Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship Program Semestral Report January – June 2020

Fellowship Program in Colombia began in January 2019 with the goal of graduating 190 students nationwide. As of January 2020, there were 196 active MLK fellows nationwide, with 71% of beneficiaries being female and 29% male university students. The group in Colombia comprises mainly students from Afro communities (83%) with a smaller representation of students of indigenous descent (17%). In Apartadó, all students are safe with their families in the urban area and nearby towns. Fourteen students are currently registered in online sessions, with two students showing no commitment to the program. The rest of the group have reported positively about the virtual experience. Fellows in Apartadó were able to take five additional courses during the first semester of 2020, two in-person and three in virtual environments. In total, fellows have taken 15 courses since the program started in February 2019. The academic performance of fellows in Apartadó is varied, with half the group obtaining grades between 4.0 and 4.4, and the other half's grade point average varying between 3.0 and 3.9. High-performing students include Ledis Marcela López Vega, who has shown great teamwork skills and a high commitment to the program and her English learning process. Students below academic standards include Marelvis Murillo Copete, Sandra Echeverría Quinto, and Carmen Sandrith Jiménez, who struggle with basic concepts of the language and have shown little commitment to their learning process. Fellows in Apartadó were able to complete 52 hours of leadership training from February 2019 to June 2020, despite the COVID-19 contingency. They attended 15 hours of workshops and talks about gender equity and two additional hours before the lockdown started. The progress made by each fellow in terms of attendance to the leadership sessions is as follows: 14 students attended 4 hours of leadership training, 4 students attended 4 hours, and 2 students attended 0 hours.