Teach for the Philippines’ Clarissa Delgado is Obama Foundation Fellow

MANILA, Philippines – Teach for the Philippines co-founder and chief executive officer Clarissa Delgado was selected as a 2018 Fellow of the Obama Foundation.

Delgado joins 19 other Obama Foundation fellows from 11 countries around the world. They are the fellowship program’s first class.

On its website, the Obama Foundation said the 20 inaugural fellows “are powerful examples of the many pathways we can take to improve our communities.”

“These leaders are working hand-in-hand with their communities to build better futures. They understand that creating change often requires reaching out across the lines that divide us. And their successes to date show how collaborative, community-driven work can lead to strong, imaginative, and long-lasting solutions – even on some of our most intractable and polarizing problems,” the foundation added.

According to The Guardian, this year’s fellows also include a South African activist, Koketso Moeti, and an Afghan refugee, Zarlasht Halaimzai.

The Obama Foundation Fellowship is a two-year, non-residential program which offers “hands-on training, resources, and leadership development to equip fellows to scale the impact of their work.”

“Fellows participate in 4 multi-day gatherings where they collaborate with each other, connect with potential partners, and collectively push their work forward,” former US president Barack Obama’s foundation said on its website.

The Obama Foundation said Delgado’s work with Teach for the Philippines involves “redesigning teacher training to address the reality of students’ poverty and helping public school teachers become community leaders.”

Since 2013, Teach for the Philippines has been enlisting young leaders to teach for two years in public schools nationwide. The non-profit organization is currently working with 29 placement schools across 17 local governments.

Delgado was one of the recipients of the first Rappler Move Awards in 2015. She later became a panelist at the 2016 Move Awards.

Read about the rest of the Obama Foundation 2018 Fellows here. – Rappler.com