I was accepted into the 2021 Echoing Green Fellowship Cohort, one of the most selective programs in the world, and I am deeply honored. Echoing Green finds emerging leaders with the best ideas for social innovation as early as possible and sets them on a path to lifelong impact. The community of nearly 1,000 social innovators includes First Lady Michelle Obama and the founders of organizations like Data for Black Lives and One Acre Fund. The journey to EG wasn’t easy though:
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2015 Camelback Ventures Fellowship – REJECTED.
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2015 Echoing Green Fellowship – REJECTED.
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2016 4.0 Essentials Fellowship – ACCEPTED.
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2016 BAEO Fellowship – REJECTED.
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2016 Camelback Ventures Fellowship – REJECTED.
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2016 Leadership for Educational Equity Ventures Fellowship – REJECTED.
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2016 Soros Equality Fellowship – REJECTED.
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2017 4.0 Tiny Fellowship – ACCEPTED.
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2018 – 2020 Fatigued & frustrated. Didn’t apply to any fellowships.
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2021 Camelback Ventures Fellowship – REJECTED
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2021 Echoing Green Fellowship – ACCEPTED.
I volunteered as the Executive Director of BOOM – Building Opportunities & Opening Minds from 2016 – 2021, and worked as a racial justice consultant to make my living. I didn’t have startup capital for BOOM, so I applied to fellowships over the years in hopes of gaining the seed funding and development necessary to evolve into a sustainable institution that could pay employees and have a meaningful impact. It seemed like it wasn’t going to happen, so, in 2019, feeling overwhelmed and out of gas, I sent an email to BOOM’s board members (at that time: Taylor Toynes, Kyle Ali, and William White Mba) expressing that I was thinking we should shut BOOM down in 2020. Then 2020 came and the world changed. Watching the vision and passion of my young teammates: Nadia Alyse Williams, Jordan Stearn, Shaneria Nicole, Gladys Benitez, Christana Green, and Nicole Luevano, as they pivoted in the pandemic, helped me to center and refocus. And 2021 brought blessings in full force.
I think it is important to tell the backstory to this *win*, not to reiterate the cliché – we’ll get far more no’s than yes’es on our journeys to success (though that is true); and not to glorify struggle and sacrifice (because I’m SO tired of us marrying pain to progress); but simply to be honest about the WHOLE story. This little 5-minute announcement took 5 years to make.
Echoing Green
I was accepted into the 2021 Echoing Green Fellowship Cohort, one of the most selective programs in the world, and I am deeply honored. Echoing Green finds emerging leaders with the best ideas for social innovation as early as possible and sets them on a path to lifelong impact. The community of nearly 1,000 social innovators includes First Lady Michelle Obama and the founders of organizations like Data for Black Lives and One Acre Fund. The journey to EG wasn’t easy though:
-
2015 Camelback Ventures Fellowship – REJECTED.
-
2015 Echoing Green Fellowship – REJECTED.
-
2016 4.0 Essentials Fellowship – ACCEPTED.
-
2016 BAEO Fellowship – REJECTED.
-
2016 Camelback Ventures Fellowship – REJECTED.
-
2016 Leadership for Educational Equity Ventures Fellowship – REJECTED.
-
2016 Soros Equality Fellowship – REJECTED.
-
2017 4.0 Tiny Fellowship – ACCEPTED.
-
2018 – 2020 Fatigued & frustrated. Didn’t apply to any fellowships.
-
2021 Camelback Ventures Fellowship – REJECTED
-
2021 Echoing Green Fellowship – ACCEPTED.
