The Bouriez Family Fellowship has been established at Cornell University for exceptional students from Francophone Africa as they pursue professional training in law or global development at the university. The fellowship is administered by the Institute for African Development, part of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. Created by a generous gift from Pierre and Aurélie Bouriez, the fellowship supports graduate study for citizens of French-speaking African countries, fostering connections between Cornell and institutions of higher learning in Francophone Africa.
Awards are for one year of study in the Cornell Law School LLM program or the Global Development program in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The fellow receives a $20,000 stipend and a college tuition waiver.
The Bouriez fellow is selected through an annual competitive process that considers applicants’ academic excellence, professional trajectory, dedication to social equity, and commitment to advancing Africa’s development in their chosen profession. David Arnaud Ngam à Kibeng, a 2017 graduate of the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon, is the inaugural fellow.
Arnaud Ngam à Kibeng currently serves in Cameroon’s Ministry of the Economy, Planning, and Regional Development, where he assesses the portfolios of public investment projects. He will enter the Global Development program in the spring.
This so-called African centered fellowship sounds like an acute case of NEPOSTISM of the highest order based upon the people who have been selected thus far. Case in point, the Cameroon Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development will be partaking in this program. Really.
I’m curious in knowing what sort of metrics did this characters use in order for one to be selected. I just bet there’s a direct correlation between their current position in one of the neocolonial French speaking African countries and their closeness to those who run their country. What a pity.