We believe language carries inheritance, imagination, and responsibility.

From our philosophy

The Poetry Leadership Fellowship

An advanced creative and rhetorical discipline of language, leadership, and legacy — co-led, and built for exceptional young visionaries.

Why we exist

Most of us inherit language long before anyone teaches us what it can do. We learn to speak before we learn to listen, and we are rarely asked to notice the difference.

— Language. Leadership. Legacy.

The Poetry Leadership Fellowship uses poetry as a practice of attention. From that attention grows a different kind of leadership, one that begins in listening and returns in service to the communities that first gave us language.

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Our philosophy

We believe language carries inheritance, imagination, and responsibility.

We believe leadership begins with listening, the same attention poetry trains a person to hold.

We believe words become most meaningful when they return in service to the common good.

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Our framework
Language→ Leadership→ Legacy

Every fellow moves through three connected pillars, starting with how we see the world, moving into how we serve it, and ending with what we leave behind.

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Poetry teaches a way of paying attention.

From our story
About

Our story

A creative and rhetorical discipline of language, leadership, and legacy.

Why we exist

We exist to provide the resources, mentorship, and technical infrastructure that connect youth across international lines, ensuring they recognize the inherent authority of their own narratives.

Most young people inherit language long before they are taught the weight of what their words can do. In a fast-paced, digital world full of noise, the space to listen deeply and speak intentionally is rare. The Poetry Leadership Fellowship offers a borderless sanctuary where young people can process their realities, build real communication skills, and return to serve their own communities.

Poetry teaches a way of paying attention.

Why poetry

The Rigor of Precision and Rhetoric

We treat poetry as a demanding, technical practice, one built on precision, rhythm, and clarity. Writing and editing a poem trains the same skills a young leader needs to speak up, be heard, and move people to action: choosing words carefully, holding an audience's attention, and turning complicated feelings into something clear and true.

Our roots

A Shared Inheritance, Carried Across Borders

Nearly every culture holds its own tradition of spoken word, used to preserve memory, pass down wisdom, and shape how communities lead. From West African oral poetry to spoken-word and storytelling traditions across the diaspora and beyond, language has long been a vessel for leadership, carried forward by voice long before it was written down.

We carry that shared inheritance into our transnational cohorts. Holding many distinct languages and traditions together asks for the same skills needed to navigate a connected, global world. Our roots are not singular, they are many, and that is the point: fellows learn to translate their own local insight into a shared, international dialogue — proof that borderless collaboration begins with respect for one another's distinct origins.

See our global cohorts →
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Why this fellowship?

We started this Fellowship because we believe young people deserve more than information, they deserve the time, tools, and mentorship to make sense of it and turn it into something meaningful.

There has never been a greater need for people who can think carefully, communicate across differences, and lead their communities with wisdom and integrity. The Poetry Leadership Fellowship exists to create that space, one where language, leadership, and service are practiced together.

Vision

To bridge the equity gap in global youth development by ensuring that young leaders from resource-constrained settings possess the structural authority and strategic clarity required to stand side-by-side with global peers and command attention for their concerns.

Mission

We equip youth navigating resource-constrained settings with sustainable habits of writing, public speaking, and community care, using poetry as a transformative tool for self-determination and public responsibility. Fulfilling a vital civic duty to protect human dignity, we train brilliant young adults to master the discipline of language, command public communication, and claim their rightful authority to lead on a global stage.

Leadership

Co-founders

Founded at the intersection of poetry and leadership, the fellowship was co-created by Joy-Jayne Bassey, a transdisciplinary artist and strategist, and Dr. Scholastica Wilson Olagunju, a leadership educator and strategist. Together, they designed a learning experience that helps young people develop both their artistic voice and their capacity to lead.

Two founders, one shared commitment to language, leadership, and legacy.

Joy-Jayne Bassey, Co-Founder Co-Founder & Co-Executive Director, Arts & Humanities

Joy-Jayne Bassey

Joy-Jayne Bassey believes that structured language is real infrastructure for human dignity. She is a transdisciplinary artist, data systems designer, and poetic narrative strategist, bringing over a decade of enterprise technology consulting and data governance leadership across the tech, finance, energy, and federal healthcare sectors.

She is the Founder of VerseCare LLC, an independent, non-clinical B2B management consulting and qualitative inquiry practice. VerseCare specializes in enterprise narrative strategy, information governance, and organizational alignment, offering diagnostic assessments, executive capacity building, and legacy artifact production, using poetic method.

She also founded The Human Reliquary Project, a transdisciplinary public humanities initiative dedicated to cultivating human flourishing through language, legacy, and creative inquiry, spanning five programs including The Poetry Leadership Fellowship. Within that work, she is developing The Unornamented Verse Project, a protocol of structured listening, text compression, and poetic translation used to safely archive raw human testimony, with research grounded in her current fellowship with Global Arts in Medicine.

What becomes possible when we learn to pay closer attention to one another?

She does this work because she believes every lived experience is sacred and worthy of witness. In a fast-paced world filled with noise, she works to give young visionaries the sanctuary to reclaim their narratives, master public communication, and recognize the authority of their own voices.

Outside of her data and narrative research, she paints and writes from her fine arts studio, exhibiting across the Maryland and Washington, D.C. area, and finds her greatest joy in helping people slow down and discover the threads that connect our shared stories.

