2025 APNIC Fellows in their own words

Fellows celebrating their graduation at APNIC 60.

Engagement is not the end of fellowship, but the beginning of contribution.

The 2025 APNIC Fellowship Program brought together 41 emerging and established professionals from across the Asia Pacific region to participate in technical workshops, policy discussions, and community-building activities. Fellows represented diverse economies and backgrounds, united by a shared commitment to strengthening Internet infrastructure, governance, and security in their local contexts.

In this blog post, we asked fellows from the recent 2025 program to reflect on their experiences.

Resilience, humility, support, and growth

Hanis Irfan said that the fellowship experience forced him to "put away his introverted self for a while and talk with others". APNIC Fellowships are designed for technical professionals, where introversion is a common personality trait. The fellowship experience provided fellows the opportunity to step outside of their comfort zones and connect with Internet industry peers from economies around the region.

The fellowship hybrid experience was delivered over 17 webinars, four days of technical workshops and a three-day conference at APNIC 60, and mentorship opportunities with Internet leaders. Rikash Raamah Chand felt that, despite the size and diversity of their cohort, the intensive experience helped the fellows "gel almost instantly as though they'd known each other forever".

And while many fellows found the program challenging, Marolin Ly noted that "with resilience, humility, and the right support, we can turn challenges into growth".

Learning and impact

The APNIC Fellowship program developed skills in core Internet technologies that Fellows could begin applying immediately. Nguyen Huy Lam said he plans on using the practical IPv6 knowledge he gained to "guide the gradual transition toward IPv6-only adoption in line with best practices".

Syifani Adillah Salsabila has already implemented Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools like Graylog into his faculty infrastructure, and begun researching applications for QUIC. Vichet Eoung plans to use the practical Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) policy design skills he developed to do traffic engineering and to scale iBGP in large networks. And Sajidur Rahman Rabby is eager to use the Salt and Ansible experience he gained through the fellowship to automate bank branch and ATM infrastructure.

The fellows intend to extend their impact beyond the purely technical. Vicky Yang is looking forward to mentoring younger students to inspire interest in Internet governance, networking, and cybersecurity. Phailin Phosiphong plans to organize workshops and share knowledge through their local Network Operators Group (NOG), LANOG.

You can participate

Whether you're a policymaker, educator, or industry professional, you can get involved with the APNIC Fellowship Program and contribute to a global, open, stable, and secure Internet that serves the entire Asia Pacific community. Apply for a Fellowship to experience the APNIC community firsthand. Get in touch with us if you're interested in hiring a fellow to bring global insights to your local team, or becoming a mentor and help shape the next generation of Internet leaders our region needs.

The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of APNIC. Please note a Code of Conduct applies to this blog.