At the Global Solvers Accelerator, young and motivated change agents actively engaged in community development projects from across the globe connect hearts, hands, and minds. They harness their fullest potential to drive sustainable development from the grassroots level up.
Through an eight months peer-focused, project-based, and collaborative impact journey, participants refine their projects. They learn to pivot their skills, capacity, and connections to tap into the fullest transformative potential of their work to ignite shared solutions that cut across barriers of place, identity, paradigms, and further the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The world does not face a shortage of solutions to global issues. What it needs is collaborative action which address multiple domains and defy boundaries.
Applications for the 2022 cohort are now CLOSED.
The Accelerator is an 8-month, peer-driven, and collaboration-based leadership program with practical learning and implementation.
The Global Solvers’ Accelerator can help pivot impact projects and scale their impact. In order to do so, our program will have participants explore all program contents in modules, over a period of eight months. Each month brings a new module, new activities, and core competencies!
By joining the program, participants stand to gain valuable competencies and insights, both from mentors and peers! Here are some key benefits of becoming a Global Solver!
At the Global Solvers Accelerator, participants develop their impact projects to unleash their transformative potential. To achieve the same, participants work together with other practitioners from diverse places. In the process, they connect experiences and learn about different realities around the globe!
Participants learn new and/or advanced skills that further their Global Citizenship competency and give a huge momentum to their impact as social leaders. Experiences of practices in SDG focused domains, interpersonal bond, and support of our Community of Practice are some additional facets of the program!
Upon successful completion of the program, participants gain access to the Melton Foundation’s community as a Senior Fellow, and secure access to our Action Grants, travel opportunities to intercultural seminars and more! A certified recognition of participation is also provided to graduating Global Solvers!
Global Solvers will participate in a transformative learning journey with participants from around the globe, building upon their experiences to emerge as socially responsible, collaborative community leaders!
The Global Solvers Accelerator excels when everyone contributes as we unpack concepts, methods, and tools for advancing sustainable development from the local level up. As a participant of the program, here’s what you should expect to bring:
Openness – to examine and unpack your SDG work and your role in the project honestly. You should be open to revealing insight, experience, challenges from project work, be open to feedback from self and others, and eventually become more disruptive through your work.
Willingness – to open your (own) experience, know-how, energy, resources, networks, resources, etc. up for others to access. We will be able to better intersect opportunities and leverage synergies that can impact your work at the community level and the bigger issues at hand.
Conviction – to dedicate an average of approx. 3 hrs per week to this program. Consistency and regular participation are key in making this 8-month, peer-driven, and collaboration-based leadership program a worthwhile experience – for you and everyone else.
Eagerness – to intersect the project you’re bringing to the program with the contents tackled during the program. Most of the learning in the program is experiential or “by doing”. Hence, it is of paramount importance that you intersect the program contents and your project practices.
Commitment – At the Global Solvers Accelerator, everyone contributes – also financially. Confirmed participants are requested to pay the program fee of 250 USD within one month after being accepted into the program (scholarships of up to 80% co-financing available – details are available at the application stage).
Clarity – about how this program can help pivot your impact project and how your experience can help enrich the program. Being clear about your expectations of the program can nurture a richer, more intentional learning experience throughout.
The application is fairly comprehensive and will require some time to develop. Start your Global Solvers Accelerator application today, the submission deadline is fast approaching!
An application guide containing the information you'll be asked to provide is available for download here. You can use it to develop your responses offline before submitting them.
The Global Solvers Accelerator has been made a reality with the generous support and contributions of our global, dynamic team of co-developers. Melton Fellows themselves, our team brings the right balance of skill, experience, and insights to the table!
Meet Nickhil Sharma
Ph.D. Student in Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia
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Meet Cristina Mardones
Consultant, Entrepreneur, Researcher
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Meet Tom Sebastian
Managing Partner at Red Thread Consulting | Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
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Meet May Garcés Ocares
Chief academic officer at IFF America | Research Collaborator at CIAE Universidad de Chile
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Meet Bárbara Mora Aguirre
Socióloga Universidad de La Frontera | Master in Sociología Universidad Alberto Hurtado
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Meet Prof. Dr. Jana Leidenfrost
Psychologist | lecturer | Hypno-systemic coach and trainer specialized in team and organizational development
Read BioPh.D. Student in Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia
Nickhil is a 29-year-old Energy Engineer from Bangalore, India. He is currently a Ph.D. student at UEA, working on an EU-funded project on Smart Home Technologies. His research areas include sustainability transitions, stakeholder management, and social sustainability. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Melton Foundation where he has been involved with projects around non-violent communication and sustainable development – working with young changemakers from across the world. He hopes for an integrated, green, equitable, and accessible future for all, and most importantly hopes that people realize the true environmental cost of their actions.
Consultant, Entrepreneur, Researcher
Cristina is a consultant, entrepreneur, and multidisciplinary researcher on applied sciences and innovation, who creates solutions for mental health and major social challenges with the help of cutting-edge science in work scenarios and communities worldwide. With a person-centered approach as a signature of her work, she collaborates with universities, companies, and individuals about innovations for upgrading the capacities of persons and institutions. Cristina mentors and teaches to volunteers, university students, and top managers, as she also leads the design and implementation of new ideas, products, and services for wellbeing.