Dr. Scholastica Wilson Olagunju, Co-Founder Co-Founder & Co-Executive Director, Leadership & Innovation

Dr. Scholastica Wilson Olagunju

Dr. Scholastica Wilson Olagunju believes that education and disciplined mentorship are powerful catalysts for human transformation. She is a visionary educator, executive coach, and global strategist who has dedicated her career to equipping the next generation of leaders with practical wisdom and transnational opportunity.

She brings more than two decades of international leadership experience spanning the United States, Africa, and Europe to the fellowship. At Bakke Graduate University, she directs the Executive MBA and Transformational Leadership Coaching Programs, mentoring international postgraduate students and designing market-responsive leadership curricula. Beyond the university, her work has included leading community-advocacy networks. She is the founder of Center for Leadership Development and the GiveCare Project, two initiatives that bring leadership development and entrepreneurship resources directly to underserved populations.

She serves because she believes every young person, regardless of geographic background, deserves access to real tools for self-determination. In a complex and changing global economy, she works to bridge high-level strategy and grassroots talent, shaping inclusive educational pathways that help young leaders translate creative discipline into measurable community transformation.

Away from university administration and executive coaching, she finds fulfillment in community-led initiatives and mentoring emerging entrepreneurs, remaining inspired after working across multiple continents, by the resilience of young people and the joy of helping them find their own path toward lasting civic legacy.

Our framework

Language · Leadership · Legacy

The fellowship is built around three interconnected pillars.

Pillar one

Language

Language is where leadership begins. As an advanced creative and rhetorical discipline, it asks fellows to first learn to listen: to a mother tongue, to a poem read aloud, to another person's story, and to the space between what is said and what is meant.

Pillar two

Leadership

Leadership grows from attention. Participants learn to facilitate dialogue, hold space for different perspectives, make thoughtful decisions, and practice leadership grounded in ethics, humility, and responsibility.

Pillar three

Legacy

Legacy is leadership returned to the community. What begins as language becomes action. Legacy is not simply what we leave behind. It is what we begin building now.

Our pathways

The framework provides the philosophy. The pathways provide the learning journey.

Pathway one

Listening

Pathway two

Expression

Pathway three

Leadership

Pathway four

Service

Pilot cohort
Age
17–22
Location
Transnational cohort hubs
Format
Hybrid
Duration
Five months
See cohort details →
Global Cohorts · Fellows / Exceptional Young Visionaries

Our Global Cohorts

2027 Cohort: February – June 2027

A transnational visual atlas

Linguistic richness and diverse heritage are not barriers to global dialogue — they are its greatest assets.

The Poetry Leadership Fellowship links youth residing in non-rural, urban, and suburban environments across continents. By learning alongside international peers, our fellows discover that their local stories hold universal resonance.

Connecting across continents
Africa
Asia
Europe
North America
Oceania
South America
Accessible by design
Cost

100% Free

Supplies and anthology publication are covered by sponsorship.

Format

Hybrid

A mix of virtual and in-person sessions, designed to stay low-bandwidth accessible.

Community

Local Celebrations

Synchronized local neighborhood micro-celebrations mark the close of each cohort.

By the end of the cohort

Fellows will be able to

Listen with greater attention

Write with clarity and intention

Facilitate meaningful dialogue

Lead with humility and responsibility

Design collaborative community projects

Translate reflection into service

Capstone

Where practice becomes legacy

Every fellowship concludes with a capstone experience that transforms personal learning into public contribution.

Anthology

Public reading

Community project

Synchronized Local Cohort Celebrations

Partners

Why partner?

The Poetry Leadership Fellowship is built through collaboration.

Partners help create opportunities for young people to grow as thoughtful leaders and engaged members of their communities.

Schools

  • Recruit students
  • Provide learning space
  • Support implementation

Community organizations

  • Local relationships
  • Community engagement
  • Project collaboration

Sponsors

  • Financial support
  • Scholarships
  • Anthology production
  • Community projects

Faculty / Masterclass Mentors

  • Teach
  • Mentor
  • Lead conversations
  • Offer specialized masterclasses
Balanced framework integration

Adapting Global Frameworks for Local Change

Our fellowship is completely independent and driven by community youth development principles. However, we intentionally adapt the universal vocabulary of international initiatives to prepare our fellows for global civic spaces. Our curriculum aligns with:

  • Universal Communication Metrics — giving youth the rhetorical tools to present ideas to institutional spaces.
  • The UN Sustainable Development Goals Framework — adapting elements of SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 16 (Peace & Civic Engagement) to help fellows map out localized, non-violent community capstone projects.
4SDG 4 · Quality Education 16SDG 16 · Peace & Civic Engagement UNUNESCO Youth Operational Strategy

Referenced in alignment with publicly available UN guidance; this does not imply UN endorsement or affiliation.

Apply

Join a future cohort.

Applications for our next cohort open this fall — stay tuned.

Welcome to the portal

We look for commitment, not perfection. You do not need a published writing portfolio or high-level academic credentials to belong here. We seek young adults who are deeply dedicated to showing up for themselves, their peers, and their local communities.

If you have a passion for language and are ready to commit to a five-month digital residency, you belong here. Fellows are 17 to 22 years old, based in one of our transnational cohort hubs. No prior writing experience is required, just a willingness to listen, reflect, and grow. The program is 100% free and runs hybrid, for five months.

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Contact

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Partnerships, sponsorship, masterclass mentors, or press.

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Whether you are a school or community organization considering a partnership, a potential sponsor, or a writer or educator who would like to teach, we would love to hear from you. Looking to join a future cohort as a fellow? Visit our Apply page →

You can also reach us directly at
connect@poetryleadershipfellowship.org