Deadline: 20-Oct-20
Are you building solutions based on a deep understanding of the issues you are tackling? Are you finding ways to change and positively impact the system you are working in? If yes, then apply for the Acumen India Fellowship Program to undergo an intensive, year-long personal and professional leadership journey to develop a community of leaders who challenge the status quo, work across lines of difference, and inspire their communities to believe in a brighter future.
The Fellowship is designed for individuals who are currently leading or are an integral part of building an initiative whose mission is to eradicate poverty or injustice. The Fellows are of all ages, come from diverse cultural, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, and work across multiple sectors.
Acumen Fellows understand that poverty extends beyond income levels and that the opposite of poverty is not income: it is dignity. Dignity is freedom. It is having control over decisions that affect our lives.
The Acumen India Fellowship is the start of a journey towards mastering the skills, attributes, and values of moral leadership: a combination of empathy, immersion, understanding, and action. What binds our Fellows is shared values, a common commitment to a world beyond poverty and injustice, a pledge to accompany one another, to help and celebrate one another, and to hold each other to account.
After the completion of the program, you join their community of Fellows from across the globe, a group of more than 700 remarkable individuals committed to a lifelong journey of mastering the principles and practices of moral leadership and social action.
What makes a fellow?
The fellows for Acumen India Fellowship are extraordinary leaders who dare to embrace the difficult journey of social change. Here’s what they want from you—and what you can expect from your cohort.
- Entrepreneurs: Leaders of both for-profit and nonprofit organizations providing critical goods or services to the underserved.
- Intrapreneurs: Builders from any sector tackling poverty and injustice from within by shifting the institutional culture—and building new collaborations.
- Organizational Builders: Leaders (other than the Founder or CEO) supporting the growth of institutions combating poverty and injustice.
What will you learn?
The Acumen India Fellowship curriculum is centered around the principles of moral leadership:
- Adaptive Leadership: Based on Ron Heifetz’s work, Adaptive Leadership is a practical leadership framework that supports Fellows’ ability to catalyze and embrace the gradual and meaningful process of creating change.
- Authentic Voice: Grounded in Marshall Ganz’s life’s work, the Authentic Voice curriculum allows the Fellows to develop the capacity to articulate a hopeful vision, speak across lines of difference, and move others into action.
- Good Society Readings: Modeled off The Aspen Institute, the Good Society Readings explore the meaning of a just society and the moral and historical foundation of social change through text-based dialogue
- Managing Polarities: Based on Barry Johnson’s work, Polarities aims to cultivate an individual’s ability to lead effectively when opposing but interdependent and equally important values are in tension.
- Systems Thinking: Fellows for Acumen India Fellowship explore the concept of Systems Thinking by working collaboratively on live challenges—enabling them to better understand larger, systemic problems and design more effective interventions.
Eligibility Criteria
- Although many of the Fellows do work in social enterprises, Fellows can be working in any sector (including for-profit, nonprofit, corporations, and government).
- Fellows go on various career paths and personal journeys over their lives, but many of the Fellows they have seen over the years include:
- Entrepreneurs who have founded or are leading a for-profit or nonprofit organization that provides critical goods and services to the underserved
- Intrapreneurs who are creating innovative solutions to tackle poverty or injustice from within existing institutions by shifting institutional culture and building new collaborations.
- Organizational builders who are supporting the growth of poverty or injustice-focused institution from within, but not as the founder or CEO
- They are looking for an entrepreneurial attitude, mindset, and approach – people who don’t accept the status quo.
- There are no specific academic prerequisites for Acumen India Fellowship.
- There is neither a minimum age requirement nor a maximum age cut off.
How to Apply
Their application process consists of these four steps.
- Step 1: Apply online
- Step 2: Receive your online assignment in October
- Step 3: Attend the Selection Conference in early-mid January
- Step 4: Their Fellows are selected in early February.
Application Advice
- Make it personal: The application for Acumen India Fellowship is their first glimpse into who you are: the values, attitudes, and experiences that have made you the person you are today. Be authentic and bring your whole self to the application.
- Do Your Homework: Learn as much as you can about the program before applying. Review their website, reach out to Fellows, attend an information session, or take an Acumen Academy course online.
- Save An Offline Copy: Read through the entire application form first. Enter and save your profile information, then spend time offline composing your responses to the questions. When you are ready to submit, copy, and paste your responses into the online form.
- Apply Early: Start well in advance to avoid any last-minute technical difficulties or connectivity problems. They do not accept applications after the deadline.
For more information, visit https://www.acumenacademy.org/fellowship/india