Opening Ceremony
of the THINC 23/24 Cohort
On the evening of December 16, the third THINC Fellowship program was officially launched. A global cohort of 62 young representatives from 34 countries officially debuted. In the coming year, the third THINC cohort (2023-24) will organize and participate in different online and in-person activities and discuss the relationship between technology and humanity.
THINC is a 12-month fellowship program powered by Chinese digital tech giant Tencent and Beijing-based non-profit organization Viva la Vida (VIVA), gathering a community of selected young global representatives.
Yifan Ren, Tencent representative and co-founder of the THINC Fellowship, addressed the ceremony and said that the teaming up of Tencent and VIVA has achieved many milestones, with the THINC program, creating a community for collaboration and communication, being especially noteworthy. She hoped that the project can help share the Tencent experience or the experiences of a tech company in general.
Xiaoning Lyu, co-founder of the THINC Fellowship and founder of VIVA, introduced the THINC working model at the ceremony. She said that with the core principle of "Technology for a Better Future for Humanity," or "tech for good," THINC has been up and running for more than three years, with 174 fellows from 50+ countries, 400+ media outlets, 600k+ webinar views, and 3m+ campaign views. She hopes THINC will continue to inspire togetherness.
Lyu also shared her story of creating VIVA, a global platform for people to share stories through art, which touched the Fellows. VIVA has an online art gallery and social networking platform to showcase the life portraits created by different people.
Tolik, THINC media consultant, added that the Fellows will be divided into five groups based on their backgrounds. The categories are: International development, AI aspiration, Tech empowerment, Social transformation and Global communication. The next 12 months will see a series of activities related to these five topics.
During the ceremony, global THINC Hub representatives also shared their experiences of being a recent Fellow or participating in THINC's activities. THINC now runs the Europe Hub in Spain, the South America Hub in Brazil, the North America Hub in the U.S., and Asia Hubs in Singapore and Pakistan. These hubs will host local activities in the coming year.
The third THINC cohort (2023-24) were further introduced to their respective group Fellows and gave their categories a name and motto.