Become a Fellow

Lumana Fellowship Program

A Lumana Fellow is a confident, capable, and self-directed person who can take on tasks and provide needed support to Lumana’s Core staff. This support will either come from working directly with a staff person(s) or through projects completed on an individual basis. Both, Lumana Fellowship/Lumana International Fellowship positions are available and both are integral to our success as an organization; Lumana Fellows will generally work at our headquarters in Seattle while International Fellows will work on the ground expanding our microfinance operations in Ghana. The best candidates for these positions are those who understand the nature of Lumana as both a start up and expanding organization and who want to contribute creatively to the growth of this exciting venture. Other necessary skill sets are described below and include: strong decision making skills, communication skills, work ethic, flexibility, analytic skills, and computer skills. Check below for more details regarding each Fellow position and location.

Lumana International Fellowship:

Time Commitment: 40 hrs/wk (5 wks – in country) / 5 hrs/wk preparation in Seattle

General Description: Lumana International Fellows are volunteers who travel to Ghana and work on expanding Lumana’s microfinance operations in alignment with the company’s goals of serving 1000 borrowers by 2011. In Ghana, each fellow will work as part of a team setting up co-operatives, collecting community needs assessments and market research, streamlining operations, and working to expand into new regions. Fellows need to be dynamic, flexible, motivated, and able to thrive in a variety of situations. Becoming a fellow is a unique opportunity to gain hands on experience with microfinance in Africa, as well as contribute to a quickly growing, high potential organization.

Before departure, fellows are responsible for covering their own transportation and living expenses and are required to raise 1500 to contribute to Lumana’s Revolving Loan Fund, which directly finances our loan disbursement.

For a complete list of International Fellows job descriptions, please click here.

Lumana US Fellowship:

Time Commitment: 20 Hrs/Wk (>3 Month Commitment – firm Start Date/End Date). Weekly time estimate is subject to modification based on Fellow’s individual project(s).

General Description: A Lumana US Fellow is a volunteer intern who works domestically and spends approximately 15-20 hrs/wk working for Lumana over the course of a three-month commitment. Lumana Fellows will either work on small self-directed projects or directly with Staff members on larger initiatives, regardless of the scale every Lumana Fellow will be performing tasks essential to the success of Lumana as a non-profit venture.

Specific Tasks: Specific tasks completed by Lumana Fellows are multiple and varied based on the Fellow’s personal skill set and the particular needs of the company. Lumana would like to emphasize the fact that there are needs at all stages of the company and we are confident that we can integrate fellows in useful roles. If you are interested in providing a particular service to Lumana other than the job descriptions found below, please complete and email a letter of inquiry form to our Fellows Team.

For a complete list of US Fellows job descriptions, please click here.

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Please submit our Lumana Fellow Application and send it to fellows@lumana.org. You can expect that a Lumana staff member will follow up with you promptly regarding your application.