Managing Partner at Red Thread Consulting | Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
As Managing Partner at Red Thread Consulting, Tom Sebastian applies strategic thinking and experimentation to design platforms that are market-ready, financially viable, and sustainable. Prior to Red Thread, Tom worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, and top consulting firms like Accenture and Boston Consulting Group. His experience spans strategy formulation and planning to business transformation, implementation, and project management. He has also consulted on UN projects in Africa and India through his work at Palladium – a leading international development organization. Tom is an electrical engineer, with an added background in business studies from universities in India and South America and is based in Bangalore, India.
Chief academic officer at IFF America | Research Collaborator at CIAE Universidad de Chile
Originally from Temuco, Chile, May has a bachelor’s in Education from UFRO, international studies in Music Performance (USA) & Environmental Studies, and Peacebuilding (Israel). She has developed several educational/artistic projects with small communities in Chile, India, Ghana, Palestine, and Jordan following Human-Centered Design methodologies to explore values related to global citizenship and self-care. In the past years, she has worked as an English teacher & a collaborator in interdisciplinary research in Mathematics Education, among other occupations. She recently studied a Diploma in Philosophy of Cognitive Sciences & a Microphenomenologic interviews course for research purposes. She loves dancing, singing, painting, and eating plants.
Socióloga Universidad de La Frontera | Master in Sociología Universidad Alberto Hurtado
A sociologist by profession, master in sociology, with experience related to the training path in higher education, for self-assessment, accreditation, and strategic improvement processes. Added to that, Bárbara has experience in university teaching with the use of Design Thinking methodology, through the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Psychologist | lecturer | Hypno-systemic coach and trainer specialized in team and organizational development
Dr. Jana is a psychologist, honorary professor, and passionate lecturer, Hypno-systemic coach, and trainer specializing in team and organizational development and tailor-made leadership programs. She loves to start with the strengths of everything and everybody and works towards tapping the full potential; while sharing impulses for efficient communication and collaboration. Therefore she completes her approaches with analogies from top sports, modern brain research, and hypno-systemic work. She lectures at various universities and is the mother of a daughter. With high clarity she loves life and laughs dearly – always to highlight the transformational power young leaders inherent.
The Global Solvers Accelerator is a learning journey that nurtures your leadership capacity starting today. Here’s the roadmap for a unique journey towards deep collaborations, powerful actions, and transformative change.
The first and most important step is to submit your application using THIS ONLINE APPLICATION FORM within the application deadline.
Important consideration: Don’t rush it! When developing your application, take the time you need to share your most authentic and honest answer(s). Some questions invite you to shine, and outline the great work you do – other questions invite you to take a more critical stance. Both can be challenging, and yet we invite you to fill them in with dedication and care. The perfect application to us is the one that provides us with deep(er) insights into you and the work you do.
During the selection process, we apply a threefold filter to identify best-suited candidates:
(a) a technical review, to ensure that information provided with the application is complete and sufficiently informative
(b) an eligibility check, to identify candidates who fully meet the eligibility criteria
(c) a quality check, to shortlist the best-suited candidates for the program.
From the shortlisted candidates, we will then curate a group of 10-15 finalists to participate in this program.
Candidates who don’t make it into the final selection will be kept on a waitlist in case any of the finalists must withdraw their participation.
During the second half of April, selected participants will be added to the respective platforms and communication channels deployed throughout the program. They will also receive initial onboarding instructions and will be asked to complete an assessment survey to provide further details about their work, project, and expertise.
Starting May, participants embark on a collaborative learning journey to (a) build capacity at the personal level, (b) pivot transformative potential at the project level, and (c) converge networks for social change at the collective level.
Participants engage with eight different thematic modules to learn, unlearn and relearn what team efficiency, project effectiveness, systemic factors, collective leadership, social innovation & transformative change, impact modeling, value creation, and impact measurement means and how an intentional alignment of these elements can contribute to positioning SDG projects for disruptive, transformative change at the local to the global level, and back again. Bi-weekly meetings and asynchronous assignments help pace the journey and deepen the learning each step along the way.
Upon successful completion of the Global Solvers Accelerator, participants are eligible to join the Melton Fellowship as a Senior Fellow. The Melton Fellowship is designed as a lifelong, supported network through which the Melton Foundation fosters and pivots global citizenship development on a very need-tailored basis, including unique learning activities, project grants, networking opportunities, and more.
A Community of Practice, the Melton Fellowship offers spaces to connect, contribute and collaborate for Fellows who are eager to do so. The underpinning mantra of our Fellowship is “what you give is what you get” – like with other unique opportunities it is eventually down to us to receive as well as to give (back).
Launched in 2018, the Global Solvers Co-Lab convenes emerging SDG advocates and community leaders from across sectors and geographies to learn, shape, and co-create solutions that advance sustainable development – in their communities and at a global scale!
While the world is moving together, it seems that important factors are yet to be put into place in order to tackle the big issues of our time. The Global Solvers Co-Lab is a unique space that harnesses the practices of global citizenship so that sectors, cultures and identities can converge into something “greater than the sum of its parts”.
If feasible in 2022, participants of the Global Solvers Accelerator will have preferred access to the event in order to deepen understanding of complex global issues, grow capacity, build networks for impact, and broaden impact horizons in an in-person format.
An event to encompass transformative change across sectors, geographies, and identities.
Whether as a participant in our program, a network partner, or supporter – we offer ample avenues for you to continue to be an integral member of our close-knit community! Take a look at the various options open for engaging with us!
