Australian Fulbright Alumni Association 

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and associated public health risks and social distancing requirements we have moved all 2020 events online.  Watch our event calendar for occasional virtual gatherings.  While we won't be hosting in person events this year we are investing our time and thought leadership in designing possible leadership programs for our members. There are two proposed programs that we would like to hear your thoughts on. We have a survey out now - so please have your say. A bit about the two proposals is below:

Proposed 2-day Leadership Development Program:

The Fulbright Alumni 2-day Leadership Development Program would support a select group of AFAA members to:

• Debrief, discuss, reflect on their personal and professional journeys following their Fulbright
• Gain insight and a renewed sense of purpose about their role as community leaders
• Generate action plans and a community of practice for influencing, engaging and implementing change
• Bridge the gap between the Fulbright program and their practice as active global citizens creating positive social change
• Develop an idea for implementation as AFAA’s Alumnus in Residence (inspired by the New York Fulbright Alumnus in Residence program)
• Graduate from the Leadership Development Program as recognised ‘AFAA Fellows’.

The program would be based on a two-day residential leadership development program that Prof Jon Adams leads at Director of the Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).

Drawing on the “Alumnus in Residence Program” developed by the US Fulbright Association’s New York Chapter, all participants would develop an idea for implementation during AFAA’s Fulbright Alumni Leadership Development Program. All participants would vote to select one project for official endorsement by AFAA via the Alumnus in Residence Program.

Costs: UTS would provide $10,000 seed funding towards first year program event. Participants would invest in their own travel costs to attend the venue. AFAA would need to secure $22,000 top-up funding to help cover venue, accommodation, meals, Saturday dinner and the $2000 Alumnus in Residence project support fund. (The US State Department has offered to support an application to the Mission Driven Alumni Outreach competition; this program has been suspended during Coronavirus.)

Proposed Fulbright Alumni Mentoring Program

You are a Fulbrighter now back in Australia. You still fondly remember the intense time of your scholarship, of life in the US, of the contacts and friendships made, and how you've benefited from it as you progress in your career and widen your experience in your speciality, and your institution or profession.

An AFAA Mentoring program would enable longer-term alumni to offer the benefit of their experience as a volunteer mentor to someone less experienced, who may be seeking assistance in developing their own options and career choices.

• We would facilitate a series of confidential partnerships between mentors and mentees.
• Both mentors and mentees would need to be AFAA members (currently $50/$30 pa).
• AFAA mentees would select mentors from potential matches based on profiles submitted to a managed database.
• Mentors could offer free and frank guidance, independent of institutional constraints, to a mentee either in their region, or interstate: but importantly, to someone in a cognate subject area, who could really gain from the mentor’s knowledge both of their situation, and of options that the mentor might see to help the mentee.
• We imagine that the time commitment would be up to two hours per month (such as meeting for lunch if feasible, or an hourly Zoom meeting).
• Volunteer mentors in the scheme would receive formal acknowledgement of their role as ‘AFAA Fulbright Alumni Mentors’.
  

Were the mentoring program to succeed, the program could expand over time to create opportunities for AFAA volunteers to mentor any interested ‘early career’ mentees (including non-Fulbrighters), such as postgrads, postdocs, as well as professionals working in applied practice.

Costs: The Mentor Program would be administered by a paid administrator / moderator. We estimate that an annual budget of approximately $5000 would be required.