Deadline: 13-Jan-23
The Congressional Hunger Center is accepting applications for the Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellowship is a two-year opportunity to promote global food and nutrition security through learning and hands-on work.
Leland Fellows gain experience and professional skills working with host organizations in development or humanitarian placements around the world, and learn to see what works in international development—and what doesn’t—and how to make the system more efficient, more effective, and more just. Each class of Leland Fellows forms a learning cohort, sharing knowledge and insight and growing together throughout the two year program. And the Hunger Center’s dynamic leadership development curriculum centers the skills required to create change in the international development and humanitarian sectors.
The Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellows Program serves as a living legacy to Rep. Mickey Leland, a Member of Congress who emerged as a passionate leader in the fight to eradicate hunger in the United States and around the world. Leland, a Democrat, was first elected to represent the 18th District of Texas in 1978. During his time in Congress, he chaired the House Select Committee on Hunger and the Congressional Black Caucus and was an outspoken advocate for increasing U.S. aid to Africa.
As a Leland Fellow, you will be matched with a host organization—an NGO, agency, foundation, or private sector entity that works to build food and nutrition security.
How much are fellows paid?
- The Hunger Center provides a financial package based on cost of living data for each placement location, determined by host organization estimates and third-party resources. One resource they use in calculating the package for placement years in the United States is the MIT Living Wage calculator. Financial packages are calculated for each fellowship cycle with the most up-to-date data available, so can change from class to class.
- Your fellowship also includes travel and accommodation during in-person trainings and travel to your placement locations.
What training will I receive?
- Your work experience with your host org will be paired with leadership and professional development training from the Congressional Hunger Center.
- “The Leland Fellowship is an unparalleled opportunity for early to mid-career development professionals who are genuinely interested in understanding a range of approaches to ending hunger and food insecurity. It is a lesson in resilience and a chance to refine an anti-hunger career path from a unique set of professional experiences in both countries in the global south and the organizational centers of some of the world’s most prominent anti-hunger institutions.”
- Dan Myers (’19-’21) Their curriculum focuses on three areas that are essential for making sustainable change in the international development sector:
- Content knowledge on food and nutrition security
- The Hunger Center’s Leadership Capabilities Model
- Identity, power, and privilege in international development.
Eligibility Criteria
- Are you a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident?
- Because the Leland Fellowship is funded primarily by the U.S. government to support the development of future U.S. leaders (per federal authorization), the program is only open to U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents. Applicants who have received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are not eligible to serve as Hunger Fellows at this time.
Is the leland fellowship right for me?
- Answer the following questions to see if this opportunity is a good fit for what you’re looking for.
- Do you believe the international development and humanitarian sectors are, by and large, functioning as they should, and require no major changes?
- Do you think communities and governments in the global south should defer to the expertise of global north countries and international NGOs in their planning and programming?
- Are you only interested in gaining experience working in developing countries? Is what happens at a headquarters office uninteresting to you?
- Do you only like to be on the front lines of project implementation? Does public policy not really interest you?
- Do you have a very specific research or location interest? Is it critical that a fellowship placement align exactly with these research or location interests?
- Is it important that you receive a salary over the next couple of years that enables you to make significant debt payments on a monthly basis?
- Is it important that you receive benefits from an employer such as health, dental and retirement over the next couple of years?
- Do you feel strongly that you want employer- covered health insurance and other benefits rather than having to find and pay for these out of a monthly stipend?
- Is it critical that you be considered an employee of the organization you worth with during the fellowship, rather than being considered a 1099 contractor, and having to take care of quarterly tax filings, etc.?
- Do you have significant financial obligations that would make it difficult to live on a stipend that is designed specifically to support only the stipend recipient?
- Do you learn best in situations where you can be left alone to come to your own conclusions? Do you dislike learning in groups?
- Are you looking for an experience where much of your day-to-day experience is managed for you by Hunger Center staff or your supervisor at your host organization?
- Do you crave predictability? Once you make a plan, do you want to stick to it, no matter what?
- Do you expect you will be guaranteed a job placement with your host organization by the time the fellowship is complete?
- Do you want to try out this program for a year and see how it goes before you commit to doing a second year?
- Is it important to you that you be compensated as an expat?
- Do you think taking the time to explore the role that identity, power, and privilege play in traditional development models isn’t necessary for doing effective work?
- Is it important to you that your housing be provided? Do you not want to have to find your own housing in a new place?
- If you answered “yes” to any of the questions, the Leland Fellowship is probably not the opportunity you are looking for. If you answered “no” to all of the, read on to learn more about the application process.
For more information, visit Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellowship.
