Click here for application information and the online application form.
Program Overview
The New Sector Summer Fellowship program is an intensive, 11-week leadership development program for individuals interested in the social impact sector. Fellows are selected from a highly competitive pool to provide support to Boston and San Francisco organizations that enhances that organizations' service to their constituents. Our Summer Fellowship program includes:
Summer Fellows
The Summer Fellowship program is tailored to undergraduate juniors, seniors, and recent graduates. Fellows serve full-time at a non-profit organization for 11 weeks. Alongside their service, Fellows receive rigorous training from experienced social impact leaders, including 1 week of kickoff training, biweekly afternoon seminars, and 1 full-day workshop. Fellows also receive one-on-one mentorship from leaders in the social impact sector, including for-profit management consultants and non-profit professionals.
Senior Summer Fellows
The Senior Fellowship program is geared towards indivuals who have completed at least one year of Master's study and have at least 2 years of work experience. In addition to regular program acitivites, Senior Fellows facilitate a peer learning team of 4-6 Fellows throughout the program, participate in discussion groups with other Senior Fellows, and facilitate case discussions and training activities for the entire Summer Fellow cohort.
To download an overview of the Summer Fellows program in PDF format, click here.
Program Dates and Locations
2013 Summer Fellows will serve Monday, June 3, 2013 – Friday, August 16, 2013 in the Boston Area or San Francisco Bay Area (30-35 Fellows in each cohort). Student applicants who cannot start on June 3 due to their university calendar will serve Monday, June 17 - Friday, August 30, 2013.
Program Elements
Each program consists of a full-time capacity building project, intensive training, and support.
Capacity Building Project
Fellows are placed at our host sites, which vary in their area of focus--from addressing environmental or human and health services issues, to engaging in education or community and economic development. Past projects have included developing performance measures, researching partnership opportunities, supporting effective technology use, building volunteer engagement, and designing new marketing strategies and materials for programs.
New Sector develops a "project scope" with the host site before Residents arrive to ensure a structured, challenging experience. Through their efforts on specific capacity-building initiatives, Fellows experience the daily operations of their host sites, apply the New Sector training they receive and leave a lasting impact while developing a holistic understanding of community, service, and building a socially responsible career.
No two New Sector experiences are the same; all offer unique opportunities and challenges. Specific responsibilities vary based on project and placement, but a typical Fellow's duties may include:
- Plan and manage projects to address a host site's key capacity-related opportunities and challenges
- Perform quantitative and qualitative analysis
- Generate practical, creative, and action-oriented insights and recommendations for a host site
- Create and give presentations and provide other deliverables to ensure host site satisfaction
- Work with host site staff members to implement recommendations
- Recruit and manage volunteers for service events
- Assist in daily host site operations
- Effectively communicate and manage relationships with all stakeholders in the New Sector model
For more information on projects, take a look at our example projects and our samples and guidelines.
Training
Fellows experience New Sector's Social Change Leadership Curriculum, which is designed to
- increase Fellows’ ability to provide quality service,
- provide professional and community development knowledge and skills,
- create a dynamic "esprit de corps" by providing insight into the communities they serve and the power of national service, and
- inspire commitment to a lifetime of service through exposure to role models, theories of change, and concepts of leadership.
Our training program combines the best from nonprofit management, business, and civic engagement curricula. Fellows learn financial modeling from business professors, mission-based decision making from local nonprofit leaders, and have conversations about long-term engagement in service with AmeriCorps alumni.
Fellows engage in an intensive kickoff training at the start of the program, attend bi-weekly trainings throughout the program and reflect on their service and professional development through a full-day workshop.
Support
Each Fellow is matched one-on-one with a Mentor, who is typically a management consultant or non-profit leader by profession. Consultants from the following firms have volunteered to be Mentors in previous cohorts:
- Accenture
- Bain & Company
- FSG
- The Boston Consulting Group
- The Bridgespan Group, Deloitte
- McKinsey & Company
- Oliver Wyman.
These consultant advisors provide instruction, concrete feedback and support to improve Fellows' project management skills, persuasive communication, analytical analyses and professional skills.
In addition to exclusive support that Fellows receive from Mentors, Residents also meet bi-weekly with small-group Learning Teams of 4-6 Fellows to collaborate, problem solve, and provide one another support as each Residents serves on her or his capacity-building project.
New Sector Program Staff is also available to provide individual support to Residents as-needed throughout their programs.
Eligibility
Summer Fellows must:
- Be U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents
- Have a high school diploma or GED
- Be enrolled in an undergraduate program or have graduated from one
- Not have served more than three State and National AmeriCorps program terms (limit: two Education Awards)
In addition, Senior Summer Fellows must:
- Have 2+ years of post-undergraduate work experience
- Have completed one year of Master's study by the start the program
There is no "typical" Fellow; New Sector consciously seeks individuals of differing perspectives and backgrounds and with various career goals. Successful applicants will demonstrate the following:
- Passion for and experience in achieving social change
- High level of self-motivation and a proven ability to deliver excellent results, demonstrated by a record of strong academic, extracurricular, professional, and personal accomplishment
- Core leadership attributes, including: resourcefulness, responsibility, independence, patience, integrity, energy, and a strong work ethic
- Ability to adapt and remain flexible in the face of various challenges and opportunities
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including the capacity to understand the needs of multiple and diverse stakeholders, build strong host site relationships, and work effectively individually and as part of a team
- Excellent quantitative and qualitative analytical skills
- Ability to approach challenges in a structured manner by setting goals, devising a plan to achieve those goals, and meeting those goals in a timely manner
- Desire to proactively take on responsibility within the New Sector organization and network
Compensation and Benefits
Compensation includes:
- A living stipend of $1,500 (for Summer Fellows) or $5,500 (for Senior Summer Fellows).
- A Segal AmeriCorps Education Award worth $1,468 distributed upon successful completion of the program, which can be used to pay for outstanding loans or future educational expenses at any accredited institution in the United States
Important Application Dates
- November 1, 2012: Applications open
- December 14, 2012: Deadline for Round 1 applicants
- December 16, 2012 - February 29, 2013: Applications reviewed on a rolling basis; offers will be made within 2.5 months whenever possible, and by May 1, 2013
- March 1, 2013: Selected Round 1 applicants will receive offers
- March 1, 2013: Deadline for Round 2 applicants
- May 5, 2013: Selected Round 2 applicants will receive offers (all else on a rolling basis)
- The Resident matching process will begin June 2013.
Click here for application information and the online application form.
