Our New Normal: Helping Professionals Make a Bigger Impact With Their Careers (Now, Completely Virtually)

While we certainly acknowledge the uncertain and challenging times we find ourselves in, we also recognize the unprecedented opportunity to go beyond the status quo and build more equitable, just, and sustainable global systems. To make that a reality, the world needs your unique talents and strengths now more than ever. 

We are committed to continuing to operate our MovingWorlds Institute Global Fellowship program in a way that is safe, accessible, and more affordable in this “new normal.” Here’s what’s changing, what’s not, and how we’ll continue to deliver on our commitment to you:

1. Our kickoff weekends will now be virtual through April 2021
2. We are extending certain benefits to last beyond the 6 months of the Fellowship
3. Social impact projects will now be done virtually and/or close to home, with in-person projects abroad resuming when travel restrictions lift
4. We are adding more alumni and industry leader events to foster networking
5. We are lowering the $4,600 pre-COVID price of tuition by 25% and increasing our scholarship fund

Virtual kickoffs you can join from anywhere

While major economic shocks, health risks, and travel restrictions will prevent in-person kickoffs for the foreseeable future, we’ve been hard at work adapting our kickoff weekend to be delivered virtually.

As we’ve learned over many years of operating global learning communities for social impact professionals, virtual training can be a true asset, not a backup. The right virtual platforms:

• Increase access by lowering costs and other barriers
• Improve outcomes by catering to diverse learning styles
• Better engage more diverse participants by using a combination of technology to help bridge connections.

You can learn more about the virtual learning best practices we’ve developed here.

One of the Fellows who participated in our most recent virtual kickoff shared that, “I can’t overstate how impressed I was with last weekend’s kickoff. Your team clearly put a lot of time and energy into everything⁠ — even more impressive considering you had a short period of time to turn it into a remote weekend. (Not to mention I’ve worked for companies with large IT teams that couldn’t run online seminars as smoothly as you all did…) To be honest, I left Sunday’s session feeling a little sad it was over!”

Discounted tuition and additional scholarship funds

Without the expense associated with an in-person kickoff, we’re passing the savings on to you (and then discounting it even more by diverting resources from our other programs). For all our cohorts, we are reducing the $4,600 pre-COVID cost of tuition by $1,000. In these economically uncertain times, we know that the Institute is a big investment. By reducing the price to $3,600, and working with corporate partners and foundations to make even more scholarship funds available, we hope to make the Fellowship as accessible as possible regardless of your home country, industry, employment status, or professional background.

Expanding our services and community

Although COVID-19 has necessitated some adaptations to program delivery, we are committed to delivering the full value of the Fellowship to each and every Fellow. In addition, we’ll be increasing our support of our community of Global Fellows by offering concrete tools that ultimately create connections, meaning, and community throughout the Fellowship and beyond, including:

• Collaborative sessions and events to share insights and best-practices in human-centered design, behavioral psychology, and social impact frameworks. One great example is our live “Design Challenge Sessions” where an alum works with our Director of the MovingWorlds Institute to create a design challenge and crowdsource creative solutions and feedback in real time with the MovingWorlds community.
• Lessons from the field, which will give our Fellows a global stage to share amazing insights, lessons, and even failures. We’ll be hosting a TED-inspired virtual showcase where selected speakers will workshop their presentations and then present on a virtual stage. After, our content team will work with presenters to get their insights published.
• Job opportunities shared across cohorts in our Professional Development channel

Our commitment to you

COVID-19 may have changed the way we can work together right now, but it has also validated our mission: to empower people and organizations — working across all sectors — to scale world-changing ideas. While the delivery of some aspects of the Fellowship is changing, the heart of the Fellowship experience is staying the same. Join us (virtually for the time being!) and let’s make progress together towards a more equitable and just world.