The fellowship program A Year of Leadership Development

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World Merit Fellowship Program Participants with their passports2014/2015

THE MOSTimportant

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Purpose Then Impact

A Program For You

Your Team Together

Employability / Fundability

Creativity / Connectivity / Capability

The Challenges 2015/16

Key Skills For Impact 2015/16

Program Design

The Fellowship

Scholarships & Sustainability

Accessible & Inclusive (Apply Now)

8 Reasons For You To Apply

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Ismat Ara Tani, Bangladeshwith her social action “Merit March for Hope” in Chittagong joined by 1000+ active supporters”

purpose then impactWhatever your background or belief, whatever your insight into pressing local and global challenges, whatever the specifics of your personal ambition, we hope you want to make the most of every opportunity, of every day.

At World Merit we know the success and progress of humanity is tied directly to how much diverse talent we unleash and how we support people to identify theirpassions and reach their potential.

The World Merit Fellowship Program (WMFP) is here to support you in identifying your purpose and to unlock your potential and passion. The skills and experience provided will help you make your impact; the network and community you join will set off a permanent collaboration for positive global change.

The core values of World Merit, as voted on and ratified by our community, are known as our EPIC values; Empowering, Pioneering, Integrity, Collaborative. As a new generation rises, we are inviting everyone to live by these EPIC values.

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PassionPotentialPurpose

When we dare to take part in making a difference, we need not be extraordinary. Remember, heroesare ordinary people who do extraordinary things. We can define what extraordinary is.- Philip Medalla, Philippines, Fellowship Program Participant

Like all universities, employers, investors, voters, and people in need, we know that actions speaklouder than academic transcripts. We work hard to reduce the barriers to opportunity, and to that endwe have an open application process and a subsidized cost and scholarship fund to make this topquality program accessible for you, whatever your background. If you want to reach your potentialand build a better world, this is for you.

World Merit has over 100,000 young global citizens in our platform, representing every country. One of our core principles is to strive to be radically inclusive, and with the leadership of World Merit fellows we optimistically believe that this principle will be widely held in the coming decades. On a selection level, we don’t care whether you are wealthy or poor, we care about your drive to make the world a better place and about your willingness to collaborate.

More than at any time, the upcoming generation has a wide view of the world. You have globalconnections expanding in social media as well as constant streams of insight and news online. We will start the next Fellowship Program in the United States for two weeks and end together in the United Kingdom for two weeks, but you, and the other fellows, will use technology to harness ideas from the wider World Merit community from home in the intervening period of 11 months.

The travel and cultural exchange is an exciting component, but WMFP is designed to work next to your existing job or studies. Our facilitation team will leave you with skills to make increasing impact forever after, and our desire to build an active alumni will mean connections and value for a life-time.

A program for you

2 weeks United States11 months online collaboration at home2 weeks United Kingdom

We were all brought together for one common purpose, because someone saw a need that had to be met; the need for collaboration; the need for rising above beliefs and borders to build something more amazing on this planet; together. - Martina Buchal, Canada, Fellowship Program Participant

Your team togetherUpon graduating from the program you will become a World Merit Fellow, and that club will provideyou with a truly global network of friends and support that will grow exponentially in the coming years. The insight from diverse people on the same journey as you and on previous and coming programs is an education in itself, but the network resource will be lifelong and invaluable.

Mahatma Gandhi said that if you change yourself you change your world. That is a great start butonce you’ve started your own evolution, join others and collectively take positive change to scale.On this Fellowship Program you will be surrounded by like-minded people from a wide range ofcountries, there were 17 different nationalities represented in the first Fellowship Program, and that diversity will be exceeded on WMFP 2015/16.

The curriculum of the Fellowship Program has a focus on being able to understand and articulateyour needs and the needs of others. Forming a highly effective team is a critical skill central tobeing able to deliver significant plans. You will practice leadership and participation in teams anddelivering an important and meaningful real world project in a structured time scale.

Employabilityfundability

There are a number of factors in becoming extremely employable and/or easy to fund, they can however be simplified to just three things - how well you can prove your actions of merit, how well you articulate yourself, and how well your network supports you and provides you with access to opportunities. We want to push open the window of opportunity for more people, and our Fellowship Program will build skills from ‘fundraising’ to ‘team leading’ that will be recognised and valuable.

