US Fellowship: three-point strategy
The RSA United States Board of Trustees has designed an impact strategy that takes full advantage of the America’s climate for innovation. Developed by Jenny Whitener, the strategy provides a platform to launch ideas for social good by weaving together programs to serve and engage the strengths and needs of three major types of Fellow: future shapers, change agents and thought leaders.
Future shapers: The US Student Design Awards promote sustainable innovation and bring together more than 60 Fellows, sponsors, leading design schools and the design students who will shape our future. Two former winners of the UK prize, Seren Page Bailey and David Turner, founded the US programme, believing that dialogue between education and industry is critical to the development of designers who will work outside traditional boundaries. The first awards ceremony will take place at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City in April 2013.
Change agents: Per capita, the US receives one of the highest amounts of Catalyst funding across the global Fellowship. The US Challenge Fund goes beyond Catalyst in supporting Fellows’ projects. It funds network development and special events, while the Diebold Scholarships make Fellowship accessible to young social innovators. Led by Trustee Howard Learner, the fund is built on the donations and skills of Trustees and Fellows.
Thought leadership: The Benjamin Franklin Medal rewards innovation and thought leadership in the spirit of its namesake. In a country of innovators, the challenge is to identify the person or group who has made lasting change through a life spent thinking about the world’s biggest issues, rather than by being in the right place at the right time.
For more information on Fellowship and activities in the US, visit the American Coffee House at blog.rsa-us.org, or contact the US Fellowship director, Lynn Broadbent, on LBroadbent@rsa-us.org
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