GLOBAL COMMUNITY BIO FELLOWS
“Leadership is accepting the responsibility to create conditions that enable others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty.”
-Marshall Ganz, Rita T. Hauser Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing, and Civil Society at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
The Global Community Bio Fellows Program is designed to provide professional development, leadership training, and peer support for emerging leaders in our global community! In these times, more than ever we need empowered community bio leaders. Community bio is a grass roots movement to allow access to science tools and learning through independent projects and community science labs. The Global Community Bio Summit is working to provide a space for the global community of DIY biologists / community biologists / biomakers / biohackers and members of independent and community laboratories to convene, plan, build fellowship, and continue the evolution of our movement
In these sessions, Global Community Bio Fellows will learn (1) how to identify community stakeholders and challenges, (2) build strategic goals, and (3) effectively organize through community mobilization toward targeted outcomes. These sessions will be guided by community organizer Abel Cano in consultation with Dr. Marshall Ganz. Fellows will also research, develop, and implement a specific project that can be readily deployed. We hope to amplify their intrinsic abilities and game changing goals set by our Fellows in order to drive progress in the Global Community and beyond.
“To be part of this program is amazing for me, when I applied to the fellowship program I didn't know much about it, and when started to participate, it was strange, a lot of things I didn't know appeared in my life, and I started to rethink all kinds of aspects of community that I could improve with only these first few sessions. It was a big tool to rethinking my practice, I didn’t know about organizing things but ... when we started to create a biohacking community in Buenos Aires, we started as we thought it should be, but we didn't have any tools to make it better. We learned how to make different kinds of things we were doing but it was very nice to know how to do it in the right way. I like storytelling, and that is the part I had to improve more.... it was nice to be part of an international group... I encourage all the people to become a fellow. .... I want to be part of all the BioSummits of my life.” - Ana Laura, 2019 GCBS Fellow, a bio-electronic artist from Buenos Aries, Argentina.
Apply soon here!
APPLICATIONS open April 10th through April 24th, 2022
About the Fellowship
In the 2019 inaugural year the Global Community Bio Fellows program was launched and accepted 36 leadership fellows from 30 countries. In 2020 the second year we accepted another 36 fellows from 26 countries. In its third year, the program this year will be expanded and enhanced—a success driven in large part by feedback and support from the inaugural fellow class.
As a Global Community Bio Fellow, you will join colleagues to participate in virtual training sessions led by community organizer Abel Cano with additional guidance from Dr. Marshall Ganz. The program consists of eight (8) sessions, each approximately 2-hours in length, where fellows will engage in a variety of activities that both create community and build actionable leadership. To this end, sessions will include moments for: (1) self-organizing and self-reflection, (2) coaching, (3) storytelling, and (4) relationship building with other fellows and local communities. Moreover, fellows will have opportunities to identify stakeholders in their respective communities in order to: (1) identify challenges, (2) build strategic goals, (3) effectively plan, and (4) actualize—through community mobilization—targeted outcomes.
Fellows also play an integral role in Bio Summit 5.0.
We are especially eager to receive applications from individuals in communities from regions that have been underrepresented at Bio Summit (i.e., places outside of North American and Europe).
As a part of the fellowship program:
You must commit to participate in approximately eight (8) virtual meetings. These sessions will occur at regular intervals and will conclude with a virtual retreat at Bio Summit 5.0. The virtual sessions will begin in July.
You should be flexible with meeting time scheduling to ensure we can accommodate a regionally diverse group of fellows.
You should be available to attend and make a meaningful contribution to the Bio Summit itself in tandem with the Bio Summit Organizing Team.
You must be available for the full period of Bio Summit 5.0
The proposed dates (subject to change) all begin at 10am ET:
1. Welcome & Intro to organizing (3hrs) June 11, 2022
2. Intro to Coaching & Intro to PN (5hrs) June 18, 2022
3. Intro to Relationship & Intro to Teams (5hrs) June 25, 2022
4. Intro to Strategy & Intro to Action (5 hrs) July 2, 2022
5. Wrap up & Celebration (3hrs) July 9th, 2022
The leadership training covers several modules, for more info please watch the video from last year’s Bio Summit on the program here.
Module 1: Core leadership practices for organizing and coaching
Module 2: Public narrative and story of self
Module 3: Relationship building
Module 4: Building leadership teams
Module 5: Creating shared strategy
Module 6: Action - Mobilizing shared commitment
