Last updated February 20, 2023
Aching to achieve your personal or professional goals in the Big Apple? New York City hosts many unique fellowships, scholarships funding opportunities, and professional mentorships to jumpstart or enrich your career.
Check out these 42 fellowships in New York City. This list of fellowships covers a wide range of disciplines, professions, and focus areas and includes fellowships for students, teachers, scholars, researchers, social impact makers, social justice advocates, journalists, entrepreneurs, and more.
Don’t forget to bookmark these fellowships to your Profellow account. If you don’t already have a ProFellow account, click here to sign up and gain access to our fellowships database of more than 1,400 funded opportunities for professional development and graduate study.
Fellowships for Social Change
New York City Teaching Fellows
Our mission is to recruit and prepare high-quality, dedicated individuals to become teachers who raise student achievement in the New York City classrooms that need them most. We look for successful, driven individuals from different backgrounds and careers. Fellows teach full-time while earning a Master’s degree in Education at a partnering university. Fellows will receive a stipend of $2,500 during pre-service training, and then are eligible to be hired as full-time teachers. Applicants must have a Bachelor’s degree, be U.S. citizens or permanent residents, and are not certified to teach in New York or other states.
New York City Urban Fellows Program
The Urban Fellows Program is a highly selective, nine-month fellowship that combines work in Mayoral offices and City agencies with an intensive seminar series that explores current urban issues impacting public policy. Program participants are diverse and come from all over the country to work in New York City. After participating in an extensive interview process, New York City Urban Fellows are placed at an array of agencies across the City where they learn about public policy through a hands-on approach. Fellows receive a nine-month stipend of $30,000.
John D. Solomon Fellowship for Public Service
The New York City Office of Emergency Management is accepting applications for the John D. Solomon Fellowship for Public Service. Fellows will complete a nine-month, paid fellowship in a New York City government agency or nonprofit focusing on emergency management. Graduate students in the fields of emergency management, public safety, journalism, social work, law, or a related field are eligible. For further eligibility requirements and to learn more about participating agencies visit the fellowship website.
NYC Civic Corps
The NYC Civic Corps, an AmeriCorps program run by NYC Service, unites a diverse group of professionals to serve full-time with partnering organizations for 10 months, working to increase their organizational capacity to engage volunteers and build sustainable volunteer initiatives. Corps members receive a monthly living stipend, health benefits and an end-of-service education award of $5,350. Corps Members range from age 22-72 and are placed in a wide array of non-profit organizations and City agencies throughout the five boroughs of NYC. Priority deadline is May 31 after then rolling. Program begins in September.
NYC Service Fellowship
The NYC Service Fellowship is a one-year program offered to recent graduates and provides a unique opportunity to obtain practical City government experience in the areas of volunteerism and service at the City level. The centerpiece of the program is a full-time professional work experience at NYC Service as Program/Initiative “Coordinators” working on the office’s national service programming, volunteer program development and management, volunteer capacity building, or public/private partnerships work. NYC Service Coordinators in our program are paid a taxable stipend of $51,502 and health insurance. NYC Service Coordinators, in addition to meeting all other stated requirements, must have one year of service-related work experience.
hackNY Fellows Program
The hackNY Fellows program is an intense program designed to introduce students to NYC’s startup ecosystem by pairing the best technical minds with great New York startups. Local startups are carefully selected for the program and have demonstrated evidence of a mentoring environment. hackNY is a unique and career altering experience that provides a stipend, free housing in union square, placement at a rising NYC startup, a pedagogical lecture series, and a network of like mind technology enthusiasts.
Philanthropy Fellowship
Philanthropy New York offers a two-year, full-time employment opportunity for a recent graduate student to work with leaders across the philanthropic sector. The PNY Philanthropy Fellowship is designed to support the organization’s commitment to building diversity and equity in the philanthropic field and increase our organization’s capacity to work with our membership. Philanthropy Fellows facilitate issue-based working groups, develop and execute programs on current issues in the field, curate content for our media platforms and write insightful reports and publications. Fellows earn a salary of $67,500 as well as medical insurance benefits.
Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellowship
The Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellowship supports visionary leaders by giving them boundless space to turn an inspired idea in the field of social justice into a world-changing reality. The Fellowship awards three individuals up to $150,000 each to pursue an innovative project that seeks to address a challenge related to climate change or inequality – or within the intersection of these two major issues. Fellows will be thought partners informing the Foundation’s work and will have the use of a dedicated office at NCF’s New York City headquarters. Only U.S. citizens whose projects are focused on work within the U.S. are eligible for the Fellowship at this time.
TNTP Teaching Fellows
TNTP Teaching Fellows is a rigorous alternative certification program that recruits and trains talented career changers and recent college graduates to be outstanding teachers in high-need schools across the country. You choose where you want to teach. There are programs in Baltimore, Charlotte, DC, Fort Worth, Indiana, Nashville, New York City, and New Orleans. After successfully completing summer training and securing a teaching position at a local school, you will begin teaching full-time, earning a full teacher’s salary. Throughout the year, you will receive personalized coaching.
AOSIS Climate Change Fellowship Program
The program brings earlier career professionals from Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) member countries to New York for one year to participate as part of each Fellow’s national delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and United Nations. Fellows participate in a yearlong training program, including on-going negotiation skills training and media training. It is expected that, after their fellowship, Fellows will return to their home governments and continue to engage on these issues and in the UNFCCC process.
Sesame Street Writers’ Room
Sesame Street Writers’ Room is a new fellowship opportunity from the creators of Sesame Street seeking fresh new writing talent from underrepresented racial backgrounds. In the intensive six-week program to be held at Sesame Workshop’s New York City office, participants will meet weekly with industry writers, producers, agents, and executives, and are expected to complete at least one script. The two participants whose scripts show the most promise will be offered creative development deals and mentored by Sesame Workshop executives. “Sesame Street Writers’ Room” is open to writers 21 and older.
Immigrant Justice Corps
Immigrant Justice Corps (“IJC”) is a two-year fellowship program for law graduates (Justice Fellows) and college graduates (Community Fellows) with a passion for justice for immigrants. IJC trains fellows and places them with host organizations in New York City, Long Island, the Lower Hudson Valley, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Texas. All fellows must be eligible for work authorization in the U.S. for the full two years of the fellowship. We generally require Justice Fellows to take the New York State bar. Community Fellows have a spring deadline and Justice Fellows have a fall deadline. Check website for details.
Math for America Early Career Fellowship
Over the course of the four-year fellowship, MƒA Master Teachers – NYC K-12 public school mathematics and science teachers with more than four years of teaching experience – join a community of exceptional STEM educators. MƒA Master Teachers come together on a regular basis to collaborate and learn from each other. Whether by participating in professional workshops and events, through mentorship of MƒA Early Career Fellows or by developing and facilitating new MƒA courses, Master Teachers continue to grow with fellow teachers, who share a passion for science or mathematics. The fellowship provides $60,000 in stipends over four years.
America Needs You Fellows Program
America Needs you helps first-generation college students, who are the first in their families to attend college, select, secure, and succeed in their careers. The Fellows Program is an intensive mentoring and training program where Fellows develop relationships with highly accomplished community and business leaders. ANY Fellows attend 28 full-day workshops over two years, receiving intense career development and leadership training. All Fellows are matched one-on-one with a young professional Mentor Coach dedicated to their personal and professional growth. Fellows earn a $2,500 professional development grant.
Open Society Fellowships
Open Society Fellowships fund work that will enrich public understanding of those challenges and stimulate far-reaching and probing conversations within the Open Society Foundations and in the world. A fellowship project might identify a problem that has not previously been recognized, develop new policy ideas to address familiar problems or offer a new advocacy strategy. Project themes should cut across at least two areas of interest: human rights, government transparency, access to information and to justice, and the promotion of civil society and social inclusion. The Open Society Fellowship accepts proposals from anywhere in the world. Stipends are either $80,000 or $100,000.
