2017

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Designed for service members and veterans looking to further their education or explore unique opportunities, veteran fellowships highlight the skills and potential of the men and women of the U.S. military. Below are 12 fellowships for U.S. veterans and scholars of security policy and military history. If any of these opportunities spark your interest, be sure to bookmark the fellowship to your ProFellow account!

Tillman Scholars Program

The Tillman Scholars Program unites and empowers remarkable military veterans and spouses as the next generation of private and public sector leaders committed to service beyond self. The premier fellowship supports Tillman Scholars with academic scholarships, a national network, and professional development opportunities, so they are empowered to make an impact in the fields of medicine, law, business, policy, technology, education and the arts. Active duty service members, veterans, and military spouses are eligible for the fellowship which covers academic expenses, including tuition and fees, books and living expenses.

Veterans in Global Leadership Fellowship

Veterans in Global Leadership is a one-year fellowship program that seeks to identify and guide talented, diverse and high-achieving student veterans who want to continue their public service by becoming foreign policy leaders. The program includes a structured 3-day course at New York University, formal mentorship, and events throughout the U.S. from think tanks to top universities. The program also includes specialized support to the female members. The fellowship seeks a diverse group of fellows with a range of personal and professional backgrounds and service histories, including both former officers and enlisted personnel.

Mission Continues Fellowship

A Mission Continues Fellow is a post-9/11 veteran who has accepted the challenge to continue serving at home through our Fellowship Program. The Fellowship involves 20 hours of service per week for 26 weeks at a local nonprofit organization. Fellows are encouraged to choose a nonprofit organization to serve based on their own personal passions. Before beginning the fellowship, Fellows attend a three-day Fellowship Orientation, joining other post-9/11 veterans from their Fellowship Class for a weekend of training, service and camaraderie. Fellows receive professional network opportunities and a cost-of-living stipend. 4 deadlines.

CFR Military Fellowship

Each year outstanding officers from the U.S. Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy are nominated for the CFR Military Fellowship. The program enables selected officers to broaden their understanding of international relations by spending a year at CFR’s headquarters in New York. An education in international relations is provided through individual study, research and reflection and participation in CFR meetings and events. Interested officers should speak with their human resource officer to learn more about the application process.

White House Fellowship

The White House Fellows program is one of America’s most prestigious programs for leadership and public service. White House Fellowships offer exceptional young men and women first-hand experience working at the highest levels of the federal government. Fellows typically spend a year working as a full-time, paid Fellow to senior White House Staff, Cabinet Secretaries and other top-ranking government officials. Fellows also participate in an education program consisting of roundtable discussions with renowned leaders from the private and public sectors and trips to study U.S. policy in action both domestically and internationally.

VFW-SVA Legislative Fellowship

Fellowships for VFW members who are currently enrolled at a college or university with an active SVA chapter and pursuing a degree in political science, government, communications, history, law or a related field. Fellows will be flown to Washington, DC to participate in the VFW National Legislative Conference with the opportunity to advocate alongside VFW staff and represent their states. This is an opportunity to share issues facing today’s student veterans alongside mentors from the VFW National Legislative Committee. The conference opens many doors for fellows and all expenses for attending the conference are covered by the fellowship.

ServiceCorps Fellowship

The ServiceCorps Fellowship selects, trains, and empowers top college graduates to launch a career and make an immediate social impact by securely deferring their positions at leading corporations for one year of service. After a year of service and rigorous leadership development training, alumni return to awaiting jobs at Corporate Partners with a deeply ingrained commitment to social responsibility and a lifelong Ethic of Service. The most common sectors we work with are Civil Society, Economic Opportunity (Poverty), Education, Environment, Health, International, and Veterans. Fellows receive a living stipend and benefits. Applicants must be nominated by one of our Corporate Partners.

Anna Sobol Levy Foundation Fellowships

The Anna Sobol Levy Foundation provides fellowships to U.S. citizens who are college graduates to pursue a master’s degree in English at the prestigious IDC Herzliya’s Raphael Recanati International School, located near Tel Aviv. The Fellowship covers tuition at the IDC (up to $16,000). Levy Fellows must enroll in one of the IDC’s security-related MA programs: (1) counter-terrorism and homeland security, or (2) diplomacy and conflict studies. Candidates must be U.S. citizens under age 30 at the time application and should have studied in the fields of military studies, economic geography, international relations, political science, history, or similar fields.

Secretary’s Honors Program

The Secretary’s Honors Program (SHP) is a highly competitive, premier program for exceptional entry-level professionals looking for a career at DHS. Qualified candidates apply for a limited number of slots and are selected based on their academic performance, experience and other criteria. Individuals who possess graduate or undergraduate degrees may apply for the following fellowships within the SHP including Information Technology Fellows, Cyber Fellows (Bachelor’s) and Cyber Fellows (Master’s), Honors Attorneys, Policy Fellows, Management Fellows and Emergency Management Fellows.

