Harkness Fellowships alumni fund new exchange award for emerging leaders

New Zealand alumni of the prestigious Harkness Fellowships exchange programme to the US have raised funds to launch a new award allowing an emerging NZ leader in any field to study or research in the US.

The international Harkness Fellowships programme, funded and run by American private philanthropic foundation The Commonwealth Fund, has operated in NZ since the 1950s but was restricted to the field of health care in 1997.

Many of NZ’s prominent Harkness Fellowships alumni, who include businessman Hugh Fletcher, lawyer Sir Bruce Robertson, Maori leader Kara Puketapu, broadcaster Sharon Crosbie and NZQA chief executive Karen Poutasi, have become leaders in fields outside health, and it has long been an aim of the NZ Harkness Fellowships Trust, chaired by Prof. Richard Faull from the University of Auckland, to reinstate Harkness Fellowships in non-health fields.

The new Fulbright-Harkness NZ Fellowship launched last month is offered by the Trust in partnership with Fulbright NZ (who continue to administer the Commonwealth Fund’s Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy and Practice also), and restores Harkness Fellowship exchange opportunities to a wide range of fields including business, politics, creative arts and journalism.

The Fulbright-Harkness NZ Fellowship will be offered annually and is valued at NZ$15,000 towards the costs of a fellowship in the US for a minimum of six weeks.

Applications for the first fellowship close on 15th March, 2010.

Further details of the award and an application form are available on the Fulbright NZ website – www.fulbright.org.nz