The Ford Motor Company International Fellowship of the 92nd Street Y now underway was designed with the goal of enhancing the efforts of emerging leaders in communities throughout the world. Each year, a group of 20-24 emerging leaders from different regions of the world are selected to become Ford Fellows of the 92nd Street Y. Participants are leaders in the NGO sector addressing issues whose resolution will have a significant positive impact on their communities, on their countries, and, collectively, on the world.

Idealist.org wrote:

In what looks like a pretty impressive cross-sector, cross-continent, and cross-NYC collaboration, 18 leaders from NGOs in Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Israel, Latvia, Liberia, and Uruguay recently landed here for three weeks of “intensive training in nonprofit management and building civil societies.”

The agenda looks packed, from a kickoff dinner with Ford executives, local Ford dealers, and local diplomats; to neighborhood tours of Jackson Heights, Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Harlem, and the West Village; to a number of site visits, including:

The Point Community Development Corporation

Sesame Workshop

Sustainable South Bronx

Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding

The United Nations

I’d have loved to be a fly on the wall; this looks like quite an enriching—and exhausting!—few weeks. Imagining this budding global network of NGO leaders, I can’t help but remember old episodes of Captain Planet: by their powers combined, who knows what amazing things might happen?

As an attendee last year stated, “It’s a life changing opportunity, but only if you decide to make the choice.”

[International Relations at the 92nd Street Y]