The 2024 Leading from Lived Experience Fellowship brought together 39  staff members, alumni and participants from partner organizations in 23 countries across the Teach For All network, who have all personally experienced various forms of inequity, marginalization, and discrimination in their own contexts. This powerful fellowship focused on cultivating their wellbeing, leadership skills, and the ability to drive change for themselves, their students, and their communities.

By creating safe spaces for vulnerability and reflection, the fellowship fostered a sense of belonging and deepened participants' understanding of systemic inequities, while creating space to heal both personally and collectively. The in-person immersion trip to Malaysia further expanded their perspectives and strengthened their global connections, ensuring that they are equipped with the tools and knowledge to make a significant impact. Watch the video above to hear some of the fellows’ own reflections about what this fellowship means to them and why centering lived experience is crucial in the work of fighting educational inequity.

"Thank you for giving me the opportunity to get to know myself, to reread my story, for giving me tools to look back, sometimes from anger and questioning, but always with the intention of healing."

"I came back different, with more tools, with more desire to discover, to heal and above all to act."

The stories and reflections of those with lived experiences of inequity are not just valuable insights, they are a powerful driving force behind the fight for more equitable systems. Teach For All remains committed to amplifying the voices and leadership of those with lived experience, and to this end, we are developing an asynchronous course to expand access to the content and insights of this fellowship and empower many more people with lived experience to be leaders of change in the world.