2025-2026 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program Call for Applications

2025-2026 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program Call for Applications

The U.S. Mission in Vietnam is pleased to announce the 2025-2026 competition for the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program. The Humphrey Fellowship is a one-year, non-degree, full scholarship program offered to promising mid-career professionals who have a proven track record of leadership, and a strong commitment to public service. Participants spend one year at a leading U.S. university working in a self-designed program of independent study and participate in professional affiliations off-campus, field trips, special workshops and seminars in their field of study. Fellows are selected based on their potential for national leadership and commitment to public service in either the public or private sector.

Eligible Fields:

The Humphrey Fellowship seeks qualified Vietnamese candidates in the following fields:

1. Human and Institutional Capacity

• Economic Development: Suitable candidates include policy makers and administrative managers focusing on contemporary development issues including population growth, agriculture and industrial development, poverty and income distribution, labor markets, and foreign trade. Individuals who are working in the fields of sustainable development and micro-finance in the public or private sector are also appropriate. This field has flexibility to meet posts’ priority issues within economic development.
• Finance and Banking: Suitable candidates include individuals who are involved in the management of financial institutions, the regulation of depository institutions and securities, transnational lending and trade financing, or public-private partnerships. Corporate financial managers and analysts are appropriate if they are interested in and able to convey how their work will impact the development of the country. This field is not appropriate for candidates who are primarily concerned with expanding a corporate entity’s market share.
• Public Policy Analysis and Public Administration: This field offers Fellows the opportunity to expand policy analysis and public management skills and equips them with the knowledge and experience to advance solutions to global challenges across diverse policy issues. Policy issues that past Fellows addressed have included: anti-corruption, institutional change and human resource management policies, leadership and financial management in public and non-profit organizations, poverty and inequality, gender, international development policies, and other related topics.
• Technology Policy and Management: This focus will allow Fellows to gain skills in managing and analyzing large amounts of data and familiarize them with public policy and governance challenges in the era of big data and generative AI. Officials in the Ministry of Education and educators who teach technology and science in higher education institutions and can demonstrate leadership in curriculum development or administration in this field are also appropriate candidates. This field is not appropriate for candidates seeking advanced technical skills or IT certifications.

2. Rights and Freedoms:

• Communications and Journalism: Appropriate candidates include those using media in all its current forms to facilitate global development for their country to ensure a free and factual information environment. Journalists in this field could work for private media outlets or state- run public broadcasters with a focus on independent reporting and transparency. Journalists can work in any platform (print, broadcast, online) using digital and social media tools to cover a wide variety of subject beats, including, but not limited to public affairs, arts and features, social issues, business news and investigative topics. Other individuals might be strategic communication experts and manage the public or internal communications for non-governmental organizations, state-run media, governmental agencies, or private business enterprises.
• Law and Human Rights: Attorneys, judges, foreign government officials, NGO activists, media specialists, and human rights activists are the most suitable candidates in this field. They may work in anti-trafficking, international religious freedom, and/or in specialty law such as: constitutional, criminal, civil rights, business, alternative dispute resolution, international humanitarian, telecommunications, and other related specializations. Individuals engaged in legal and judicial reform and the administration of justice also are appropriate candidates.

3. Sustainable Lands

• Agricultural and Rural Development: Ideal candidates include individuals from the public sector, non-governmental organizations, and business with expertise in sustainable agriculture, food systems, natural resource management, and rural development. The field includes, but is not limited to, the following areas of specialization: food security, climate-smart agriculture, sustainable farming systems, agricultural research, extension management, agricultural marketing and value- chain management, post-harvest technology and food safety, trade and food policy, and rural livelihood enhancement.
• Natural Resources, Environmental Policy, and Climate Change: Natural resource and environmental managers are appropriate candidates for this field. Policymakers working on the protection of natural resources, water quality, pollution control, land use, conservation, and environmental impact assessment also are suitable. Climate change is a critical emerging field open to professionals working in a range of disciplines, including policy development, clean technologies, carbon management, and response planning or adaptation to new climate patterns.
• Urban and Regional Planning: Appropriate candidates for this field include architects, engineers, urban planners, urban designers, urban economists and sociologists, and historic preservation specialists who advance their country’s urban and regional development through public and private planning and management. This field should be broadly interpreted and can include: urban infrastructure, transportation policy and planning, water and sanitation, town and rural planning, land use and urban design, housing and real estate development, international and comparative planning, environmental protection and planning, ecological land development and other related fields and topics.

