Twenty-five emerging African business leaders from 17 countries across sub-Saharan Africa have come to Dartmouth this summer as Mandela Washington Fellows. In the six-week Business and Entrepreneurship Institute at Dartmouth program, the fellows learn how to develop and promote their businesses with the goal of improving the economy and community infrastructure in their home countries.

This is the second year that the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding has led Dartmouth’s collaboration with the U.S. State Department program, part of President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI)...

As part of a team-building exercise, fellows completed the Dartmouth Ropes Course. (Photo by Lars Blackmore)

...At Dartmouth, the fellows will collaborate in intensive workshops on human-centered design led by Thayer School of Engineering Associate Professor Peter Robbie; they will learn about developing their “pitch” and company mission with alumni entrepreneur Richard Nadworny ’82 at the DEN Innovation Center; and they will visit innovative area businesses, including King Arthur Flour and Timberland.