The Atlantic Council’s Millennium Leadership Program is pleased to announce the 2015 Take Point Initiative fellows. Funded with a grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation, this fellowship is designed to prepare veterans who are thirty-five years old and younger for leadership positions in the nonprofit and policy fields, with a focus on international affairs and national security.

This year’s cohort of ten exceptional young veterans, who were selected through a highly competitive process, consists of five former officers and five former enlisted men and women who served in the United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. Their assignments in uniform include serving as an F/A-18 combat pilot, an 82nd Airborne paratrooper training Afghan forces, an Army Ranger with four tours in Afghanistan, a Seahawk pilot and Africa strategist, and a combat advisor to Afghan police and soldiers, among numerous other roles. These fellows bring deep passion and inspiring personal narratives to the foreign policy community.

The 2015 Take Point Initiative fellowship will take place in Washington, DC from January 18- January 26. The fellowship will include a week of intense training designed to build the core competencies of strategic planning, nonprofit management, thought leadership, and communications. Through the initiative, fellows will receive mentorship opportunities with leading policy and nonprofit experts, direct access to Atlantic Council staff and board directors, and hands-on experience working with current and former nonprofit practitioners. Each fellow has developed a proposal for a nonprofit project that engages other young veterans­­—including those with service-related injuries—in the national discourse on foreign policy and national security. Following the week of training, fellows will pitch their project idea to a panel of expert judges, who will award $25,000 in seed funding to the project with the most potential to succeed and support other young veterans.

Fellows will meet with high-level officials from the government, civil society, philanthropic organizations, and the private sector, including meetings with Atlantic Council Chairman Gov. Jon Huntsman, Gen. James Cartwright, and former White House Counselor Pete Rouse, along with nonprofit trainings by Georgetown and Indiana Universities.

Click here to read more about the 2015 fellows and visit bobwoodrufffoundation.org, @Stand4Heroes on Twitter, or www.facebook.com/Stand4Heroes to learn more about the Bob Woodruff Foundation.

For more information on the Take Point Initiative or to schedule an interview with the 2015 fellows, please email press@AtlanticCouncil.org.