The Buenos Aires Fellowship has been announced on ICANN's website with 35 representatives from 26 countries ready to participate in November. Participants come from various backgrounds, such as Academia, Business, Gov't, Civil society and the Country Code community. The overarching goal of this program is to provide a fast track immersion into the ICANN Multistakeholder model and the various constituencies and Stakeholder groups that populate that model. The hope is that with organized engagement and networking, these individual will learn all aspects of ICANN, not just one area, and become engaged and active at some level after completing the program. This can take the form of regional work and outreach, joining a working group or participating in one of the ICANN communities, growing into a leadership role or even bringing their knowledge back to universities, engaging in public comment, ICANN blogs or other methods of communication. We strive to make people aware of ICANN, more participatory and have our fellows continue their engagement and encourage others to engage in the years ahead.
The Fellowship program has made its mark within the community, as many graduates are members of GAC, ccNSO, At Large and gNSO (NPOC, BC, ISP, NCUC). Several fellows have been members of NomCom: Margarita Valdes Cortes, Mohamed El Bashir, Rafik Dammak,Jacqueline Morris, Yaovi Atohoun,and Siranush Vardanyan while others have been appointed to leadership positions through the NomCom process, including 3 recently announced on the ICANN website: Celia Lerman, Leon Sanchez and Beran Gillen. Before this, Sokol Haxhiu was a ccNSO Council appointee. In At Large leadership, you will find Tijani Ben Jemaa, Jose Arce, Natalia Encisco, Fatima Cambronero, Fouad, Bajwa, Maureen Hilyard, Siranush, Mohamed, Jacqueline,and Yaovi...this list to be continued. Tracy Hackshaw in Vice-Chair of the GAC, with 17 other fellows seated at the GAC table representing their government interests.
This program is slowly expanding to provide an opportunity for experienced alumni of the program to be leaders of some of the Fellowship Morning meetings, as well as mentors to those new to the ICANN experience, as there are 15 Newcomers to all things ICANN, and another 8 individuals who have been to at least one other ICANN meeting but not as a Fellow. We are striving to provide an experience for all different types of fellows, so that their learning is more customized to their level of understanding and expertise.
