2014 Yale World Fellows announced. Three hail from South Asia!

The incoming cohort of Yale World Fellows includes three Fellows who hail from the South Asia region.  India is represented twice in the incoming class of sixteen Fellows, and the other South Asian country represented is Pakistan.  Inaugurated during Yale’s 2001 tercentennial celebration to enhance the university’s global reach, the Yale World Fellows program offers outstanding mid-career professionals from around the world a four-month period of intensive academic enrichment and leadership training.  The South Asia affiliated World Fellows include an award-winning Indian film actress, an Indian cultural entrepreneur, and an environment lawyer and activist. 

The Yale World Fellows program released its list of 2014 Fellows, naming the 16 individuals who will make up the program’s 13th cohort. The Fellows, who hail from all around the world, are midcareer professionals who were selected from a pool of nearly 4000 applicants for the opportunity to come to Yale for one semester. During their time on campus, the Fellows will participate in leadership and media training, while engaging with various members of the University community, from undergraduates to graduate students to faculty. From August to December, they will give Master’s Teas, audit classes and collaborate with professors on research.

“Through the Fellowship, Yale will provide these global leaders the valuable opportunity to take a step back from the intensity of their work and to develop a strategic vision for elevated impact at the national and international level,” said program director and School of Medicine professor Michael Cappello in a press release.

The number of applications grew substantially from last year, when the Fellows were selected from among just over 2500 applicants. Interest in the program has grown steadily over the years, Cappello said. The network of current and former fellows now extends to 83 countries as this year’s cohort will bring in the first Fellows from Syria, Spain and Equatorial Guinea, he added.

 ”It is a privilege to welcome these impressive leaders to campus,” President Peter Salovey said in the press release. “This innovative program continues to represent the very best of Yale’s efforts to educate and inspire future leaders.”

The short bios of the upcoming World Fellows from South Asia are below:

Nandita Das  is an award-winning Indian film actress and director who has leveraged her international profile to campaign on social issues including child mortality, gender and race issues and violence against women. She was the first Indian to be inducted into the International Women’s Forum Hall of Fame for her contributions to the arts. 

 Parmesh Shahani heads the  Godrej India Culture Lab , an experimental ideas space in Mumbai working at the intersection of academia, business and the creative industries to explore what it means to be modern and Indian. He also serves as the Editor-at-Large for  Verve Magazine India , and is author of the book “ Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India .” Parmesh is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, a TED Fellow, an MIT ‘Futures of Entertainment’ Fellow, and a Utrecht University-Impakt Fellow. He holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Media Studies from MIT.
 
Ahmad “Rafay” Alam  is an environment lawyer and activist. He is a founding partner of Saleem, Alam & Co ., a Pakistani law firm that specializes in energy, natural resources, and urban infrastructure. With a background in commercial, civil and constitutional litigation, he is committed to environmental protection and sustainable
Mexico.  

(Courtesy: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/04/07/2014-yale-world-fellows-announced/)