The Kenneth Cole Fellowship in Community Building and Social Change

The first university-based leadership program of its kind, Emory University's Kenneth Cole Fellowship in Community Building and Social Change is a comprehensive, 12-month program that combines teaching, research and community service to prepare Emory undergraduates to become the next generation of community builders.

The Kenneth Cole Fellowship introduces some of Emory's brightest students to the challenges and opportunities for strengthening communities in contemporary urban America. Through academic coursework, an intensive summer practicum, site visits, small group discussions and an annual leadership conference, Kenneth Cole Fellows learn firsthand the role collaboration plays in resolving serious public problems.

Through the fellowship's summer field practicum--the core of the program--the first group of Kenneth Cole Fellows made important contributions to the work of community partners in five collaborative community-building projects that addressed a number of important issues in the greater Atlanta community. Their work is now being used by the agencies and organizations to further their efforts to build stronger communities.

Emory launched the fellowship program, the first of its kind in the United States, in 2001 with a lead gift from the Kenneth Cole Foundation. Cole, chairman, CEO and creative director of Kenneth Cole Productions Inc. and a trustee of the Kenneth Cole Foundation, has long used social-consciousness messages in marketing his products. He is a 1976 graduate of Emory. The Kenneth Cole Leadership Forum is an initiative of Emory's Office of University-Community Partnerships. Visit the Kenneth Cole Leadership Forum Web site for full program details at http://oucp.emory.edu/Info/kennethcolefellows.html.