A warm welcome to our 93 new Africademics Scholarship Ambassadors! The kick-off meeting for the 2022 round of our Ambassador programme took place last week and our Zoom room was filled to capacity. It was wonderful to finally ‘e-meet’ our new volunteers and we can’t wait to get started with their Ambassador training! Over the next four months our participants will learn all about finding and applying for scholarships, develop their mentoring skills, and join our team of scholarship mentors and advisors after their graduation.
We will introduce our Ambassadors to you one by one over the next few weeks, so keep an eye on our news section and our social media pages!
Meet our 2022 cohort!
Initially, we had planned to take on 30 Scholarship Ambassadors, as we did in the previous year. However, we received so many strong applications from amazing and inspiring individuals from all across the African continent and beyond, that we decided to massively up-scale our Ambassador programme this year. We are incredibly excited to welcome our team of 93 new participants who will start their 4-month Scholarship Ambassador training this week!
Our 2022 Ambassadors come from 21 different African countries and currently live in 26 countries across the globe. The countries most strongly represented by this year’s participants include Nigeria (19 Ambassadors), Zimbabwe (12), Kenya (10), South Africa (7), Cameroon (7) and Namibia (6). Other African countries represented by our Ambassadors include Benin, DRC, Egypt, eSwatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Our youngest Ambassador is a 21-year old undergraduate student from South Africa, while our most senior participant is a retired professor (also from South Africa) who recently turned 66 years old.
This year’s cohort consists of five undergraduate students, 18 postgraduate students (Honours and Master’s), 13 recent graduates, 20 PhD students, four postdoctoral researchers, 18 professors and lecturers, and 15 academic staff members in other positions. Our Ambassadors also represents a large variety of different disciplines, ranging from the humanities to STEM and life sciences, agriculture, health, law, IT, engineering, education, and many other fields of study.
Most of our Ambassadors have received one or several scholarships and/or fellowships or other forms of academic funding over the course of their studies and career. Others have extensive professional experience in the field of scholarships and funding programmes, and many of our Ambassadors already engage in scholarship mentoring on a regular basis.
We are thrilled to be working with such a diverse, motivated and qualified group of Ambassadors this year and can’t wait to start our journey of learning, sharing and mutual support!
The Scholarship Ambassador Programme
The Scholarship Ambassador Programme trains volunteers to become scholarship advisors and mentors. Ambassadors participate in a 4-month online course with virtual lectures, case studies and additional activities. They then join our global team of volunteers and offer personal support, advice and mentorship for scholarship seekers and applicants in and from Africa. The first cohort with 30 participants from ten different countries graduated in October 2021 and our 2022 cohort with 93 participants started their Ambassador training in April 2022. To meet our Ambassadors and learn more about them, visit our Ambassador page!
