Host a Policy & Advocacy Summer Fellow

About the Fellowship

The Policy & Advocacy Summer Fellowship is a paid summer opportunity that connects LEE members with high-impact policy and advocacy leaders and organizations focused on equity, justice, and communities for an eight-week, full-time placement.

Founded in 2012, the fellowship has over 1500 alumni. Every summer, we partner with organizations nationally to place approximately 50 fellows.

About the Summer Fellows

Fellows are a diverse group of emerging leaders with varied backgrounds, life experiences, and skill sets that include: 

  • Professional and/or graduate school experience
  • Data collection, analysis and synthesis
  • Community outreach
  • Issue advocacy, coalition building
  • Stakeholder analysis
  • Policy analysis

Policy and Advocacy Summer Fellows (PASFs) have shown a demonstrated interest in a career in policy and advocacy, and plan to transition to full time work in the field within the next 1-2 years after completing the program.

In addition to their full-time placement work, LEE provides ongoing support to fellows during the summer through professional development leadership and career support, and optional online policy and advocacy skills courses.

LEE has a strong commitment to supporting the leadership of communities historically underrepresented in public leadership. In 2024, 53 fellows were placed with 47 host organizations across 22 states and D.C. Of the 2024 cohort, 69% identified as women or gender nonconforming and 80% identified as people of color. 

Fellows receive a living stipend of $3,500 and can apply for needs-based scholarships. 

Expectations for Host Organizations

 

Host organizations provide fellows with opportunities to contribute to meaningful work and create space for professional growth and development. By hosting a fellow, your organization gains additional capacity to dedicate to a special project to further your impact and achieve your goals. In addition, you are contributing to the development of a future policy or advocacy leader.

Here are a few of the organizations that have hosted LEE summer fellows recently.

Frequently Asked Questions

 

What kinds of projects do fellows work on? 

  • A fellow working at an advocacy organization in Alabama researched and wrote a brief on how to recruit and retain teachers who identify as millennials. The brief summarized best practices and presented recommendations for schools and districts on how to get and keep these teachers in the classroom.
  • A fellow working with Baltimore City Public Schools supported the drafting and roll out of Baltimore City Schools new strategic plan, Blueprint: Building the Next Generation. In this role, she was directly involved in setting the big picture plans of the district that she teaches in.
  • A fellow working at a think tank in Washington, D.C., authored a brief that synthesized and summarized charter school financial data. The brief outlined trends in revenue and per-pupil spending, as well as made recommendations for clarifying the financial information provided by charter schools. The brief was published by the host organization and referenced by local media. 
  • Read a sample project description.
  • Please note that, if you’d like your fellow to engage in lobbying-related activity, you will have to pay your fellow their stipend directly.

What is your contribution as a host?

To ensure a high-quality experience for both fellows and hosts, we ask host organizations to provide each fellow with the following:

  • A defined project or set of projects with clear deliverables that is substantive, meaningful, and provides direct experience in policy or advocacy 
  • A full-time workload (40 hours per week) for the fellow for eight weeks
  • Designated on-site workspace, or technology needed to work remotely
  • A dedicated supervisor who can meet with and provide feedback to the fellow on a weekly basis throughout the summer
  • Opportunities to gain exposure to and skills in education policy or advocacy work
  • Opportunities to build relationships within the organization (e.g., attending staff meetings, participating in key meetings and events, interacting with staff at all levels)
  • A program fee commensurate with your organization’s budget (max. $5,000). No payment is required before fellow placement and LEE will confirm your ability to pay as part of our host selection process. 
    • For organizations with a budget of less than $500,000, the proposed cost-share is $2,500 per fellow.
    • For organizations with a budget between $500,000 and $1M, the proposed cost-share is $3,750 per fellow.
    • For organizations with a budget greater than $1M, the proposed cost-share is $5,000 per fellow.

What is the host application process?

  • Submit a host application
    • Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Earlier applications will allow us more time to recruit fellows specifically for your opportunity. Due to our fellow recruitment timeline, late applications will not be accepted. 
    • If your organization cannot contribute to the cost-share, you can still apply. Depending on our budget, we will follow up with you to let you know if we can provide you with a fellow. 
    • You must have a proposed project in mind by the deadline as you will be asked to submit a project description.  
  • Confirm Intent to Host: 
    • LEE staff will follow up with you to confirm your organization’s intent to host, ability to cost-share, and will share an MOU to confirm your participation as a host this summer. 
  • Host & Fellow Matching Process
    • The fellowships team will match you with a prospective fellow based on mutual interests, skills you identified, proposed project, location, etc. 
    • Given all of the factors that go into a match, you will only receive one prospective fellow to interview. You will schedule a time to connect with them within two weeks of receiving their resume. 
    • You will confirm with us whether you want to bring your fellow on. 
    • More information about this process will be included in the Host Booklet you will receive along with your MOU. 
    • We cannot guarantee that you will be matched with a fellow but will do our best to recruit talent for a placement at your organization if you are accepted as a PASF host.

Questions? Email us at PASF@educationalequity.org

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