In the recent past World Merit has introduced its members to many influential people. World Leaders like Malala Yousafzai and Lord John Alderdice; renowned entrepreneurs like Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Group), Lord Michael Hastings (KPMG & Vodafone), and Baroness Martha Lane Fox (Lastminute.com); and thought leaders like Sir Ken Robinson, Jack Healey, and Felix Finkbeiner.

We have also held days and workshops in Barclays, Bloomberg, Deloitte, Google, Greenpeace, UK Parliament, and 10 Downing Street providing uncommon access to institutions and individuals that add to the experience and network of engaged members of our community.

Employers, venture capitalists, academics, politicians and other influential people have endorsed the curriculum of the World Merit Fellowship Program.

Wicked GlobalChallenge

outcomes that contribute to social and environmental change. The challenges are focused on three different areas; Education, Environment and Equality.

‘Taking Action’ is central to our ethos, so in a group of up to 24, you will lead a Global Challenge project designed to engage young people around the world. This ‘real’ experience in the complexity of multi-stakeholder global collaboration will both ‘ground’ your learning and have

issues and create transformational change. Within groups and indivually, your entrepreneurial energy will explode, building your confidence, raising your aspirations, extending your capabilities.

We know that you will have ‘entrepreneurial energy’ yet how can that energy be cultivated and result in greater impact? You will learn and apply essential toolkits on how to implement new start-up projects. You will also be asked to think big, all in the context of how to approach complex

will emerge from multiple individual tasks but mostly from working within a culturally diverse group. Supported by the world-leading Lectical Leadership Development Framework.

Who am I? What do I stand for? What is my mission, vision and aims? What are my leadership strengths and blind-spots? How do I walk my talk? These are questions that define who you are and how you lead your life. Therefore it’s a main component of the program. A realisation of who you are

There are three core components to the curriculum that lay solid foundations for your creativity and connectivity, and also develop your permanent capability.

Creativity Capability Connectivity

All students sit on the same benches on the same chairs. It shows that it does not matter the colour of your skin, the religion you believe or what language you speak. You are all equal. You should be treated equally.- Malala Yousafzai, World Merit Guest Lecturer

The best idea for sustainability came from the indigenous people of North America. Every time a decision is made, a council of elders thinks if the second generation after them would still support this decision. Only then they agree on something.- Felix Finkbeiner,World Merit Guest Lecturer

Education is modelled on the process of industrialism - I think it should be more organised like a farm, where people can grow and flourish. The great challenge of education is creating the conditions for people where they will become a better version of themselves. - Sir Ken Robinson, World Merit Guest Lecturer

The World Merit community and ambassadors have selected three areas for participants to examine and tackle during their year long Fellowship Program. The outline headings are;

The challenges 2015/16

In small groups, networked into the widest World Merit Community, you will work to tackle a wickedly complex global challenge

In July 2014, I began the first two week chapter of the twelve month Fellowship Program. We were setto break down barriers, rise beyond borders and bring together 24 change makers from around the

world. We were about to work on a global impact program and develop ourselves and hopefully our world.

Very grateful and slightly overwhelmed to be accepted on the program (I landed from Africa in LondonSaturday and travelled to Liverpool on the Sunday), I had no time to breathe before jumping in.

Jump in is exactly what myself and the others did. We jumped all in and left nothing behind…bearing our souls,speaking from our hearts, developing our thoughts and opening our minds to new possibilities, newpractices, and new connections.

The program was a mightily intense, fully packed, full fat array of learning, developing, growing, networking,presenting, performing and I can honestly say I was not expecting anything like it. The courses I’ve knowninvolve standardised, stale content where you notice yourself staring more at the ceiling than the facilitator.Many times, you are not fully present…you listen, try to learn and move on. NOT THIS. In no wayshape or form is this like any other program, course, or moments I’ve had in my life.

- Jessica Cruse, United Kingdom

A Participant’s Reflection

The Fellowship Program works on three core parts, the personal, professional and the problems that the next generation have to face. It provides you with skills for every facet of your life and career. If and when you put these skills into action, you will prove yourself a highly capable, employable, fundable and impactful 21st century leader.

Key Skills for impact2015/16

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Warning: the following may contain very smart language, written by our program designers...

The WMF design draws on a wide range of sources of inspiration including Transformative Learning (Mezirow), Critical Pedagogy (Freire), and Complex Thought (Morin); but two of the chief design principles which shape the flow of the program are illustrated below, these are: Theory U (Scharmer) and the 6D process model (an extension of the popular 4D approach used in Appreciative Inquiry). The model guides you through a process of dropping into presence through opening your mind, heart, and will, unlearning and letting go of preconceptions, so that new innovative solutions can emerge.

