If you've been wondering what Jacinda Ardern has been working on since she stepped down as New Zealand's prime minister earlier this year, her plans for the fall seem to be coming together, with "a stint of quiet reflection within academia overseas," notes CNN. The former PM has been appointed to two fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Ivy League's public policy and government center, which means she'll be doing "some speaking, teaching, and learning," per her Instagram post announcing the news Tuesday, adding that she's "incredibly humbled" at the invitation.
Ardern will spend her time on the campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, serving as the Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow, which is geared toward big names transitioning out of public service roles, and as a Hauser Leader in the School's Center for Public Leadership, assisting faculty and students on leadership best practices. She'll also serve as a Knight Tech Governance Leadership Fellow with Harvard Law School's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, looking into ways to combat online extremism.
The New Zealand Herald notes that Ardern isn't a complete Harvard newbie: She was the recipient in 2020 of the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership's Gleitsman International Activist Award, and last year she delivered the university's commencement address. "Jacinda Ardern showed the world strong and empathetic political leadership," Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf said in a release, per the AP, which notes how Ardern led New Zealand through the "devastating" Christchurch mass shooting in 2019.
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Elmendorf adds that Ardern will "bring important insights for our students and will generate vital conversations about the public policy choices facing leaders at all levels." New Zealanders need not fret that Ardern has ditched them for the long term. "While I'll be gone for a semester (helpfully the one that falls during the NZ general election!) I'll be coming back at the end of the fellowships," she wrote on Instagram. "After all, New Zealand is home!" (More Jacinda Ardern stories.)
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