Each Spring, 30 Chicago Area Schweitzer Fellows are selected from applications submitted by students in a diversity of fields, including but not limited to medicine, nursing, dentistry, public health, social work, psychology, pharmacy, physical therapy, law, nutrition, art therapy, dance/movement therapy, and acupuncture.
Program Elements and Requirements: Working in collaboration with an existing local community agency, each Fellow designs and implements a service project that addresses an unmet community health need. Fellowship projects include the following:
- A minimum of 200 hours of service (including 130 hours conducting a community service project that is focused on direct, face-to-face contact with the population being served)
- Guidance from mentors, including a Site Mentor at the hosting community agency, an Academic Mentor at the student’s academic institution, and Program mentors
- Monthly progress reports on the Fellow’s project
- A written report at the conclusion of the project, including recommendations for ways in which the most valuable aspects of the Fellow’s project and experiences can be replicated or sustained
Eligibility: Any student who will be enrolled at least part-time in a health-related, graduate-level-degree-granting program during the Fellowship year is welcome to apply. Please note that two exceptions to this are medical and podiatry students who will be entering their third year of medical school. Medical and podiatry students who will be in their first, second, or fourth year during the Fellowship year are eligible.
Deadline: The application deadline for the 2022-23 Fellowship year is February 1st, 2022. Finalists will be interviewed in mid-March, and the Fellows will be announced in early April.
