Competition for the 2024 – 2025 academic year is OPEN
The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Podgorica is pleased to announce we are now accepting applications from citizens of Montenegro for participation in the prestigious Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program for the 2024-2025 academic year.
The Humphrey Fellowship Program provides mid-career professionals in leadership positions who have demonstrated a commitment to public service and the potential for professional advancement with an opportunity to enhance their professional capacities through participation in specialized 10-month non-degree programs developed specifically for small clusters of Humphrey Fellows at selected U.S. universities. If you are interested in broadening your perspectives, becoming a global leader, and giving back to Montenegrin society upon your return, the Humphrey Fellowship is for you. The Humphrey Fellowship program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and coordinated by the Institute of International Education (IIE).
APPLICATION DEADLINE: July 14, 2023
Program Objective
The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program, a Fulbright exchange, enhances leadership skills among international professionals who collaborate to address local and global challenges and foster change for our collective good. Through academic study and professional development with U.S. counterparts, this growing global network shares best practices and builds expertise in fields of critical importance to advance societal and institutional capacity, promote human rights and freedoms, ensure sustainable lands, and develop thriving communities.
The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program was established in 1978 as a Fulbright exchange that advances U.S. foreign policy goals through the exchange of mid-career professionals representing approximately 140 eligible countries from all world regions. Humphrey Fellows work in critical fields for collaboration, such as law and human rights, public health, including infectious diseases, climate change, and public policy.
Humphrey Fellows pursue tailored study programs at participating host institutions, where freedom from the requirements of a degree program gives each Fellow the flexibility to pursue a self-directed, individualized program at a host campus. During their stay at a host American university, Humphrey Fellows are invited to take graduate-level courses relevant to their professional interests. However, as the Humphrey Fellowship is not a degree program, participants spend a considerable portion of their time engaged in professional development activities. Professional enrichment activities include professional visits, skills enhancement workshops, conferences, training programs, and a professional affiliation (placement). The professional affiliation provides firsthand exposure to a U.S. work environment on a full-time basis for a minimum period of six weeks. These professional affiliations strengthen Fellows’ connections with American colleagues and allow them to contribute directly to U.S. communities by bringing a global perspective to issues in their professional fields. Early in the academic year, each Fellow develops, with assistance from the local campus coordinator and faculty advisors, a detailed plan of practical professional activities geared toward the Fellow’s program objectives.
Approximately 13 U.S. campuses have been selected through a competitive process based on their ability to offer institutional and professional resources to host cohorts of Fellows in designated fields of study. Humphrey Fellows may not request placement at a particular university. Each campus has at least one designated faculty coordinator for academic and administrative support. In addition, faculty advisors assist Fellows in pursuing balanced academic and professional programs.
Humphrey Fellows cannot transfer from non-degree status to degree status under any circumstances during their program.
General Information
The Application
Applications should be entirely submitted though the Slate application system. Applicants complete the application here: https://apply.iie.org/huberthhumphrey . Applications must be completed in English. Any application that is not submitted in English will be immediately disqualified. Please follow the instructions carefully. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.
Applications must contain:
- Complete answers to all questions; essay responses in English must thoroughly address the prompt.
- Two letters of recommendation in English; one must be from the applicant’s current employer.
- Official transcripts in English. Ensure all transcripts uploaded are official, valid documents. Transcripts must list courses taken and grades received for any undergraduate (first university or Bachelor’s) degree. Diplomas are required for all other higher education degrees (Masters and Doctoral), no transcripts are needed. Diplomas need only be uploaded for the undergraduate degree if the transcript does not show that the degree was obtained.
If you have issues uploading the documents, please write to Podgorica Exchanges@State.Gov.
Fields of Study
Humphrey Fellowship opportunities are offered to applicants in the following fields:
Human and Institutional Capacity:
- Economic Development
- Finance & Banking
- Public Policy Analysis and Public Administration
- Technology Policy and Management
Rights and Freedoms:
- Communications and Journalism
- Law and Human Rights
Sustainable Lands:
- Agricultural and Rural Development
- Natural Resources, Environmental Policy, and Climate Change
- Urban and Regional Planning
Thriving Communities:
- Public Health Policy and Management
- Substance Abuse Education, Treatment and Prevention (see 4b)
- Educational Administration, Planning, and Policy
Note on Substance Abuse Education, Prevention, and Treatment field: ECA cooperates with the National Institute on Drug Abuse which provides some co-funding to work with Humphrey Fellows in the field of substance abuse. Candidates must have either a research background in the field or demonstrated ability to learn the results and policy implications of current research. The candidates should be recruited and ranked together with candidates in other fields and must complete the supplementary field-specific page of the application for this topic area.
