Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will be heading to the United States and joining Harvard University later this year, CNN reported. Ms. Ardern, a global icon and a role model for women everywhere, has been given two fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School.
She has been selected as a 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and a Hauser Leader at Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership. Additionally, she has been named a Knight Tech Governance Leadership Fellow at Harvard Law School.
"I am incredibly humbled to be joining Harvard University as a fellow — not only will it give me the opportunity to share my experience with others, it will give me a chance to learn. As leaders, there's often very little time for reflection, but reflection is critical if we are to properly support the next generation of leaders,'' the former PM said.
The Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Program provides opportunities for high-profile leaders who are transitioning from public service roles to spend time in residence at Harvard Kennedy School.
“Jacinda Ardern showed the world strong and empathetic political leadership,” Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf said in a press release, adding that the former PM will "bring important insights for our students and will generate vital conversations about the public policy choices facing leaders at all levels.''
Notably, Ms. Ardern shocked New Zealand earlier this year when she announced she was stepping down as prime minister and retiring from politics, saying she no longer had "enough in the tank".
The 42-year-old said in her final speech to parliament that she never expected to take the nation's top job.
"It was a cross between a sense of duty to steer a moving freight train... and being hit by one. And that's probably because my internal reluctance to lead was matched only by a huge sense of responsibility," she quipped during her valedictory address.
During her stint as PM, she steered New Zealand through natural disasters, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the 2019 Christchurch mosque massacre in which a white supremacist gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers.
In 2017, Ms. Ardern became the world's youngest leader at the age of 37. She has twice been named to Time Magazine's Most Influential People list.