Program design

Pre- and Post-Program ElementsAlthough the program starts and ends with intensive in-person gatherings a year apart, the program is actually conceived of as an 18 month program book-ended on either side by developmental assessment, strategic reflection, and the creation of individualised learning trajectories, which underpin the Fellowship Program and support new fellows as they exit the training program.

DefineThis part of the process is concerned with supporting you in coming to terms with your own understanding of the wickedly complex global challenge you will be engaging, and beginning to lay the ground work for your year long personal development journey. You will spend a substantial part of your initial time together during the first intensive gathering collaboratively deciding on a general shared definition of the challenge to guide the direction of your combined efforts.

DiscoverThis part of the process creates space for you to delve more deeply into the nature of the challenge, not only by gaining a deeper understanding of a complex systems perspective, but also by exploring the way that it shows up through a number of lenses of inquiry as well as in the narratives that surround members in the multiple communities (both virtual and geographically situated) that you participate in. In addition time will be spent deepening your process of self-discovery.

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DreamThe dream phase of the program is dedicated to co-imagining alternative futures. We engage a sophisticated artificial intelligence to support us in harnessing the creative capacity of the broader World Merit community and introduce a futures methodology called Causal Layered Analysis to help us in plumbing the depths of present understandings and surfacing new more hopeful imaginaries.

DesignThe design phase focuses on surfacing innate creative confidence and building our collaborativeintelligence through brain storming, challenging assumptions, and rapid prototyping. You will trial multiple possible innovative engagements with the wicked challenge and collaboratively arrive at the most powerfully transformative design solution.

DeliverThis phase of the program involves pulling together key learnings from the program and creating an product which effectively represents the teams transformative engagement with the wicked challenge. These products will be presented to the public as well as a panel of experts during the second intensive in-person gathering. In the beginning the program deliverables are largely undefined because it is a product of generative reflection upon the transformative process which participants have immersed themselves in over the span of the program. This means that participants could conceivably create a wide range of different products. Alongside the groups engagement with the wicked challenge, you will also individually deliver a portfolio documenting your personal learning journey through the duration of the program.

DestinyThe last part of the program is about destiny. What is the role of a World Merit fellow? How can the learning gained during the program be best used to serve the world? Ultimately the success of the program is not measured in the product delivered at the end of the year but in the global transformation which participants create many years down the line.

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Many World issues to tackle

Thousands of global citizens as fellows

hundreds of thousands world merit community members

millions of millenials to inspire and lead

The fellowshipImagine joining a group that will shape a better, more inclusive global society. Imagine graduating from World Merit’s flagship program, and as a fellow enjoying an international family that connects you to lifelong support and opportunity. Together in the Fellowship you will make change, together you will tackle small and large issues, together you will evolve and embrace the best of humanity.

We expect our fellows to work hard for each other and to create the most valuable resource – a connected network. We expect fellows to identify the next generation of merit and guide them to opportunities. We expect you to mentor and support others to the achieving of their full potential, but most of all we expect you to enjoy being part of a collaborative team that forever builds bridges and makes progress. Whatever your ambition, whatever your purpose, being a member of the World Merit Community, an alumni of our lead program and a World Merit Fellow, will provide you with the means to succeed.

Do you know people from many countries, people on a track to lead in a variety of fields from entrepreneurship to politics to media to public service? As alumni you will be surrounded by like-minded individuals working hard to buildinfluence and working hard to use that influence for good. Applying for the World Merit Fellowship Program will be the best decision you ever make.

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World Merit, our ambassadors and fellows are continuously building scholarship funds to directly support those who have demonstrated their eligibility for the program.

For the 2015/16 Fellowship Program prospective participants are to fundraise a fee of £2000 as contribution towards Food, Accommodation, Communication, and Transportation costs in the United States (July 2015) and in the United Kingdom (July 2016). We refer to this as the FACT fee.

In addition we will ask you to join our fundraising efforts for the World Merit Scholarship Fund so that more people like you benefit from the Fellowship Program.

Your Commitment:

£1000 FACT fee (£100 deposit within 30 days after being selected, balance by May 1st 2015).

£1000 FACT fee (final £1000 due by May 1st 2016).

Flights not included.

