Princeton in Africa opens to other schools’ alumni

Launched in 1999, the program is an independent affiliate of the University that provides stipends for graduating seniors to work with aid organizations in Africa for one year. This year, the program sent 25 Princetonians to 16 countries. But as the program expands, too few Princeton alumni apply to meet the demands of increasingly diverse fellowship opportunities, Princeton in Africa executive director Cordelia Persen said.

“Over the years, Princeton in Africa has been expanding the variety of posts it offers,” Persen noted in an e-mail to The Daily Princetonian. “This means we need a more varied pool of applicants to fill the posts. We need people who are the ‘right fit’ for the posts we offer.” The change in the eligibility requirements does not reflect an increase in program funding, Persen added.

This shift brings the program in line with other University-affiliated postgraduate fellowships. Princeton in Asia and Princeton in Latin America accept applicants with bachelor’s degrees from any national college or university. Like Princeton in Africa, Princeton in Latin America began with only Princeton alumni.

Persen explained that many of the fellowships that the program hopes to offer next year require a candidate with specific skills who would also be unfazed by the demands of a harsh environment.

“Next year, we plan to have a post in Kenya where the fellow will be implementing a rainwater harvesting project and researching the possibility of building a large solar project at a small village,” Persen said.

“This post is a great opportunity for an engineering student who is interested in sustainability issues, but the fellow also has to be willing to live in a rural location without indoor plumbing and 24-hour electricity,” Persen added. “It’s a great project for the right person, but there are not a million candidates that fit this post.”

By broadening the applicant pool, Persen said Princeton in Africa hopes to match skills, personality types and past experience more precisely to their partner organizations. “We don’t want to make a promise to an organization and then not be able to fill the post. Instead we want to ensure a strong candidate every year,” Persen said.

Princeton in Africa did not actively recruit at other colleges and universities this year, other than sending out promotional posters, Persen said. But she added that the depth and variety of opportunities offered by the program are rare, and “word has traveled fast among other institutions.”

Princeton in Africa fellow Elizabeth Jemison ’08, who spent a year in South Africa working at an AIDS prevention organization, noted in an e-mail that she is “excited that other recent college grads will have the chance to apply to Princeton in Africa. In its mission to develop young leaders committed to Africa, PiAf [Princeton in Africa] will, I think, benefit from a larger applicant pool and a broader group of fellows for next year’s posts.”

Despite the widening applicant pool, however, Persen said that University students still have the home-team advantage. “If you come in and show us how interested you are in our program, it is going to stand out against other candidates,” Persen said. “This is a huge advantage in a sea of paper applications.”

Correction:

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Project 55 fellowship program accepts applicants from other universities, in fact, it is only open to Princeton students.