https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ehzZQh8c20
December 15th
2014.
 |
| Scott Beale presenting the graduand certificate to me |
Good Evening Fellow-Fellows, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Courage, someone once said; is what it takes to stand up and speak…but
it is also what it takes to seat down and listen… and so I want to thank all of
you for demonstrating your courage and by letting a stranger (to some of you)-
address you this fine evening!
I am indeed very humbled, thrilled and excited because today
marks the near end of a beautiful journey that has been my Atlas Corps
Fellowship Experience! When Younas Chowdry (the best Atlas Corps Training
Manager, I should add) informed me of this fine task that my fellow fellows had
nominate me for, I wondered what exactly I would say on behalf of and to a
group of individuals who have often been described as the best of the world's
rising leaders.
In my quest to find adequate inspiration for this speech, I
asked each fellow to describe in a word or two what their fellowship experience
has meant to them. Some of the words I heard included; transformative, awesome,
stimulating, bittersweet, inspiring, insightful, motivating and a period of intense
awareness and self-reflection.[1]
I remember quite vividly the first day I heard about the
Atlas Corps Fellowship Program. Believe it or not, I received an email from a
then unknown correspondent, Scott Beale -The Founder himself; in early February
of 2013.The subject of the email was ‘ Do you know talented non-profit
leaders.’ The gist of the email went something along these lines;
“Dear Catherine, We
founded Atlas Corps
on the principal that talent is equally distributed around the world but
opportunity is not; help us find talented and passionate professionals for our
next class of leaders.”
Now I don’t know what the normal and standard response to that
should be (especially when it is a stranger asking you for a favour) but I must
admit I was very sceptical. My email account had just recently been hacked into
and as an avid blogger I often receive such requests to share opportunities on
my blog and unfortunately some of them are not always legitimate! After doing
some research and basic form of screening on this organisation (that is the
lawyer in me by the way) I finally posted an article on my blog on February 25th
2013 titled ‘Apply to be an Atlas Corps Fellow’ and sent the link to Scott[2].
I never really belaboured on how he had gotten my email address but the more I
spent time reading about other fellows and the benefits and responsibilities of
being part of this fellowship, the more I was intrigued!
There are several factors I can think of that made me apply
for this fellowship. Three of the most compelling reasons are that:
One -I also wanted an opportunity to learn best practices
from a network of young extraordinary fellows from around the world on how to
make effective and meaningful change to the world’s global problems.
Two- I was at a crossroad with my legal career and was keen
to figure out what exactly I wanted to use my legal background in.
Three- I wanted an opportunity to learn from an outstanding
organisation on how to develop and run my informal mentorship program for
teenage girls in Kenya better.
It therefore made logical sense to travel 9,126 Miles from
Kenya to take up a post as a grant manager serving at the Nike Foundation
supporting the Girl Effect Movement. It would be a great injustice given the
limited time I have to share all that I have learnt in my role managing a
portfolio of grants, running and helping manage a request for proposal process,
scoring and vetting concept notes as well as capturing, distilling and
inspiring learning to scale initiatives for adolescent girls living in poverty.
But what I wish to share with you tonight is that some of the most fundamental
skills I have learnt on girl engagement and on how to make meaningful programs
that target the most vulnerable girl, I could not have possibly learnt in a
classroom anywhere! Serving at a Foundation has also exposed me to a broader
spectrum of various and diverse organisations, programs, and initiatives that
work from policy to advocacy to communication and even on research work!
And of course serving at the Nike Campus also revived my dormant
genetic ability to run. I go back home having not won a Gold medal or broken
yet another marathon best time but I must admit the influence of the swoosh was
hard to ignore!
I wish I could tell you that all fellows, including myself
had an amazing time everyday filled with rainbows and butterflies! I wish I
could say that we were never frustrated, stressed, home-sick or sleep deprived
sometimes! But some days we were! But we weathered the storm because we each
knew what our own personal motivation for getting to the finish line meant to
us and we knew that hard work is never easy and we were ready to put in the
effort and the hours! I am particularly grateful for the genuine friendship
among our class and the support fellows have given each other from forming our
own whatsapp group, to calling and checking up on each other occasionally! I am
even more grateful that I had Smiti Gahrotra a fellow from India not only share
the Nike experience with me but was also my flatmate, greatest critic and
cheerleader alike!
To my dear fellows, we did it! We survived the culture shock,
we endured the Global Leadership Immersion Labs, we sat and passed the Project
Management Certification, we braved the snowpocalyps, we made friends and we
learnt. My wish for each of you is that you keep knowing, growing and going!
Even as I say goodbye I am deeply encouraged that I have a network and pillar
of support from as far as the beautiful Bogota in Columbia to the buzzing city
of Kampala in Uganda and even in the scenic Seoul in South Korea. Tonight, we
come together for our last hurrah! It may be the end of our stay here but it is
just the beginning of another great chapter…
I want to end my last thought by thanking the entire Atlas
Corps staff, all our partners and host organizations for taking a chance on us!
We came here ambitious and bright but we leave better off not with all the answers
to solve the world’s most pressing problems but we leave here with the tools
and a network of amazing fellows and alumni who together will be the biggest
step to changing the world!
Congratulations Class of 2014! We did it!
To our guest and partners, I encourage you to hear other
fellows’ stories before you leave tonight!
Thank You.
[1]Rehema- Transformative
Trish & Younas - Awesome
Karuna- Stimulating
Smiti- Inspiring
Victoria- Bitter Sweet
Karam- Self-Reflection
Monica- Motivation
Munya- Insightful
Kate- Awareness
[2]
http://empowereddivas.blogspot.com/2013/02/apply-to-become-atlas-corps-fellow.html