Shapiro Family Fellowship
The Shapiro Family Fellowship is a highly selective, yearlong experience designed to cultivate future leaders of the New York Jewish community through high-level discussion with peers, leaders, and mentors in the U.S. and Israel. The fellowship includes yearlong programming that provides meaningful personal and professional development, deepened knowledge of Israel, the New York Jewish community, and UJA-Federation of New York, and a 10-day trip to Israel. Candidates for the fellowship must be between 22-28 years old, live in the greater New York metropolitan area, and must have traveled to Israel at least once prior to application.
Photography and Social Justice Fellowship
The program supports a diverse, international group of Photography and Social Justice Fellows who are passionate about challenging injustice, pursuing social equality, and advancing human rights through photography. During the program, Fellows work on projects in their home communities with support from mentors. Magnum Foundation covers the cost of travel and room and board for the sessions in New York City. Fellows also receive a $4,000 stipend to support the production of their projects. Applicants must be nominated.
Tory Burch Foundation Fellows Program
The Tory Burch Foundation Fellows Program is a nation-wide competition for women entrepreneurs. Each Fellow will participate in a one year program which includes: mentoring, networking and business guidance for one year, a $10,000 grant to further their business education, and a 3-day trip to New York City to the Tory Burch headquarters that will include the opportunity to participate in a pitch competition. The winner of the pitch competition will receive $100,000 grant investment. Your company must be registered and operated in the United States.
Journalism Fellowships
World Journalist Fellowship
The World Journalist Fellowship provides international journalists with funding to study at one of the masters programs at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. The Fellowship covers tuition and fees for two of the three semesters of the journalism graduate program, as well as a stipend of $13,000 for each of the two semesters. The fellowship is open to international journalists with at least two years experience at a journalism publication and fluency in English and at least one other language. Journalists interested in the Fellowship must initiate an application to the M.A. program at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.
Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award
A grant of $12,500 will be awarded to support the work of a promising early-career nonfiction writer on a story that uncovers truths about the human condition. Offered for the first time in 2015, the Award has been endowed by individuals and organizations touched by the life and work of Matthew Power, a wide-roving and award-winning journalist who sought to live and share the experience of the individuals and places on which he was reporting. Winners will have access to New York University’s libraries and the Institute’s facilities, including work space (as available).
The Reporting Award
The Reporting Award supports a work of journalism in any medium on significant underreported subjects in the public interest. The Institute will select up to two winners of the Reporting Award. Each winner may receive a different amount of money, at the discretion of the Committee. The maximum award is $12,500. Winners will have access to New York University’s libraries and the Institute’s facilities, including work space (as available). The Institute expects that the completed work will be published in a reputable media outlet of wide circulation.
McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism
The McGraw Fellowship provides editorial and financial support to journalists who need the time and resources to produce a significant story or series that provides fresh insight into an important business or economic topic. Awards are $5,000 a month for 1-3 months; in exceptional cases, longer grants are provided based upon specific proposals. Applicants have a proven ability to report and execute a complex project in their proposed medium and a strong background or reporting expertise on the subject of their piece. Applications are accepted twice a year.
Age Boom Academy Fellows
The concept behind this groundbreaking series of workshops for journalists is to provide an intensive seminar to deepen understanding of the health, economic, and social issues around aging. Led by leading experts in the field, the courses are a resource for journalists who are covering a complex and interconnected field. The Age Boom Academy one-week workshops take place during the summer at Columbia University in New York City. The fellowship covers the attendance fee, economy travel and accommodation.
