Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program
Learn more
The 2022-23 Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program application will open in Fall 2021.
About the Program
The Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program (UELP) is a 10-month academic training fellowship hosted at Stanford University. The program was founded in 2016 by the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute together with Oleksandr and Kateryna Akymenko (Stanford John S. Knight fellows) as an initiative to address development challenges in Ukraine and across the broader region.
UELP provides a unique opportunity to three mid-career practitioners working actively as policy-makers, legal professionals, entrepreneurs, and leaders of civil society organizations in Ukraine to visit one of the world’s leading research universities for an academic year. The objective of the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program is to strengthen fellows’ leadership skills and bolster their academic foundation. The fellowship is supported by a committee of leading Stanford faculty at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. The program is designed to facilitate capacity building for fellows through faculty mentorship, community engagement, courses, events and site visits to Silicon Valley technology firms.
The program has been funded with generous support from Astem.Foundation (Rustem Umerov), Believe in Yourself Foundation (Victor and Iryna Ivanchyk), Dragon Capital (Tomas Fiala), MacPaw (Oleksandr Kosovan), Luminate, Liudy Maybutnoho (Svyatoslav Vakarchuk), Parimatch Tech, and the Western NIS Enterprise Fund.
Interview with Oleksandra Ustinova
Oleksandra Ustinova discusses the role of the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program on her election to Parliament.
Meet the Third Cohort
CDDRL launched the third year of the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program to an audience of over 200 from the Stanford and local Ukrainian-American community on Oct. 3, 2019.
Who is Really Corrupt in Ukraine?
Mosbacher Director Francis Fukuyama interviewed Serhii Leshchenko, former MP and a journalist, about the corruption scandal in Ukraine and in the United States.
Welcoming the Fourth Cohort of Ukrainian Emerging Leaders to Stanford
After the program was postponed in 2020, the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of law is pleased to have Yulia Bezvershenko, Denis Gutenko, and Nariman Ustaiev join us on campus this year.
Yulia Bezvershenko
Ministry of Education and Science
Yulia Bezvershenko is Director General of Directorate for Science and Innovation at the Ministry of Education and Science. The Directorate was created for policy development and implementation in the research, development and innovation sector.
Denis Gutenko
State Fiscal Service/Ministry of Economy
Denis Gutenko joins CDDRL after most recently serving as the head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine. Holding this position from 2019-20 he was responsible for dismantling the large-scale State Fiscal Service into three accountable units: Tax Administration, Customs and Tax police.
Nariman Ustaiev
Gasprinski Institute
Nariman Ustaiev is co-founder and Director at Gasprinski Institute for Geostrategy. He is also an external advisor for the Committee on Human Rights, Deoccupation and Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories in Donetsk, Luhansk Regions and Autonomous Republic of Crimea, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
- Summary
- Eligibility
- Support
- Application
- Donors
- Alumni
Summary
Summary
The Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program combines academic courses, faculty mentorship and community engagement to support capacity building and leadership development for program participants.
The program will have a project-based approach to learning where fellows will identify an issue they would like to address and/or gain an in-depth understanding of to apply once they return to Ukraine. Over the course of the academic year, each fellow will have a faculty mentor with whom they will meet regularly during their stay. Faculty members will engage fellows through guidance on their projects, coursework, discussions around challenges in Ukraine and connecting fellows to the diverse Stanford community.
Fellows will have the opportunity to take courses at Stanford that support their area of expertise and also provide them with an academic foundation to further their knowledge base. In addition, they will visit technology firms based in Silicon Valley to learn about approaches to different challenges around the world. During the final 6 weeks of the program, fellows will present their findings to the program faculty and the greater Stanford community.
Eligibility
This program is aimed at mid-career practitioners working actively as policy-makers, legal professionals, social entrepreneurs, business entrepreneurs and leaders of civil society organizations.
1. Candidates should hold Ukrainian citizenship and must reside in the country, and have plans to return to Ukraine after the fellowship.
