Kirchner Food Fellowship Opens Application Period for 2022-23 Programs

Published: March 7, 2022

Fellowship provides University students opportunity to be Impact Venture Capitalists for a year

Washington, DC – Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico – Jacksonville, Florida – 03 March 2022 – The Kirchner Impact Foundation is pleased to announce that the Kirchner Food Fellowship, a leading impact investing fellowship, is now accepting applications until April 30^th for its 2022-23 academic year program. The fellowship, now in its 9^th year, is recognized as one of the world’s most innovative venture capital initiatives focused on workforce development and early-stage equity capital deployment in communities and regions underserved by the capital markets.

Similarly to last year, the program will be running and recruiting for three programs simultaneously; an HBCU Cohort (for students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities), a Mexico Cohort (for students attending university in Mexico) and an Americas Cohort (for students attending university in Central America or in North America with a significant connection or professional interest in Central America).

Candidates can be graduate or undergraduate students and should reflect such characteristics as self-motivation, intellectual curiosity, organizational skills and passion for leveraging the power of business for social and environmental change. Applicants should also have a desire to understand and/or be involved in the impact investment industry and ideally bring business acumen and vocabulary.

“Participating in the Kirchner Food Fellowship program has been one of the highlights of my MBA. This unique and challenging experience has allowed me to apply the skills and knowledge I’ve gained in class in real time by engaging in the impact investment process, added Myriam Faucher 2021-2022 Americas Fellow. “I also feel very privileged to be working with and learning from the diverse perspectives of my highly talented directors and colleagues.”

The program, which follows the North American academic calendar (September – June), will run virtually and gather in person periodically (COVID-19 permitting) for more intensive work sessions with the directors, advisors and sector thought leaders. The program is demanding, as selected students will be investing real money in a real company while remaining students at their respective universities – they will be “impact venture capitalists” for a year. Applicants should expect a rigorous selection process, and, if selected, plan to devote 10-15 hours per week to the fellowship. Those interested in applying can visit the website here.

“We are looking for talented and passionate students who believe business can be a positive force for change and want to take part in a challenging program with that mission”, commented Blair Kirchner, Director. “Our past fellows have exemplified this attribute and we are excited to review the robust applicant pool again this year.”

The Kirchner Food Fellowship is made possible through the support of the Kirchner Group, partner organizations such as The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, The Rockefeller Foundation and Burroughs Wellcome Fund along with individual donors. Kirchner Group has a three-decade history working with agriculture and food companies from start-up to exit and is one of the leading boutique groups in the sector. The Fellowship support is part of its “returning” initiatives and capitalizes on Kirchner’s unprecedented track record and network.

Kirchner Food Fellowship
The Kirchner Food Fellowship is a pioneer in the lean investment movement, harnessing the power of highly committed next generation talent to find, fund and assist promising, socially responsible, for-profit agriculture and food businesses to advance global food security. Through the use of a “real world, real time, real money” model, the program has proven that it is possible for newly formed investment teams to become effective venture capital allocators in a matter of months. The program believes that while the amount of impact investment capital continues to grow, access to that capital for early-stage entrepreneurs in underserved regions and communities has not. For that to improve, ecosystem-specific investment resources and teams of ‘local’ impact capital allocators are needed to push money and business resources into areas where they are needed most. Assembling, training, and empowering diverse student investment teams for this purpose is the core mission of the Kirchner Fellowship. For more on the program or to apply please visit www.kirchnerfellowship.com and our AgFunder article on the genesis of the program.

The Kirchner Food Fellowship is an initiative of The Kirchner Impact Foundation (501 (c) (3)) one of the “returning arms” of Kirchner Group, that focuses on harnessing the positive power of enterprise to make a difference in addressing some of the most important issues of today. www.kirchnerimpact.com

Kirchner Group
Kirchner Group was founded in 1985 as a boutique firm and today operates various subsidiaries, providing advisory services (M&A, assessments, diligence) and operational support (interim management, workouts, turnarounds) as well as asset management (dedicated, portfolio optimization) – all leveraging a proprietary approach that dovetails domain and process expertise.

Throughout the decades Kirchner Group has been internationally recognized for its unique business model centered around creating value while promoting values: “earning while returning.” The firm has also established a reputation for building and rebuilding important business and social paradigms based on its deep entrepreneurial orientation.

Kirchner Group’s clients and partners include early stage to mid-market companies, venture capital and private equity firms as well as family offices and some of the world’s largest insurance companies, commercial banks and institutional investors. www.kirchnergroup.com

Blair Kirchner | Managing Director & Co-Head of Impact Activities | Kirchner Group | bgkirchner@kirchnergroup.com

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