ADI provides talented undergraduate students with the opportunity to gain actual experience with African Development, hoping to inspire these highly qualified individuals to consider careers in international development. Once selected from a rigorous application process, ADI undergraduates design and coordinate development projects based on the needs of the selected African communities, each lasting a minimum of 2 years. Through weekly meetings, ADI students share knowledge, resources, and sometimes their frustrations to assist one another with their respective African Development Projects. Along with coordinating their projects, students are responsible for researching their innovations and productiveness to maximize the social return not just for their endeavor, but for all future ADI projects.

Along with the assistance we receive from various faculty members at numerous Colleges and Universities, ADI is supported by the Harvard African and African American Studies Department as well as the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Studies. Under the respective leadership of Dr. Evelyn Higginbotham and Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Faculty from these two groups serve as advisors, collaborators, and a selection committee for the undergraduate team. Our Faculty Staff develop our undergraduate students as researchers and facilitate ADI's accumulation of knowledge over the years.