4. Thriving Communities:

• Public Health Policy and Management: Physicians, clinicians with management responsibilities, health educators, and other practitioners with management and policymaking responsibilities in this field are suitable candidates. Past Fellows’ interests have included: contagious and infectious diseases and improving global health security, HIV/AIDS policy, treatment, and prevention, management of public health care organizations; health care delivery through community- based organizations; reproductive, adolescent and child health; and epidemiology in public health practice. Candidates who are primarily practitioners in their field are not appropriate, but practitioners who are interested in acquiring skills and knowledge to become better administrators of public health programs to promote health education in their community or country, would be a better fit for the program.
• Substance Abuse Education, Prevention, and Treatment: Candidates in this field may be focused on consequences or treatment of alcohol, drug (including synthetic drugs), tobacco use, and synthetic opiates as well as broader areas of public health that relate to substance abuse, such as HIV/AIDS, mental health, medicine, psychology, social work and counseling. Previous Fellows in the substance abuse field have come from schools and universities, community-based treatment, prevention or intervention programs, hospitals, criminal justice settings and local or national policy agencies. Fellows in this field will have access to a strong university-based research program as well as contacts with community, state and national professionals and provider groups working in substance abuse. Humphrey Fellows who have a background and interest in research are also eligible to link more closely with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), one of 27 research institutes and centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). All Fellows in the Substance Abuse field will be part of the joint programming offered by NIDA. Candidates must have either a research background in the field or demonstrated ability to learn the results and policy implications of current research. Candidates in this field will be ranked together with candidates in other fields, but must also complete a supplementary field-specific application page.
• Educational Administration, Planning, and Policy: Individuals who contribute to national or regional education policy and hold administrative positions at institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, or government ministries make good candidates. Candidate profiles also include those focused in the more technical areas of education such as: curriculum development, instruction and learning assessment techniques, higher education inclusive of academic affairs, program design and adult learning, teacher training, and vocational/technical education programs. These individuals may also be teacher trainers and master teachers in the field of Teaching English as a Foreign Language if they also have additional responsibilities in the areas above. University professors with an exclusively academic focus are not suitable candidates; however, university professors in administrative or policy-making positions are eligible.

Requirements for Applicants:

To be eligible for a Humphrey Fellowship, applicants must have:

• Vietnamese citizenship;
• a university degree;
• at least five years of full-time professional experience post undergraduate degree prior to August 2025 in the relevant field;
• limited or no prior experience in the United States;
• demonstrated leadership qualities and a record of public service;
• strong command of spoken and written English. An English Language Test is not required at the time of application. iBT TOEFL vouchers will be provided to selected candidates and a TOEFL score will be required to all competition finalists by October 20, 2024.

Ineligible candidates include:

• Recent university graduates, university teachers or academic researchers with no management responsibilities (except in the fields of Substance Abuse Education, Prevention, and Treatment);
• Individuals who have attended a graduate school in the United States one academic year or more during the seven years prior to August 2025;
• Individuals who have spent more than six months during the five years prior to August 2025 in the United States;
• Individuals with dual U.S. citizenship or U.S. permanent resident status;
• Individuals participated in a U.S. government- sponsored exchange programs within the last three years prior to August 2025.

Financial Provisions:

The Humphrey Fellowship provides:

• international travel;
• tuition and university fees;
• accident/health insurance;
• monthly maintenance allowance; and
• funds for books and professional activities.

The Humphrey Program does not provide financial support for accompanying family members or dependents. For further information about the program, please visit the program’s official website at http://www.humphreyfellowship.org . The Humphrey Program is very active on social media. Interested applicants can go to Facebook  to interact with current Fellows and alumni and learn more through our semi-weekly posts. You can also go to our YouTube page  to see videos of Fellows and alumni discussing their Humphrey experience. Candidates can also join LinkedIn  to participate in field-specific discussions with Fellows and alumni.

To apply online, please go to https://apply.iie.org/huberthhumphrey . Please submit your applications on the Embark website by 11:59pm, Sunday, July 28th, 2024. Only on-line applications will be accepted.

Contact information:

Candidates from Quang Tri to the North: Ms. Giang Nguyen, email NguyenGH3@state.gov
Candidates from Hue to the South: Ms. Nguyen Tran, TranNNH@state.gov