Eligibility Requirements:
- Appropriate candidates are mid-career professionals in leadership positions who have demonstrated a commitment to public service and the potential for professional advancement.
- Candidates should have both the need to participate in the program and the potential to benefit from it. Accordingly, they should demonstrate the required experience, skills, and commitment while also indicating how they can benefit from this program in ways that they have not experienced previously and are not likely to experience without the Humphrey Fellowship. Applicants with distinguished records and no compelling need for the Humphrey experience are not appropriate candidates.
- Prospective Fellows should have a minimum of five years full-time professional experience (prior to August 2024) in the relevant field and should be interested in the policy aspects of their field of specialization. Please note that candidates must have completed a university degree program requiring at least four years of full-time study to qualify for participation in U.S. graduate study programs.
- Candidates should generally be proficient in both written and spoken English as demonstrated by a minimum TOEFL score of 71 (internet-based), although exceptionally promising candidates with lower scores may be nominated and will be considered for one of the two English training programs. The nominated candidates will need to complete TOEFL testing no later than November 2023.
Ineligible Candidates Include:
- Recent university graduates (even if they have significant positions);
- University teachers or academic researchers with no management responsibilities (except in the fields of Substance Abuse Education, Prevention, and Treatment, and Teaching of English as a Foreign Language);
- Individuals who have attended a graduate school in the United States for one academic year or more during the seven years prior to August 2024;
- Individuals with U.S. in-country experience of any kind lasting more than six months during the five years prior to August 2024; and
- Individuals with dual U.S. citizenship or U.S. permanent resident status may not apply to the program; they are ineligible for a J visa.
- Local Employees of U.S. Missions abroad who work for the U.S. Department of State, or the U.S. Agency for International Development, including temporary employees and contractors, and members of their families as well as individuals who work for or are otherwise associated with an organization that is responsible for nominating or selecting individuals for participation in any ECA exchange program are ineligible for an Hubert Humphrey grant during the period of their employment and for one year following the termination of employment.
- Priority will be given to candidates with no recent experience in a third country, especially in a developed country.
Process and Selection Criteria
Humphrey Fellowships are highly competitive, and applicants must fulfill the eligibility criteria outlined above. A pre-selection is done by the Selection Committee which is composed of Embassy Officials and former awardees who have completed their studies and are now engaged in various endeavors in their country. The Embassy nominated candidates will then need to take the TOEFL exam (vouchers will be supplied to the selected candidates by the Embassy subsequently).
The names of nominated applicants are then sent to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FFSB) in Washington, D.C for final approval. Finalists are selected by means of a global, merit-based competition according to the scores they receive during the final review panel in Washington, D.C.
Note on Dependents (family members): The Humphrey Fellowship covers air travel, a stipend, and other costs, but all expenses are budgeted only for the Fellow himself/herself. The award does not include additional allowances or funds for dependents, i.e., family members. Candidates who are planning to have dependents join them during all or part of the fellowship year in the U.S. should bear in mind the high cost of living. Additionally, in this scenario, the Fellow must provide assurance and receive approval from the Humphrey Program that they have adequate personal funds to cover living expenses and dependents’ health insurance and (if applicable) child care. Dependents absolutely may not come during the English Language Training period, should the Fellow require one, when the Fellow is engaged in intensive study of English in preparation for the Fellowship year.
The Humphrey Fellowship Program provides the following benefits:
- Pre-departure Orientation
- Assistance in obtaining the J-1 visa (Exchange Program Visa)
- Economy class round-trip airline ticket
- Medical Insurance provided by the Government of the United States, which fulfills the minimum requirements established by the J-1 visa and by the Fulbright Program
- Living expenses, which vary depending on city of destination. The Fellowship does not cover the expenses of the grantee’s accompanying family members.
- Pre-academic orientation program in the U.S.
Visas
In order to make sure that the country continues to receive the benefits of this exchange program and meet U.S. visa requirements, visitors under an exchange program return to and remain in the citizenship country for a minimum period of two years after the completion of the program.
Additional Information
For additional information please carefully review www.humphreyfellowship.org. In case of additional questions, contact the Public Affairs Office of the United States Embassy in Podgorica at PodgoricaExchanges@State.gov.