Fundraising Pledge taken after being selected, with first target set as May 1st 2016. All selected participants will receive direct scholarship funds of £6000 paid from the World Merit charity, registered in the United Kingdom.

Scholarships & Sustainability

*Fund is built by the Pay It Forward campaign, and from philanthropic donations.

Fact feefor which you take responsibility andfundraise.If

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Scholarship fundsprovided to you by the World Merit Fund*

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نآلا مدق

World Merit aims to always be radically inclusive. We are working to make surethat finance is no barrier to reaching potential. The Fellowship Program is the flagship opportunity of World Merit and in the coming period World Merit charityis working with philanthropists and heads of corporate social responsibility to provide scholarships. Your fees are heavily reduced but your commitment cannot be; if you are selected we will look for you to pay that good fortune forward through your creativity, through visits to potential funders, and in facilitated networking with key individuals.

The World Merit Fellowship Program is operated in English, but we are developing links with English language schools to minimise this barrier to selection.

The youngest participant in the 2014/15 Fellowship Program was 17, butnormally 18 is the age when people can travel without parental permission.The World Merit platform is open to anyone of any age, but is targeting peoplewho are starting a journey and finding their purpose.

Progress takes invention and persistence. We are all in it together.

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Employability and FundabilityFellows will be left with the tools to effectively take action, and will have gained experience in doing so. This is an active program with academic rigor. It is a program that is for people wanting to implement and do things and will build experience that employers, funders, and even top universities will want and expect. Beyond career progression however, we maintain the most significant value is in joining a collaborative global team determined to actively tackle the growing challenges of our future.

The Team Who Came Before YouThere is often a propensity to say the last generation failed. It’s somewhat true, there are many many issues still to tackle, and many that have been tackled poorly. Thomas Edison said “I have not failed. I have found 10,000 ways that won’t work” - humanity is in the same position. We accelerate progress by sharing the experience of both success and failure by providing mentors and moments for you from extremely experienced people of previous generations and world leaders.

Beyond Beliefs and BordersWorld Merit is radically inclusive with our community representing every country. Our flagship World Merit Fellowship Program is a high value year long leadership program that requires a lot of resources to operate. Fundraising is a key skill and one that all employers and funders will require. Led by previous fellows and with the support of global philanthropists, we are working to overcome financial disparity and maintain accessibility through a significant scholarship fund.

Together We Are StrongerWhether you already know your purpose or whether this program helps you truly understand it, working towards it should not be a solitary project. Connecting to like minded global citizens and future leaders is not only a benefit to this program it is an integral part of your future success. We will build a global alumni network and you will be at its core.

8 reasons for youto apply

The Opportunity To Be Awarded A Malala Yousafzai Scholarship (Gender Equality)We are proud and honored that Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has worked to provide two scholarships for the upcoming 2015/16 World Merit Fellowship Program. In speaking to World Merit during our 2014 program it was confirmed and clear that we have an aligned purpose. Eni Selfo (Albania) and Jessica Cruse (United Kingdom) were selected as Malala Yousafzai Scholars in the first run of the Fellowship Program, particularly because of their passion and fight for gender equality. Will you be selected this time?

The Opportunity To Be Awarded A Felix Finkbeiner Scholarship (The Environment)Felix is one of the most remarkable young people around today, having started the acclaimed Plant For The Planet organisation in 2007 at the age of nine. Led by Felix, Plant for the Planet evolved into a global movement particularly after he was elected to the board of the United Nations Environment Program. It has organised and supervised the planting of over 13 Billions trees. The Felix Finkbeiner scholarship takes two selected participants from WMFP and provides them places at a Plant For The Planet Academy. Those chosen in 2014, Toby Jordan (New Zealand) and Juliano Rzart (Brazil) are participating, with expenses paid, in an academy in Mexico.

The Opportunity To Be Awarded A Sir Ken Robinson Scholarship (Education)Sir Ken Robinson is arguably the worlds leading mind in regards to progressing edu-cation. His speech is the all time most viewed speech on the TED platform and Ken himself is very keen to actively support World Merit and its members. In 2015/16, two WMFP participants will be named as the Sir Ken Robinson Scholars and will have access to the cutting edge thinking (and humour) of Ken himself.

Easy Application ProcessIt is easy. Go to www.worldmerit.org or click here. If you have problems you can contact us by email, wmfp@worldmerit.co.uk, on our Facebook page, through Twitter or on the World Merit hub.

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