Hertog War Studies Program

The War Studies Program, run by the Institute for the Study of War, aims to educate undergraduate students about the theory, practice, organization, and control of war and military forces. Over the course of the seven-week summer program in Washington, DC, students will learn from and interact with distinguished senior leaders in the national security and military communities, including retired generals and leading intellectuals. Fellows receive a stipend in addition to housing and some meals. College juniors, seniors and very recent graduates are eligible.

The Smith Richardson Foundation Strategy and Policy Fellows Program

The fellowship provides grants for scholars and policy thinkers on American foreign policy, international relations, international security, military policy, and diplomatic and military history. The purpose of the program is to strengthen the U.S. community of scholars and researchers conducting policy analysis in these fields. There will be at least three research grants of $60,000 each to enable the recipients to research and write a book. This program supports junior or adjunct faculty, research associates, post-docs who are engaged in policy-relevant research, and writing and think tank affiliates who are focused on U.S. strategic and foreign policy issues.

Belfer Center Fellowships

The Belfer Center at Harvard University offers both pre-doctoral and post-doctoral research fellowships for one year, with a possibility for renewal. Applications for fellowships are welcome from recent recipients of the PhD or equivalent degree, university faculty members, and employees of government, military, international, humanitarian, and private research institutions who have acquired appropriate professional experience. The Center seeks applications from political scientists, lawyers, economists, those in the natural sciences, and others of diverse disciplinary backgrounds. The Center offers 10-month stipends of $20K-$34K.

© 2018 ProFellow

Hannah Roth, Solomon Schechter of Westchester Class of 2013, has a plan: having secured and deferred a job offer from Citibank, she will spend a year of service working for a nonprofit in New York City, and then return to Citibank as a socially-engaged leader. How is such a thing possible? Roth was nominated for a ServiceCorps Fellowship by Citibank which, along with GE and Bloomberg, sponsors the ServiceCorps program.

Roth attended Solomon Schechter of Westchester for high school and recently graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor's degree in Human and Organizational Development, which teaches students to solve problems in organizations and communities. Two of her Solomon Schechter of Westchester teachers made a lasting impact on her, both personally and academically, and contributed to her success in college: “Mrs. Bloch and Mr. Modica really knew me. They always asked about my family and what I was doing. They were always willing to go the extra mile for something I needed, in or out of the classroom. The critical thinking skills that Mr. Modica tried to instill in us made his class more analytical than a typical history class where you just memorize facts. I think that was vital to my success throughout college.”

During her year of service, Roth will work at Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit that works to connect low-income families to affordable, well-designed homes. She credits Solomon Schechter of Westchester with planting the seeds for this, too: “The school instilled a strong sense of tikkun olam in us,” said Roth. “When we went to Washington, DC in tenth grade and gave out care packages to the homeless, it really spurred my interest in helping that population.” She also participated in midnight runs (deliveries of personal items to people in need on cold winter nights) with many other Solomon Schechter of Westchester families through her synagogue. After meeting her current commitments, which include her year of service and two more at Citibank, she will focus on social enterprise (starting a business to give back). She hopes to one day launch a business which benefits homeless people in New York.

Roth has stayed close with many of her Solomon Schechter of Westchester classmates, traveling to Asia with one and living with another in the fall when her fellowship begins. “The community at Schechter was really strong and it has stayed with me,” said Roth. “Moving back to New York was easy because I have a strong network of people here, mostly from Schechter.”

© 2017Kavanot Magazine

As a senior at Colorado College in 2004, Matt Ronen felt compelled to pursue a service year before settling down professionally. He even wrote a business plan for a partnership between companies and nonprofits that would create a service “gap year” between college and career. His professor told the Cleveland native that his idea was “creative and original, but ahead of its time,” recalls Ronen, who turned down a position with Oppenheimer & Co. to spend a two-year hitch in the Israel Defense Forces.

In March 2011, during his last semester at Johnson, Ronen was walking home from dinner when he was assaulted and mugged. During the long recovery that followed, he had an epiphany inspired by reading Anne Frank’s words: "No one has to wait, but can start right now to gradually change the world."

“I wanted to leave the world better than the way I found it,” he says. “I always thought this was something I would do later in life. But what if you don’t get the chance to give back?”

Although Ronen subsequently took a job offer as a brand manager at Colgate-Palmolive, his old idea never left him, and in 2014 he left the corporate world to follow his dream. Now, ServiceCorps has a staff of five and operates out of office space in Manhattan donated by Cornell trustee Howard Milstein ’73. The program launched in summer 2016 with 11 recent college graduates who deferred prestigious job offers from ServiceCorps corporate sponsors GE and Citi in order to work at top nonprofit organizations.

Ronen’s goal for ServiceCorps is “to empower the most talented emerging leaders to tackle society's toughest challenges the first year of their career and every year thereafter.” Participating business partners share the cost of the program with ServiceCorps, with the nonprofit covering other expenses such as healthcare and any student loan repayments during the deferral year.

Ronen hopes to double the number of student participants every year until they hit 1,000. “My vision is to be the next Teach for America — the next post-college movement,” he says, adding that: “Without my Cornell degree, I would not have the skills, knowledge, and wisdom to pull it off.”

© 2017Cornell Enterprise Online