2. Candidates must be at least 28 years of age at the start of the fellowship program.
3. Candidates should have demonstrated professional and personal achievements in a relevant sector of democracy, development and the rule of law.
4. Candidates must have at least five years of experience to qualify for the fellowship. Those with more experience are much more competitive in the selection process.
5. We strive to recruit a diverse group of four individuals who are at the right stage in their professional trajectory to benefit from rigorous academic training and mentorship. Successful applicants will have the academic credentials necessary to participate in academic courses offered at Stanford University. A bachelor's degree at the time of participation in the program is a requirement for admission to the program. We do not accept candidates who are in the midst of full-time university degree programs.
6. A working knowledge of English is an important prerequisite. It is expected that each fellow have a solid command of written and spoken English in order to fully benefit and participate in the program.
All applicants must be prepared to commit themselves to the fellowship rather than to regular professional work. If selected, your full-time job is to be a Stanford fellow. We require fellows to take leave from their regular jobs, whether they be in the nonprofit or government sectors, to devote their energy to the fellowship.
Support
Recipients receive a stipend for the 10-month program. The stipend amount provides for academic resources, relocation expenses and living expenses in the Bay Area.
Application
The Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program uses the WizeHive application system to manage all incoming applications and the review process and contains the following sections:
The application contains the following sections:
- Applicant Information
- Academics & Career Information
- Candidate Background Questions
- Resume/CV
- Fellowship Project Statement
- English Language Proficiency
- Video Submission
- Letters of Recommendation
Details on each section are included in the application guidelines available below.
Donors
The program has been funded with generous support from Astem.Foundation, Believe in Yourself Foundation, Dragon Capital, MacPaw, Luminate, Liudy Maybutnoho, Parimatch Tech, and the Western NIS Enterprise Fund.
Astem.Foundation is a mission-driven fund, focused on the development of social innovation, impact-oriented initiatives and support for creative leadership teams that will contribute to betterment of life through education, modern cultural trends and new social and political relationships. The fund is led by Aslan Omer Kirimli and Rustem Umerov.
“Povir u Sebe" ("Believe in Yourself”) Foundation has supported 450 children from rural areas in their aim to obtain higher education. At the same time the foundation provides grant financing to leading Ukrainian universities for scientific research and implements projects on development of leadership, creativity and entrepreneurship among young people. It was founded by Viktor and Iryna Ivanchyk.
Dragon Capital is a leading Ukrainian group of companies in the field of investment and financial services. It was founded by Tomas Fiala, who has over twenty years’ experience in Central and Eastern European securities markets.
Luminate is a global philanthropic organisation focused on empowering people and institutions to work together to build just and fair societies. It funds and supports non-profit and for-profit organisations and advocates for policies and actions that can drive change.
Lyudi Maybutnyoho (People of the Future) is a charity fund that was established my singer and activist Svyatoslav Vakarchuk. The charity's goals include the development of education and science and the implementation of scientific and educational programs.
MacPaw is an app development company with a number of successful macOS, iOS, and Windows applications in their portfolio. Headquartered in Kyiv, Ukraine, MacPaw has gained solid recognition among over four million customers all over the world. Since 2008, the company has been developing apps with a strong focus on design and functionality to ensure exceptional user experience.
Parimatch Tech is an international product company that develops technology and marketing solutionns in the gaming and entertainment industry for the Parimatch brand.
WNISEF is a regional private equity fund, a pioneer in Ukraine and Moldova with more than two decades of successful experience in investing in small and medium-sized companies. WNISEF is supported by the United States Agency for International Development.
Academic Advisory Council
The program's academic advisory council mentors fellows on coursework and projects. Its members include leading political scientists pioneering innovative research and analysis in the fields of democracy, development and the rule of law.
