Penn GSE/Netter Center Alumni Fellowship in Democratic Civic Engagement

The Penn GSE/Netter Center Alumni Fellowship in Democratic Civic Engagement is a one-year fellowship opportunity for outstanding doctoral alumni from Penn’s Graduate School of Education to develop and disseminate practitioners' research on democratic civic engagement.The Alumni Fellowship in Democratic Civic Engagement creates and supports a growing community of democratically- and civically-engaged practitioner researchers and is connected to broader efforts to enhance higher education’s democratic and civic roles. The fellowship is open to alumni of Penn GSE’s Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Management, Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership, or Chief Learning Officer Doctoral Program.

The terms of fellowship are as follows:

  • Fellows will receive a $5,000 stipend for their fellowship year: $2,500 upon entry to the program and $2,500 upon delivery of the fellowship essay.
  • Fellows will participate in four seminar sessions facilitated by Penn faculty and staff.
    • Two in-person sessions will be held on Penn’s campus, running from the evening of the first day through the afternoon of the next day. The on-campus seminars will be an opportunity to connect directly with Penn resources, faculty, and students involved in related
    • work. Food and lodging will be provided and travel costs will be reimbursed.
    • Two sessions will be held virtually for 2–3 hours. Virtual seminars will be an opportunity to connect with national and international resources and experts involved in related work.Fellows will submit a ~10,000-word essay for public dissemination. Essays will be featured on a joint GSE/Netter Center page dedicated to this project. Publication in academic journals will be encouraged, but not required, as the fellowship remains open to
  • a variety of targeted publication venues. Essays of joint authorship will also be encouraged.
  • Fellows will submit a ~800-word piece that could be used as an op-ed or educator’s playbook piece, describing learnings from the fellowship, what it means to be a civic professional, and the fellow’s relevant leadership activities in this work.
  • Fellows will record a brief podcast for the GSE/Netter Civically-Engaged Leadership series and/or participate in 1-2 public webinars at/near the conclusion of the fellowship year (Netter Center podcast capacity under development for AY23).

Eligibility

  • Must be an alum of Penn GSE’s Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Management, Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership, or Chief Learning Officer Doctoral Program. Each program will select one of their own alumni for the fellowship for the pilot year of AY22-23.
  • Each applicant must have a Penn faculty member who has agreed to serve as their fellowship faculty mentor. During the fellowship year, faculty mentors will be encouraged to connect the alumni fellows to other students and faculty colleagues through existing structures (e.g., the GSE Research Apprenticeship Course).

Click here to learn about the 2022-2023 inaugural fellows