Explore Fellowship Programme

Layla Macharia, Year 13

In the summer holidays, I was lucky enough to travel to the States for a week for the (free!) Explore Fellowship programme – a type of academic summer camp in which sixty incredible teenagers from all around the world were flown in to discuss, debate, and explore topics that were important to them. The whole experience was based around the idea of Effective Altruism – an idea that started in Oxford, but I came away with so much more than that.

We got to New York on 13^th August and stayed the night, so we had the freedom to explore NYC more. The next day, we drove up to Kent, Connecticut, to the campsite we would be staying for the week.

Being a part of the inaugural cohort meant that there was a lot of freedom as to what activities and talks we chose to do – from smores and deep conversations by the campfire, to “FLeX talks” by fellow campers, to daily ecological philosophy classes – everything was optional.

We had external speakers each day to give us a talk on a topic that they worked on. For example: someone working in the US government talked about the American political system, another talked about the risks of biosecurity, and we had one on the threat of nuclear warfare. My personal favourite was an interesting talk by a software engineer, on how technology can be used in the aftermath of natural disasters – it was very interactive, as we had to come up with our own solutions to some of the difficulties they faced. There was a real emphasis on finding entrepreneurial solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems and nothing was too big to tackle.

Of course, we also had fun: the campsite was beautiful, so we could go paddle-boarding, canoeing, play basketball and more – there was even a go-kart track!

The best part for me though, was the students; everyone was so innovative and had such a global perspective on contemporary issues. They were involved in some amazing projects such as:

• Lab research into the use of stem cells to rehabilitate leg movement for people with spinal cord injuries
• Patenting a product being made in China, to reduce the use of disposable umbrella covers
• Starting a company that partnered with large businesses like Microsoft, to see where they could make the most social impact

Being with a group of truly inspirational people to talk about issues that I would not normal be able to talk about was an incredible opportunity and I was able to make long-lasting friendships, with both campers and counsellors. Overall, I would definitely recommend it – to anyone curious, to just go for it!

https://www.explorefellowship.com/