Starting in 2007 and continuing through 2017, the Blakeley Fellowship provided financial support to ten graduate students between their first and second year at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy to experience working for an international non-profit organization.
Fields eligible for consideration included:
NGO Business Development & Project Financing
Micro Financing Private Sector
Private Partnerships
Small and Medium Enterprise Development
During each of the ten years that the annual summer Fellowship was in existence these ten graduate students were provided funds to work overseas for 8-10 weeks. Most of these students have gone on to build on this international experience after graduation working in international development.
Explore Blakeley Fellowship Projects by Year:
Location / Country: Kigali, Rwanda
Organization: Africa Entrepreneurship Collective
This summer, I did my summer internship at African Entrepreneur Collective (AEC). AEC is an American NGO which supports entrepreneurs in Rwanda and Tanzania. I would like to contribute more to the beautiful country, Rwanda, as wells as the amazing African continent after graduating from Fletcher.
Country: Mbale District, Uganda
Organization: Discipling for Development (D4D)
Taken together the internship with MCC Indonesia was an enriching one where I had the opportunity to build upon my background in Indonesia and enhance my language skills in addition to learning about a vast array of new sustainable development issues and cultivating field research skills.
Country: Jakarta, Indonesia
Organization: Millenium Challenge Corporation
Taken together the internship with MCC Indonesia was an enriching one where I had the opportunity to build upon my background in Indonesia and enhance my language skills in addition to learning about a vast array of new sustainable development issues and cultivating field research skills.
Country: Ahmedabad, India
Organization: Centre for Innovation, Incubation, & Entrepreneurship
In the summer of 2017, I joined the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship as a Strategy Associate. Working vigorously under four initiatives, I gained vast exposure to many startups, industries, ideas and entrepreneurs which I will expand on below.
Country: Kigali, Rwanda
Organization: Hands of Mothers
Overall, my internship experience with Hands of Mothers (HOM) was extremely rewarding for me. I learned a lot about development at the local level though the lenses of women’s empowerment in business, capacity building, and project sustainability.
Country: Zimbabwe
Organization: TechnoServe
My summer experience as a Blakeley Fellow working with TechnoServe and the African Agriculture Fund (AAF) was nothing less than a “have-it-all-at-once” opportunity. In my ten weeks in Zimbabwe, I was afforded the chance to delve deep into each of my interest areas – small and medium enterprise development, private equity, business strategy and impact investing.
Country: Colombia
Organization: Compartamos con Colombia
My experience in Colombia surpassed every expectation. During my short time there, I worked with incredible colleagues, became familiar with a number of important local players, was introduced to the world of nonprofit consulting, and in some small way participated in important efforts to strengthen the social sector in Colombia.
Country: India
Organization: Vaya
Vaya is a for-profit microfinance institution (MFI) based in Hyderabad, India, the capital of the Indian state of Telangana. Vaya is operational in six states in India and is currently the only microfinance firm present in Telangana following the Andhra Pradesh crisis in 2010. Throughout my nine weeks at Vaya my focus was on individual lending.
Country: Indonesia
Organization: Ruma
RUMA (now transitioning to “Mapan”) is an Indonesia-based company that works on providing lower income communities with better access to goods and services through technology. I was assigned to the marketing team to work on a project called Gugus Mapan. Gugus Mapan is a financial literacy program where the deliverable was an activity book directed towards the women who are typically in charge of the family’s finances.
Country: Nicaragua
Organization: Hurricane Ventures, Managua, Nicaragua
My internship this summer with Hurricane Ventures expanded upon an idea born out of the commercial challenges of developing, operating, and maintaining a solar energy project in Central America.