Bringing the World to Salzburg

Search

Loading...

News

Latest News

Jun 25, 2015
by Benjamin Glahn and Louise Hallman
Bringing the World to Salzburg

The Salzburg Global Scholarship program helps bring the best young minds to Schloss Leopoldskron

Salzburg Global Seminar convenes highly diverse groups of people to achieve its mission of challenging current and future leaders to solve problems of global concern. That diversity is reflected in the range of ages, experience and geographies of Salzburg Global Fellows. Our Scholarship Program allows us to achieve that diversity, moving beyond “usual suspects” to identify innovative ideas – and provide young leaders with the chance to expand their global networks.

Founded in 1947 by an Austrian and two Americans, Salzburg Global Seminar bridges boundaries – intellectual as well as geographic – in everything it does. At a disrupted, unstable moment in history, its youthful founders believed their generation could overcome the ravages of war, rebuild Europe, and forge a new global compact. They believed that ideas were essential to drive change, and that small groups of individuals – or as Margaret Mead called them: “thoughtful, committed citizens” – could bring those ideas to bear.

During the Cold War, Salzburg offered a rare gathering place for participants from East and West, bridging a dangerous ideological divide. With support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and others, Salzburg Global also began to attract to its programs rising leaders from Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.

As the Asia region became ever more prominent, Salzburg Global increasingly tackled problems of global interest and recruited participants from every continent. In 1988, The Nippon Foundation established Salzburg Global’s first endowed scholarship fund, enabling emerging leaders from developing countries to attend Salzburg Global programs.

From its inception until the present day, Salzburg Global’s Scholarship Program has supported more than 5000 young leaders from 95 countries, from Armenia to Zimbabwe, Bangladesh to Venezuela, to attend its programs. In 2014, of the 1041 Salzburg Global Fellows and faculty who came to Schloss Leopoldskron, 200* were able to participate thanks to either full or partial scholarships, covering their fees, accommodation and travel.

Salzburg Global has a remarkable track record for identifying and connecting rising political, business, civil society, public interest, cultural, and thought leaders, and the Scholarship Program ensures internationally diverse, non-standard voices are able to communicate on a wide array of issues. South African, Eastern European, and Arab Fellows shared perspectives on working through profound transition periods at programs on the post-“Arab Spring” Middle East; Korean experts shared their research directly with Ghanaian business leaders during a session on expanding African rural enterprise; and Cambodians shared their country’s efforts to overcome its genocidal history with Rwandans and Bosnians during the multi-year Holocaust Education and Genocide Prevention Initiative.

Salzburg Global scholarships – such as those supported by the HDH Wills 1965 Charitable Trust to bring Rhodes Scholars to Salzburg – have further expanded opportunities for young leaders to engage in global problem solving. Salzburg Global works with groups with demonstrated success in identifying future leaders – such as the Rhodes Trust – to ensure its programs attract the most outstanding rising talent from across the world. For many of these scholarship recipients, participation in Salzburg Global programs offers a seminal moment to develop new professional networks and opportunities.

Salzburg Global currently works with 30 scholarship providers in nine countries – including foundations, national governments, private corporations, and universities, as well as individual supporters. By 2020, Salzburg Global Seminar seeks to support 25 percent of its participants through its Scholarship Program, with scholarships tailored to meet the needs of diverse regions of the world.

Through our ongoing commitment to bring young, diverse, non-standard voices to Schloss Leopoldskron, Salzburg Global hopes to continue to expand this network of “thoughtful, committed citizens” for years to come.

* This number does not include university undergraduate and graduate students who receive scholarships to participate in Salzburg Global Academies such as the Global Citizenship Program, the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change, and the Cutler Fellows Program. For more information email: scholarships@SalzburgGlobal.org


Testimonials

“Salzburg Global’s value does not end when the week is over. The discussions do not end when everyone has caught their flights home: in fact the discussions continue back in my office with my colleagues, enriching our understanding of the work with which we are engaged on a daily basis, and informing the development of programs and materials as we go forward. ”
Tracey Peterson, Education Director, Cape Town Holocaust Memorial Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

“The Young Cultural Innovators Forum created in effect a kind of global synergy that empowers us to keep up working and fighting for things in a national context, knowing that we are not alone and that are people all around the world we can lean on for help, advice, and support.”
Kelly Diapouli, Director, BUSART, France/Greece

“I think Salzburg Global Seminar has given a voice to the voiceless. We are the voiceless, truth be told. What we say used to remain within our lecture rooms, back home. Anything you say here goes to 72 different people, 23 different countries.”
Tony Ojwang, Student, Daystar University, Kenya

“My experience at Salzburg Global not only allowed me to learn and share experiences with some of the most interesting people I've ever met – some of them are now good friends and excellent connections for my network – it also reminded me why I believe in the power of arts and culture for the development of society and economy and why I want to make our world a more creative one.”
Felipe Buitrago, Consultant, Inter-American Development Bank, USA

“The symposium is one of the most significant and effective LGBT-related conferences I have ever attended… a vibrant and unparalleled space where I learn from participants from different backgrounds, regions and cultures about their passions, inputs, improvements, and setbacks related to sexual orientation
and gender identity.”
Dan Zhou, Lawyer and LGBT Human Rights Activist, China


Partners

We thank all our donors for their continued support.

Endowments

Ann M. Hoefle Memorial Fellowship
Ernest A. Bates African Fellowship
Huffington Family Fellowship
Elizabeth MacMillan Fellowship
McKnight Foundation Fellowship
The Nippon Foundation
University of Pennsylvania Law School Fellowship
Llewellyn Thompson Memorial Fellowship
Onodera Fellowship
Winthrop Family Fellowship

Grants

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy (BMWFW)
Austrian National Bank
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Capital Group Companies
Davidson College
Fondation Adelman pour L’Education
Haverford College
HDH Wills 1965 Charitable Trust
Japan Foundation
Korea Foundation
The Mexican Business Council
Middlebury College
Salzburg University
Stanford University
Texas Tech University
The US Embassy in the Slovak Republic
University of Delaware
University of Pennsylvania
US Air Force Academy