AIF’s William J. Clinton Fellowship 2020

AIF Clinton Fellowship is conducted by American Indian Foundation and it gives an opportunity to skilled young Americans & Indian to work with NGOs in India for ten months. William J Clinton Fellowship service and fieldwork helps exchange technical skills, intellectual resources which in turn increases the capacity of Indian NGOs to continue their work. American leaders get a good understanding of India and Fellows gain knowledge of development on the ground in the fields of:

• Education
• Livelihoods
• Public health
• Human Rights

AIF Clinton Fellowship creates a community of socially engaged individuals who represent the leaders of tomorrow. Alumni of the fellowship program are leaders in various domains like international development, academia, business, journalism, entrepreneurship, public health and many other fields. 

• The AIF Clinton Fellowship provides a platform to develop the skills, resources and the network needed to become an efficient and socially-minded leader.  
• The application for the fellowship programme has already started and there will be a midpoint retreat in January 2017 and endpoint conference at the end of June 2017.

AIF Clinton Fellowship 2020 Dates

AIF Clinton Fellowship is fully funded and provides the following benefits:

For Indian Fellows 

• Travel Cost: AIF provides domestic travel from their hometowns in India, insurance coverage
• Living Expenses: A monthly stipend.

US Citizens

• Travel Cost: AIF provides a roundtrip ticket from the USA to India, along with insurance coverage
• Living Expenses: A monthly stipend.

Two weeks vacation time

• Each Fellow receives up to two weeks of vacation time during the ten-month Fellowship, pending approval from the host organisation.
• Fellows placed at host organisations with a Saturday workday receive 20 days vacation time.

Placements and Responsibilities of the selected fellows

• Support AIF Partner Organisation: Fellows will support AIF partner organisations in meeting their human resource and project needs through training, skills-sharing and capacity-building.
• Responsibilities of the fellows vary and are based on their skills, experience and interests.
  Typical projects support (but are not limited to) program design and implementation, monitoring & evaluation, creating business strategies, action research and communications. 

Applications for AIF Clinton Fellowship opens annually in the Fall for the program cycle the following year (September – June). The application form of  AIF Clinton Fellowship is a little bit lengthy, there are eleven steps in the form. Candidates are suggested that they should keep sufficient time before filling the application. It can be filled partially but the applicants must "save draft" of their application after filling each step (page) of the form.

AIF Clinton Fellowship is open, and the interested candidates have to apply online for the fellowship program. Before applying for the fellowship, the student must create an account with AIF by providing their e-mail address & creating a password.

Click here to Apply

Information to be filled up in the AIF Clinton Fellowship Application Form

• Personal Details, Contact number, address, 
• Educational Background & experience
• Essay Questions - 250-300 words per question
  
  • Share your story. Why do you want to serve in India as an AIF Clinton Fellow at this moment in your life? (350 words)
    In your answer, address the following: What brought you here? How does this experience fit into your larger professional and individual development? Why do you specifically want to apply to the AIF Clinton Fellowship? 
  • Share your philosophy of service. (250 words) 
    In your answer, address the following: What does service mean to you? Why do you want to serve? What specific experiences have shaped your philosophy of service? What motivates you when serving people and communities?
  • Outline three (3) skills that you would apply during the course of this Fellowship when working with communities in development. (250 words) 
    Please give concrete examples of how you learned each of these skills. What or who motivated you to learn these skills?
  • Tell us about a time when you had to navigate a new, unknown or unfamiliar environment. (250 words) 
    In your answer, address the following: What challenges did you face? What did you do to cope? What were some of the lessons you learned? What remain areas that you continue to struggle with?
  • Taking a broader look at development, please respond to the following questions. In your response, please relate and explain how you think these ideas will influence and shape your ten (10) months in service. (350 words) 
    Address the following: Is progress intrinsic to development? Some development initiatives are successful and some aren’t. Even when a problem has been identified, why is there sometimes no tangible change or effect? In your experience and observation, does everyone get an equal voice in deciding what development means for their community and/or country?

• Personal Statements
• Your professional skills
• Attach a resume in Pdf Format (Maximum Size: 300 MB)
• Language Skills
• 2 References
• Interview Preference (In India it would be held in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai & Kolkata)

Recommendations: Compulsory as a part of the application process

• Recommendation letters are part of the online application.
• At the time of filling the application, the system will ask for contact details of the people writing the applicant's recommendations.
• Two letters of recommendation are required – but AIF strongly prefer three to best understand the applicant's abilities to succeed on the Fellowship
• The system will generate an automatic email request to the referrers with instructions and a link to answer some questions, which they will then submit online through AIF's system.
•  Recommendations are not accepted via mail or e-mail. 

The Candidates would be judged on the basis of the application submitted by them, their references and the interview. Applications are reviewed by AIF staff, stakeholders, and other development experts in both the United States and India.

• Applications are graded through a standardised numeric scale; those who meet the criteria move to the interview process.
• Interview on Skype: Selected candidates will be invited for an initial screening interview held via Skype with AIF staff.
• In-Person Interview:  Shortlisted candidates will be invited for the second round of interviews which will be conducted in person, and the successful candidates will be notified of their acceptance after that.

The candidates would be selected based on the following criteria

• Their interest, passion, and commitment to social and economic development in India.
• Professional skills & academic credentials.
• Sensitivity and ability to work with the vulnerable communities.

• General knowledge of the development field and development issues in India 
• Ability to build cross-cultural relationships: Ability to demonstrate appreciation for other cultures and circumstances and a willingness to adjust to these differences.
• Leadership skills, entrepreneurial skills: Ability and willingness to independently and creatively find ways to be helpful to their host organisation 

• Flexibility to adapt to the challenging living and working conditions.
• Indian language skills are not required but considered a highly valuable asset.

Previous years Fellows

A lot of people apply for the fellowship and only a few get selected for the fellowship. In the year of 2016, "31 candidates" and in 2015, "36 candidates" received the prestigious William Clinton Fellowship of American Indian Foundation.

American Indian Foundation (AIF)
C-17 Green Park Extension New Delhi 110 016

Email: INFO@AIF.ORG, fellowship@aif.org