NextGen Experiential Leaders Fellowship 2026
Explore. Experience. Act. Learn. Reflect. Transform.
A four-month leadership development accelerator for emerging innovators, civic leaders, community leaders, and social entrepreneurs already taking meaningful action.
Build the practice to lead through change
The world you are leading in is changing faster than any generation before you has had to navigate. The challenges are increasingly complex, the stakes are real, and as one of the leaders who will shape the future, you need more than knowledge. You need the ability to act, adapt, reflect, and learn through experience.
The NextGen Experiential Leaders (NEL) Fellowship exists to help you build the practice to meet that speed, not someday, but now, with what you've already started. This is the first cohort of a new fellowship built from the ground up alongside a small group of leaders who will help shape what it becomes.
1. Learn and experiment
Learn from experienced practitioners and faculty, experiment with new approaches, and bring real leadership challenges into the learning environment.
2. Mentorship and feedback
Receive mentorship and constructive feedback while learning from peers facing different challenges.
3. Reflect and grow
Reflect on experience and turn it into practical leadership capability.
“The leaders who shape the future are not those who have everything figured out. They are those willing to act, learn, reflect, and keep growing.”
PEARL Experiential Learning Framework
The fellowship is guided by the PEARL Experiential Learning Framework. Rather than treating leadership as something that can simply be taught, NEL treats leadership as a practice that develops through action, experience, reflection, and continuous improvement.
Fully online and designed around active leaders
NEL is designed for emerging leaders who are already active in their communities and organisations. Online delivery allows fellows to participate while continuing their existing leadership, professional, entrepreneurial, or community commitments.
The fellowship was originally envisioned as a hybrid programme combining online learning with in-person gatherings. The current cohort will be delivered fully online, ensuring greater accessibility and flexibility.
Four-month experience
- Weekly facilitated learning sessions
- Direct mentorship—not a self-paced course
- Cohort learning and peer exchange
- Curated resources and MILE Academy access
Experienced practitioners and leadership educators
Dr. Mara Huber
Lead Faculty and Senior Fellow for Experiential Learning, MILE
Dr. Mara Huber leads the NEL Fellowship and is the founder of the PEARL Experiential Learning Framework. For more than fifteen years, she has worked with and mentored emerging leaders across East and West Africa, with her experiential learning practice applied across the United States, Nigeria, and Tanzania.
She is the author of the forthcoming book Opportunity Threshold: A Practice for Emerging Leaders in Global Development. Fellows will help test the framework, challenge it, and contribute to how it evolves.
John Nyangulu
Faculty and CEO, MILE
John is a leadership educator, entrepreneur, NextGen business and policy fellow, human rights advocate and philosopher whose work focuses on creating practical pathways through which young Africans can develop the knowledge, confidence, agency, and leadership practice needed to contribute meaningfully to their communities and institutions.
He brings nine years of experience working with young people through leadership development, entrepreneurship, civic engagement, policy education, and mentorship initiatives.
Alexander Geneva Tembo
Faculty and Director of Training and Development, MILE
Alexander Geneva Tembo is a leadership development practitioner, mentor, and social impact leader with experience supporting emerging leaders and translating leadership concepts into practical development experiences.
He brings a 6 practical perspective to helping emerging leaders identify challenges, examine their assumptions, receive constructive feedback, and turn learning into action.
Richard Ngwira
Faculty and Director of ICT and Digital Learning
Richard Ngwira is an information technology professional with 5 experience in digital technologies and the application of technology to learning and engagement.
His work contributes to the intersection of technology, digital learning, and accessible education, with a focus on creating learning experiences that enable participants to engage effectively in digital environments.
Young innovators and emerging leaders aged 18–35
The fellowship is for people already taking meaningful action in their communities and ready to become more intentional, capable, and effective leaders.
- Already in motion: Leading an initiative, building an organisation, developing a solution, mobilising young people, advocating for change, or addressing a community challenge.
- Working to create meaningful change: Across civic leadership, governance, entrepreneurship, innovation, education, sustainability, economic development, or community transformation.
- Action-oriented: Willing to turn ideas into action and take responsibility for moving things forward.
- Reflective and willing to learn: Able to learn from success and failure, question assumptions, and adapt.
- Open to feedback and different perspectives.
- Committed to follow-through.
- Driven by meaningful impact.
You do not need a prestigious title, extensive credentials, or a perfectly developed organisation. You do not have to arrive as a finished leader. You only need to arrive ready to become a better one.
What the four-month experience includes
1. Structured curriculum
A four-month experiential leadership curriculum built around the PEARL Framework.
2. Facilitated learning
Weekly facilitated sessions and direct mentorship—not a self-paced course.
3. Learning resources
Curated readings and access to the MILE Academy digital learning platform.
4. Certificate
A Certificate of Completion for fellows who successfully fulfil all fellowship requirements.
5. Alumni network
Integration into the NEL Alumni Network with opportunities for future collaboration.
6. Future contribution
Consideration for future roles as mentors, facilitators, researchers, or MILE Associates, based on demonstrated contribution.
Participation, honesty, and follow-through
- A real weekly time commitment and attendance at live sessions.
- Willingness to work with connectivity and logistical friction as an expected part of the programme.
- Willingness to bring live problems and be seen working through them—not polished conclusions.
- Contribution to your cohort's learning, not just your own.
- Honesty about what is and isn't working, as it happens.
Transparent expectations for the pilot
Stipends, data support, travel, accommodation, and residential components are subject to available funding and are not guaranteed at this stage.
What the fellowship can offer is a serious, practical, and deeply experiential investment in your leadership development.
Strengthen how you lead in the real world
- 1. Lead through uncertainty and complexity.
- 2. Learn from experience and turn reflection into action.
- 3. Make better decisions in real-world situations.
- 4. Work collaboratively with other emerging leaders.
- 5. Navigate challenges with greater resilience.
- 6. Identify and act on opportunities.
- 7. Apply experiential learning to your leadership practice.
- 8. Build stronger pathways toward meaningful community impact.
Most importantly, you will leave with a deeper understanding of how you lead, why you lead, and what you can do differently to create greater impact.
NEL Fellowship 2026 timeline
Help write what this fellowship becomes
Move beyond knowing what leadership is and begin examining how leadership is practised. Your leadership journey has already begun. This is your opportunity to take it further.
Start Your ApplicationQuestions? Contact marahuber@mile.org.mw