PRESS RELEASE: The Legatum Center at MIT Announces the 2024-2025 Cohort of Student Fellows

The Legatum Center at MIT Announces the 2024-2025 Cohort of Student Fellows Cambridge, MA,  [September 9th, 2024] 

The Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) proudly announces the selection of its 17th cohort of Legatum Student Fellows for the 2024-2025 Academic Year. This diverse cohort comprises 14 current MIT students from across the Institute, including undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs, who are passionate about innovation-driven entrepreneurship as a means towards global prosperity both in their countries of focus and across global growth markets. 

With ventures that vary between nascent and early growth stages, this new cohort aims to provide innovative solutions to various sectors of deep importance throughout emerging markets, including education, business development, financial services, private equity, agriculture, environment/climate, waste management, energy/utilities, and IT/telecom.

Representing 12 different countries across Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, this year’s cohort continues to embody the Legatum Center’s dedication to advancing entrepreneurs from growth markets and their innovative solutions.   “The Student Fellowship has been the Center’s hallmark program since its inception.” Said Dr. Haitham Khoury, Director of Fellowships and Global initiatives at the Legatum Center who oversees the Student Fellowship, “It was designed to help promising MIT student entrepreneurs with a proven dedication to advancing economic and social impact in growth markets maximize their likelihood of success as principled, impactful entrepreneurs following their time here on campus.” With unique programming across the academic year, fellows will be engaged in a weekly entrepreneurship course designed around leadership, venture building, systems change, and the MIT stakeholder model as it relates to global growth markets. As well as paired with professional advisors from the Center’s diverse network of seasoned entrepreneurs and ecosystem builders. Fellows also receive $15,000 in tuition support, opportunities for travel grants for piloting and market research, and will be part of an ecosystem tour to an emerging market facilitated by the center during the MIT IAP period in January.   As the Center continues to launch new initiatives and programming, broadening its impact both on campus and off, it is excited to continue its over 15 years of dedicated support to emerging market entrepreneurs at MIT. To learn more about the fellowship and the Legatum Center's other programming, please visit mitsloan.mit.edu/cde/programs.  

About the Legatum Center: The Legatum Center for Development & Entrepreneurship at MIT was founded in 2007 on the belief that innovation-driven entrepreneurship is key to increasing prosperity and building more inclusive systems in emerging markets. The Center drives prosperity globally by building pathways for principled entrepreneurial leaders to transform systems and improve lives. The Legatum Center is a global community-based at MIT, drawing on the Institute’s talent, networks, and expertise to inspire and equip those who want to move their ideas toward scalable impact. In addition to supporting and equipping entrepreneurs operating in emerging markets with the tools and resources to build scalable, impactful businesses, the Center gathers lessons and produces actionable insights to inform and advance innovation-driven entrepreneurial ecosystems globally.