The Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship launched the Banga Family Social Entrepreneur Postgraduate Fellowship in 2023 to catalyze social entrepreneurship and support social impact research. This fund expands the center’s campus-wide efforts to incubate promising ideas, transform research into actions that serve the public good, and unlock the potential of bright undergraduates seeking to make a transformative social impact.
Mastercard Foundation established the Banga Family Social Innovation Fund at Harvard to honor the work of Ajay and Ritu Banga, two innovators who have enhanced the social missions of their respective business ventures. As CEO of Mastercard, Ajay Banga significantly expanded the organization’s focus on financial inclusion by using technology, data, and analytics to extend investment and lending to engage millions of workers and small businesses in underrepresented markets around the world. As the co-founder of Zoomdojo, Ritu Banga’s work helps students and young professionals find impactful career opportunities. The Bangas believe that deeper investment in research, social entrepreneurship, and cross-sector partnerships will lead to discovering promising and sustainable outcomes for many social issues.
The Banga Family Social Entrepreneurship Post-Graduate Fellowship will fund up to two Harvard College Class of 2024 graduates to develop socially innovative ventures. These ventures will be incubated by the Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship, where fellows will have access to the center’s resources to develop structures for their concepts, make connections with leaders and innovators, and utilize campus programming to recruit volunteers and increase visibility for their social ventures. Ventures can be nonprofit or for-profit, but fellows will be selected based on their ability to deliver the greatest social impact.
To be eligible for funding consideration, you will need to:
- Complete the Banga Family Social Entrepreneurship Post-Graduate Fellowship application form in CARAT
- Upload a copy of your resume or CV (2 pages or less)
- Upload a copy of your student record at Harvard College
- Upload your application essay: in 1,000 words or less, please share your plan for spending a post-graduate year developing a social venture. We ask for you to highlight ways your work will make a positive community impact, your motivations for applying for this fellowship, and why you are qualified to deliver results. For more guidance about developing an application essay, visit https://uraf.harvard.edu/apply-opportunities/app-components/essays/project-proposals.
- Submit contact information for two references
All application submissions are due by 11:59pm on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 - click here to apply!