The “It” Factor: Case Studies in Creating Lasting Fellowship Networks

• Track: Connections Matter
• Description: Organizations and institutions are continually trying to create fellowship experiences that create a lasting impact on fellows and inspire them to create positive change in their profession or surrounding community. For this impact to occur many believe the connections fellows form with one another during their fellowship experience and their ability to sustain these connections after the fellowship’s close are key to ensuring a fellow has the encouragement and support needed to affect positive change. But what causes these connections and networks to form and last? Attendees will be able to participate in a thoughtful conversation about what practitioners have learned over the course of two different programs and be able to contribute their own knowledge during the discussion portion.
• Facilitators: Fouzia Bencheikh (Program Officer, World Learning), Benjamin Gaylord (Director, Secondary School and Professional Programs, American Councils), Adam Meier (Branch Chief, East Asian & Pacific Fulbright Programs, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State), Dianne Neville (Senior Program Officer, World Learning), and Catherine Martin Scott (Director of Business Development, World Learning)

Becoming a “Relentless Learning” Program

• Track: Answering the “So What?”
• Description: Since 2016, the Schusterman Fellowship team has worked in partnership with Learning for Action to evaluate the impact of the Fellowship and to learn about ways we might improve the Fellowship for current and future Fellows. Findings to date indicate that the Fellowship is supporting its intended outcomes: 43% of Fellows have advanced to Senior Executive positions since beginning the Fellowship and 78% of Fellows report that their participation highly contributed to positive change in their organization. In this session, we will share: the motivation behind our learning and evaluation strategy; best practices for learning from participants; and the qualities this approach to relentless learning requires, including vulnerability, humility and resilience. Attendees will gain concrete tools for how to gather candid feedback from their constituents, distill learning, and translate that learning into program adjustments. They will walk away with concrete ideas for implementing new “relentless learning” strategies to inform and evolve their work.
• Facilitators: Abby Saloma (Director, Leadership and Talent, Schusterman Family Foundation), Colleen Cruikshank (Senior Program Officer, Schusterman Family Foundation), and Katie McGeehan (Senior Consultant, Learning for Action)

Culture Centered Rooted Leadership

• Track: Diversity Dividend
• Description: The practice of rooted leadership requires a commitment to self-reflection that challenges the deficit model of communities of color and redefines it through an asset-based lens. This session seeks to expand the conversation of what makes a good leader. Fellowship programs wanting to work with communities of color and the leadership within those communities need to be able to identify skill sets not traditionally seen as assets.
• Facilitator: Hector Sanchez-Flores (Executive Director, National Compadres Network)

Leadership Conversations for Learning and Change: Applying the OBREAU Tripod

• Track: Answering the “So What?”
• Description: This interactive and experiential workshop introduces a structure, the OBREAU Tripod, to support leadership-oriented conversations on virtually any issue, for learning and change. "OBREAU" is a composite of the first two letters each of Observation, Reasonableness and Authenticity. Each of these terms represents both a "leg" of the Tripod and a principle for working through difficult issues. Participants will practice applying the Tripod in preparing to converse on an issue that matters personally.
• Facilitator: Don Dunoon (Director, New Futures Pty Ltd)

3:30 p.m.–3:45 p.m.