sector partners include Ashoka, BRAC, the Green Belt Movement, International Alert and Search for Common Ground.
To inquire about submitting an application, please contact Christian Simamora, Program Director at csimamora@dalailamafellows.org.
FAQs
- Amherst College
- McGill University
- New York University
- Oberlin College
- Princeton University
- Stanford University
- Tata Institute of Social Sciences (India)
- University of California, Irvine
- Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
- BRAC USA
- The Green Belt Movement
- International Alert
- Search for Common Ground
Undergraduate, as well as graduate/professional, students, who intend to be enrolled and on campus during the 2012-2013 Fellowship year, are eligible to apply. On some campuses, the Fellowship is also open to students graduating in 2012.
Do I have to be Buddhist or engaged in a contemplative practice to apply?
Absolutely not! Dalai Lama Fellows is a secular, non-political organization. We are equal opportunity in outlook, and value diversity in both background and perspectives.
What is the rationale for limiting the fellowship to students who will return to campus in the following academic year?
One of the key requirements for Dalai Lama Fellows is to integrate their Fellowship work meaningfully into the life of the campus. Returning to campus is a vital part of fulfilling that requirement. This year, as an experiment, some partners have decided to open the application process to graduating seniors who will not be enrolled on the campus the following year. If you are a graduating senior, please ask on your campus for specific feedback regarding your eligibility.
How can the project grant be spent?
The project grant of up to $10,000 (amounts may differ for international Fellows based on partner guidelines and recommendations) may be used for all project-related expenses. While the grant cannot be used as personal income, students may be allowed to use part of the $10,000 as a stipend, after consultation with the program office, if Fellowship participation precludes a student from necessary part-time work.
The project grant cannot be used for tuition, fees, or living expenses.
A key component of the project application is a detailed budget, and selection committees will look to the budget as evidence of serious purpose and planning. We ask that all applicants explain their expenses in the budget portion of the application, and that budget estimates be as accurate as possible.
Does the Dalai Lama fund the program?
His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, has authorized Dalai Lama Fellows to award these Fellowships and grants in his name. However, the Dalai Lama does not fund our program in any way. The grants, as well as the operating costs of the program, are funded by private donors.
What role does the mentor play?
Fellows are expected to have a faculty mentor on campus during the Fellowship year. A faculty mentor will provide perspective and access to resources, thereby facilitating project success, Fellow development, and the meaningful integration of the project on campus.
Applicants may apply with a mentor already named or they can indicate a plan on how they intend to secure a mentor before the Fellowship begins. Additionally, an applicant may ask their campus champion and selection committee members at their school for assistance in securing a faculty mentor.
With that said, there is no limit on the number of mentors. A Fellow may also have a staff member or adjunct professor, or even a non-campus mentor from a local citizen sector organization or community group, as an additional mentor.
May teams of students apply for the Fellowship?
We are open to having teams apply for the Fellowship, but we also want to ensure an intimate Fellowship cohort to enhance leadership development, coaching and cohesion. We allow a maximum of two teams in each fellowship year, selected from all of our partner schools, and each team may have a maximum of only two members. Team proposals should clearly explain why the project could not be designed and launched by just one person.
Are teams eligible for a project grant of a higher amount?
No, a team is still awarded a project grant of only up to $10,000.
Do you have examples of past projects?
Below are examples of current projects. However, as a young organization, Dalai Lama Fellows does not yet have an extensive library of projects. We encourage projects that reflect the passion of the student proposing them, and that are innovative, impactful and feasible. Projects should be substantive (e.g., not just a few weeks over the summer), engage others in your cause, and be focused on action and service, rather than research.
Amherst College
Agostine N’dungu is utilizing a potato seed-planting project to facilitate and foster inter-ethnic cooperation and dialogue between rural ethnic groups who clashed during the 2008 election violence.
McGill University
Alex Pritz and Christian Elliott taught documentary film-making skills to children, living in a trash dump community in the Philippines, who will investigate waste management practices in their communities, document them, discuss findings with student peers from a school in Montreal via Skype, and get year-long advice from a panel of waste management experts.
New York University
Esa Syeed is working on a Kashmiri-based, youth-initiative accelerator to develop local capacity in Kashmir. His project aims to provide new skills, exposures, and networks to Kashmiri youth leaders, who have traditionally been excluded from development work.
Oberlin College
David Fisher's Interfaith Appalachia project provides on-the-ground and financial support for home-repair and food distribution in rural Kentucky in order to build partnerships with evangelical Christian ministries for future interfaith and environmentally focused service trips to the region.
Princeton University
Gaby Wilkerson and Amanda Rees recently returned from Bagamoyo, Tanzania, where they taught entrepreneurship and self-empowerment through public speaking to a class of pre-college girls.
Stanford University
Megan Winkelman is producing, testing, and implementing 5 interactive, tablet-based modules on mental illness to empower and educate low-income, immigrant women. She has gained approval to move forward with a pilot in clinics in Oakland and Fremont.
UCI
Armaan Rowther is working on promoting and facilitating interfaith engagement on campus and the surrounding community through a high-level speakers series, an impact assessment to measure changes in perspectives, and the creation of a framework for continued interfaith engagement and service learning on an annual basis.
What are the requirements of a Fellow, beyond the project?
Fellows are expected to attend an opening Global Learning Community retreat in June 2012 in Northern California and a closing Global Learning Community retreat the following June. Dalai Lama Fellows covers the cost of round-trip travel to the retreats, as well as room and board when there.
During the course of the Fellowship year, Fellows are required to be available for meetings with program staff twice per month by phone or Skype, and available by email as needed. These meetings are touch points to discuss project development and progress as well as to engage with the values-based, reflective leadership curriculum. Fellows are expected to engage fully with the reflective leadership curriculum – which includes reading responses, journal entries, regular fellowship-wide conference calls and webinars, and regular participation in an online social network.
Prior to the closing 2013 retreat, Fellows will complete a short written evaluation of the project, budget expenditures, and next steps. At the retreat, Fellows are expected to report on their project outcomes to the larger community, including other Fellows, program staff, and program funders.
Should the projects be domestic or international?
Projects may be domestic or international. However, preference will be given to projects that demonstrate the ability to engage in a sustained and meaningful way with the community where the project is situated.
For U.S. university students, projects are prohibited to countries where a State Department Travel Warning has been issued or where there is other reliable information of significant health or safety risks. There are also certain countries with governmental travel restrictions (for example, Cuba, for US citizens) and we expect our Fellows to comply with those restrictions. For McGill students, McGill University’s international mobility guidelines prohibit student travel for academic reasons to locations the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) has issued a level 3 (avoid non-essential travel) or level 4 (avoid all travel) warning.
For further information about U.S. Department of State travel advisories, please consult the Department of State web site at: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_1764.html.
For McGill’s policies, see:www.mcgill.ca/students/international/registry
For more information on the Dalai Lama Fellows program, please write to Christian Simamora, Program Director at csimamora@dalailamafellows.org. You can also call him at 415-789-6429 between 9 - 6 pm Pacific Time, Monday through Friday.
