Fall is fast approaching! That means our 2023 Fellowship application deadline, September 13, is just over one month away. You’ve already identified an issue, and found an organization to host your work…now, you should be working together to design the project you hope to tackle during your two-year Fellowship term.
The most exciting aspect of our Design-Your-Own Fellowship program is the opportunity for aspiring public interest lawyers to work directly with the communities and causes they care about, through Fellowship projects of their own design. To put it simply, this is your project, and your community—we want to know what makes this work important to you as an individual.
As you collaborate with your chosen organization on the design of your project, be sure to keep the following tips from our Applicant Guide in mind:
- Work Together: Candidates and organizations are partners in this process, and should work closely on the project design to ensure that the proposal aligns with the candidate’s talents and passions, and the organization’s mission and goals.
- Obtain Stakeholder Buy-In: Strengthen your proposal by showing you have laid the groundwork for the project in the community. For instance, consider getting input from local community leaders, or drawing on a recent needs assessment to identify specific needs and particular strategies the community wants employed.
- Demonstrate Sustainability: Projects should be designed to impact a large number of people through the implementation of an innovative program, or the replication of a model successfully used elsewhere. Be sure to demonstrate how the project will have a lasting impact beyond the Fellowship term.
- Attend a Webinar: Our final candidate-specific webinar will take place on August 16 from 3-4 p.m. ET, and we strongly encourage applicants to join if they missed the earlier sessions.