The CALS Global Fellows Program supports CALS undergraduate students from any major in pursuit of challenging, professionally-focused summer internships and research placements that enhance and complement their career goals and academic progress, while enriching their undergraduate experience with diverse cultural and international immersion. Through key partnerships, the Global Fellows Program provides a platform for students to make positive and definable contributions to global organizations and communities.

Acceptance to the program is competitive and a limited number of students are selected each year. 

Students who are accepted into the CALS Global Fellows Program will be required to complete 3 parts to the program:

• 3 in-person Spring 2024 pre-engagement workshops focusing on health and safety, cultural awareness and logistics; 
• a continuous 7–8-week internship or research placement in an international setting,
• and a 1-credit post-engagement course in the first 7 weeks of the Fall 2024 semester (ALS/GDEV 3105).

Information Session:

• CALS Engaged Symposium on Thursday, October 19 from 4-5:30pm.  Location: Mann B75There will be a FALL 2023

Placement Opportunities

Placements: up to 4 (in-person)

Go Fresh! is an award-winning Botswana-based agricultural operation that utilizes the latest greenhouse and hydroponic technology to locally grow Grade-1 vegetables consistently, year-round. Go Fresh! seeks to unleash the power of youth leaders and technology to be the largest producer of organic and sustainably grown produce in distributed farms, creating food security for Botswana, creating employment in our communities, enabling our tourism industry and delivering the healthiest, freshest, best tasting produce possible.

Michelle Adelman, founder and CEO of Go Fresh! and Accite Holdings is a Cornell alumna and member of the CALS advisory board.

Go Fresh! Botswana has implemented the beginnings of an ISO 9001 compliant quality management system (QMS).  The QMS is the “operating system” of business and includes our orientation manual, roles, job descriptions, competencies, polies, procedures, internal audit checklist and work instructions across the business from growing, finance, HR and maintenance.  We are about to embark on a major growth initiative and this requires us to maintain an effective QMS system, so that we can scale and grow. We are seeking to implement new technology tools and dashboards as part of improving our processes. 

This is an excellent opportunity for a Fellow to get access to all functions of a small business (eg., from operations to HR) and to work alongside Botswana youth leaders. Interns will support operations growth of the business including analysis of sales trends, domestic market opportunities, product offerings and new value-added products, agriculture practices, delivery and packaging, business-planning and other special projects based on student interest and skills and as assigned by supervisor.

The fellows are expected to work independently on their deliverables without leadership attention -- and to collaborate with their African teammates who have different culture and values.

Suggested Majors and/or professional interests: Applied Economics and Management, IARD, Development Sociology, ag-engineering, computer programming skills

• Preferred Qualifications: Good technical writing and verbal communications. Computer programming a plus. Patience (it’s Africa). Business, Global Development or Ag Engineering preferred.

About Botswana:

Botswana is located just North of the country of South Africa between Zimbabwe and Namibia. It’s most popular tourist attraction is the Safari’s. It is home to the Kalahari Desert, Okavango Delta, and the Chobe National Park. Youth employment in Botswana is 40% and Go Fresh! provides a platform and opportunity for graduates to be able to enter a company and work their way up. 

We encourage you to apply to your first-choice program only. There is a space within the application to indicate if you have a second choice. If you are interested in two opportunities that are very different from one another and would prefer to write two statements of purpose, you may upload both to the same application in ONE document. Make sure they are clearly titled with the correct placement opportunity IF you are writing two statements. For reference, click here to review examples of statements from past participants.   

You may preview the application without starting an application by clicking on the “preview application” button next to the apply button. All applications contain the same questions and all information related to the program can be found within the experience page. There is no additional information within the application.