Larry Diamond
Senior Fellow
Hoover Institution and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. For more than six years, he directed FSI’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, where he now leads its Program on Arab Reform and Democracy and its Global Digital Policy Incubator. He is the founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy and also serves as Senior Consultant at the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy.
Francis Fukuyama
Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and Director of the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy. He is also a professor (by courtesy) of Political Science. From 2015 to 2021, he served as the Mosbacher Director of FSI's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL).
Erik Jensen
Professor of the Practice of Law at Stanford Law School
CDDRL Affiliated Faculty
Erik Jensen holds joint appointments at Stanford Law School and Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. He is Professor of the Practice, Director of the Rule of Law Program at Stanford Law School, an Affiliated Core Faculty at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, and Senior Advisor for Governance and Law at The Asia Foundation.
Kathryn Stoner
Mosbacher Director
Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law
Kathryn Stoner is the Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), and a Senior Fellow at CDDRL and the Center on International Security and Cooperation at FSI. From 2017 to 2021, she served as FSI's Deputy Director.
Now in its third year, the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program has developed a growing network of reformers in Ukraine. Learn more here about the past fellows and their achievements.
The Future of Ukrainian Democracy after Elections: Successes and Challenges
After the events of the Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine made a decisive historic choice in its shift towards democracy, notwithstanding current threats to security and sovereignty from Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas. Due to these circumstances, Ukraine is on the frontline of democracy between Russia and the West. In 2019, Ukrainians have faced major decisions in their country’s democratic development with the presidential and parliamentary elections.
In light of the elections the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program at the Stanford University Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law gathered DC-based policy makers, high-level Ukrainian state officials and parliamentarians to discuss lessons that should be learned from the presidential elections, and what can we take away looking toward the parliamentary elections.
The Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program at the Stanford University Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law organized a conference on these political developments to discuss pertinent policy issues that will affect Ukraine’s future. This conference reflected how UELP fellows are creating an important place for conversation on global development and Ukraine at Stanford University by raising key questions about the country’s future direction.
Reforms in Ukraine
Watch the first panel featuring Nataliya Mykolska, Mustafa Nayem, Oleksandr Saienko, and Oleksandra Ustinova
Brilliant Minds of Stanford and Silicon Valley
Nataliya Mykolska and CDDRL have launched a project in cooperation with Ukrainian media outlet Novoye Vremya. Click here to watch the first interview with Mosbacher Director Francis Fukuyama.
Francis Fukuyama on Why We Should All Be Paying Attention to Ukraine
Of all of the countries in the world attempting a transition to democracy, Francis Fukuyama thinks that Ukraine is the most promising. Find out why here.
FSI Podcast with Oleksandra Ustinova (2018-19)
In this episode of FSI's World Class Podcast, Sasha Ustinova shares a Ukrainian perspective on the US impeachment news, provides context and background of Ukrainian politics, and discusses the fight against corruption inside Ukraine.
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Email: emergingleaders@stanford.edu
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Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
616 Serra St.
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
Stanford
Sasha Jason
Program Associate, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Advisors
Olga Aivazovska
Head of the Board, Civil Network OPORA NGO
Draper Hills Summer Fellow ('16), Stanford University
Oleksandr Akymenko
John S. Knight Fellow ('16), Stanford University
Kateryna Akymenko
John S. Knight Affiliate ('16), Stanford University
Victor Liakh
CEO, East European Foundation
Draper Hills Summer Fellow ('17), Stanford University
Kateryna Ryabiko
Democratic Governance Officer, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
Draper Hills Summer Fellow ('09), Stanford University
Andriy Shevchenko
Ambassador of Ukraine to Canada
Draper Hills Summer Fellow ('09), Stanford University
Taras Shevchenko
Director of the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law and Co-Chairman of the Reanimation Package of Reforms
Draper Hills Summer Fellow ('07), Stanford University
Svitlana Zalishchuk
Member of Parliament, Ukraine
Chair of the sub-committee on the European and Euroatlantic Integration
Draper Hills Summer Fellow ('11), Stanford University