The Melton Foundation in the United States has partnered with Ashesi to bring its global citizenship and ethical leadership programme to Africa for the first time. Under the programme, up to five Ashesi students could be selected each year to join the Foundation’s world-class Fellows programme and engage in projects to develop their skills as global citizens. Ashesi is the sixth institution to join the Melton Foundation’s programme, and will be the Foundation’s only partner in sub-Saharan Africa.
“At Ashesi we strongly believe in global citizenship and developing the cross-cultural competencies of our students,” said Millicent Adjei, head of Diversity and International Programmes at Ashesi. “This partnership will provide unique opportunities for young Africans to work across diverse cultures in developing solutions to the pressing problems they face in their communities.”
The Melton Foundation is a leading proponent of global citizenship as a way to encourage people and institutions to collaborate on shared global challenges. The Foundation works to empower students to address seven key issues, including conflict reduction, empowering changemakers, improving education and promoting equality.
“We conducted a year-long search across Africa for a partner university that best matched our mission to develop global citizens,” said Winthrop Carty, Executive Director at the Melton Foundation. “We identified universities that were both academically high quality and really serious about bettering their societies. After visiting nine excellent universities in the Region, we concluded without a doubt that Ashesi was it...and then some! Our current Melton Fellows from Chile, China, Germany, India, and the US are already thrilled with the selection of Ashesi and are eager to join with Melton Fellows from Africa. Fellows will work on projects that bring global solutions to local challenges and enable African youth to teach and engage others around the world.”
The Melton Foundation will officially announce the partnership at its Global Citizenship Conference in New Orleans, USA, from September 29th – October 6th of this year. The Conference will bring together thought leaders and global citizenship advocates to share ideas, learn skills, forge partnerships and act on local and global issues.