Pelican Fellowship Cohort 3
Bahawalpur and Cholistan, November 2023
The Year the Fellowship Stepped Beyond the Seminar Hall.
Pelican Fellowship 2023: Cohort 3 redefined what the fellowship could be, hosted across Bahawalpur and the Cholistan Desert, pairing structured peace dialogue with experiential, outdoor leadership challenges.
Program Journey
Four days. Two landscapes. One cohort, tracked day by day.
Opening, Coexistence & Heritage
The fellowship opened with one of its most ambitious days yet, pairing structured interfaith dialogue with cultural immersion in Bahawalpur’s most iconic landmark.
Learning, Leadership & Connections
Day 2 broke the conventional fellowship mold. Fellows moved from structured sessions into experiential leadership challenges, beginning with collaboration in the kitchen and ending with survival in the Derawar Desert.
Growth, Passion & Purpose
Day 3 deepened the cohort’s bond, pairing rigorous skills work with one of the fellowship’s most emotionally resonant traditions.
Building Leaders & Lasting Connections
The fellowship closed with the cohort’s final shared moments, group reflections, departure preparations, and the formal close of Cohort 3.
Six Pillars of Cohort 3
An expanded framework, built for a fellowship that now leads in the seminar hall and in the field.
The Team Behind Cohort 3
Mentors, leaders, and facilitators who made the fellowship possible, a multi-tier structure that reflects the program's institutional maturity into its third year.
MBBS, Nishtar Medical College
Diana Award
Tunza Ecogen Pakistan
Resilient Communities
Crisis Leadership
The Cohort 3 Class
The young leaders, students, professionals, and changemakers who made up Pelican Fellowship 2023: Cohort 3, drawn from across Pakistan's provinces and regions.
Pelican Fellowship Cohort 3, Social Action Projects
Youth-Led Initiatives Creating Awareness, Peace, and Positive Change
Pelican Fellowship Cohort 3 fellows designed and conducted impactful Social Action Projects focused on leadership, peacebuilding, youth empowerment, education, social awareness, conflict resolution, and community engagement. Through seminars, workshops, and awareness sessions in schools and universities, fellows inspired young people to become active changemakers in their communities.
Anger Management & Girls Empowerment
An awareness session focused on emotional intelligence, confidence building, and empowering young women through leadership and self-awareness.
Media Awareness & Perception Building
An interactive session exploring media influence, critical thinking, and responsible communication among youth.
Interfaith Harmony & Peacebuilding
A university-based dialogue promoting tolerance, coexistence, empathy, and peaceful conflict resolution.
Leadership & Conflict Resolution
A collaborative awareness initiative encouraging youth leadership, teamwork, and social understanding.
Youth Motivation & Educational Awareness
A motivational session inspiring students to pursue education, leadership, and personal growth.
Peacebuilding & Social Harmony
A school awareness session focused on compassion, inclusion, unity, and building peaceful communities.
Peace Education & Youth Awareness
An interactive classroom session promoting respectful communication, leadership, and social responsibility.
Leadership & Youth Empowerment Seminar
A leadership seminar at SZAB University Karachi engaging students from multiple universities and international backgrounds.
Transforming Extremism into Non-Violence
A workshop at Punjab University focused on countering extremism through dialogue, peacebuilding, and non-violent approaches.
Interfaith & Intercultural Harmony Workshop
Cohort III Alumni hosted an inspiring workshop at the National Incubation Centre (NIC) focused on the crucial role of interfaith and intercultural harmony in peacebuilding. Through powerful discussions and hands-on activities, the fellows encouraged unity across cultures and faiths while empowering young changemakers with leadership skills to turn vision into action.
What Cohort 3 Achieved
Four results that gave the fellowship its edge, and proved a program confident enough to evolve.
A New Model for Experiential Leadership
By pairing structured sessions with real-world challenges in the Cholistan Desert, Cohort 3 established a hybrid program model that future cohorts continue to build on, proving that leadership is best taught when it's also tested.
Deeper Interfaith Engagement
Holding the cohort's flagship dialogue inside St. Dominic Church set a new standard for the fellowship's interfaith work, turning a recurring program theme into a defining institutional commitment.
A Stronger, More Diverse Alumni Network
Cohort 3 expanded the alumni network to its third generation of peacebuilders, a growing community of young leaders connected across faiths, cities, regions, and disciplines.
A Program Confident Enough to Evolve
By moving fellows from seminar halls to desert dunes, Cohort 3 demonstrated that the fellowship is willing to evolve its delivery without compromising its mission, the mark of a program that intends to last.
This Is What It Looks Like When a Fellowship Steps Beyond the Classroom.
If Cohort 1 was the proof, and Cohort 2 confirmed it could last, Cohort 3 was the proof that it could grow.
From the dialogue inside St. Dominic Church to the survival challenge in the Derawar Desert, Cohort 3 expanded what the Pelican Fellowship could ask of its fellows, and what the fellowship itself could become.
This is what it looks like when a youth fellowship becomes an institution willing to evolve, quietly, deliberately, one cohort at a time.