Research Fellowships
Earth Institute Postdoctoral Fellowships
The Fellows Program provides innovative postdoctoral scholars with the opportunity to build a foundation in one of the core disciplines represented within the Earth Institute (i.e., any of the social sciences, earth sciences, biological sciences, engineering sciences and health sciences), and cross-disciplinary expertise related to sustainable development and reducing environmental degradation, poverty, hunger and disease. Earth Institute fellowships will ordinarily be granted for a period of 24 months and includes a $12,000 research allowance for the two year appointment, and carries an annual salary of about $48,000.
CJH Graduate Research Fellows
The Center for Jewish History in New York City offers 10-month fellowships to PhD candidates supporting original research using the collections at the Center. Preference is given to those candidates who draw on the library and archival resources of more than one partner. It is required that each fellow spend a minimum of 3 days per week in residence in the Lillian Goldman Reading Room using the archival and library resources. Full fellowships carry a stipend of up to $17,500 for one academic year. It is expected that applicants will have completed all requirements for the doctoral degree except for the dissertation.
Presidential Scholars in Society and Neuroscience
Columbia University offers three interdisciplinary postdoctoral positions in the Presidential Scholars in Society and Neuroscience program for researchers who have earned the doctorate, or its equivalent, in (1) a humanities, arts, or social science discipline and who have extensive acquaintance with, and critical understanding of, neuroscience research; OR (2) neuroscience or a related discipline in the natural sciences and who have extensive acquaintance with, and critical understanding of, another discipline in the arts, humanities, or social sciences. The appointments are three years, $80,000/year.
New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellowships
The New York Public Library offers Short-Term Research Fellowships to support visiting scholars from outside the New York metropolitan area engaged in graduate-level, post-doctoral and independent research. Fellowship stipends are $1,000 per week for up to 4 weeks and researchers must be in residence at the Library for a minimum of 2 weeks between July and June. Support on-site research in the Library’s special collections for projects in the humanities including art history, cultural studies, history, literature, performing arts and photography. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
Leo Baeck Institute – DAAD Fellowship
The Leo Baeck Institute is a research, study, and lecture center whose library and archives offer comprehensive documentation for the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. Fellowships are awarded for research in New York or Germany on the social, communal, and intellectual history of German-speaking Jewry. Financial assistance is provided to doctoral students for dissertation research and to young academics for the preparation of a scholarly essay or book.
NEH Scholar In Residence
The Center for Jewish History (CJH) offers a fellowship to scholars through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The award supports original research at the Center in the humanities, including but not limited to Jewish studies, Russian and East European studies, American studies and Germanic studies, as well as musicology, linguistics, anthropology, sociology and history. Applications are welcome from college and university faculty in any field who have completed a PhD more than six years prior to the start of the fellowship. Full fellowships carry a stipend of up to $60,000 for a period of one year.
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellowship
The American Philosophical Society Library & Museum (APS) invites applications for its two-year The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellowship. The APS seeks applications from recent humanities Ph.D.’s interested in exploring career paths in libraries, museums, and cultural heritage institutions. The Fellowship, based in the APS Library & Museum, will provide hands-on experience in curatorial work and the opportunity to pursue an independent research project, preferably one related to the collections or programs of the Society’s Library & Museum. Compensation is $51,548 a year plus benefits, along with additional funds for research support, travel, and relocation.
CFR Stanton Nuclear Security Fellowship
The Stanton Nuclear Security Fellowship Program offers young scholars studying nuclear security issues the opportunity to spend a year at the Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) offices in New York City or Washington, DC, conducting policy-relevant research. Fellows will lead a project of their own design, conduct original research, and write at least one policy relevant document. Approximately 3 fellowships are awarded each year and include stipends of $100,000 for junior (non-tenured) faculty; $75,000 for post-doctoral; and $50,000 for pre-doctoral fellows.
Fellowships for Academic Study
National Urban Fellows
The National Urban Fellows (NUF) program is a rigorous, 14-month, full-time graduate degree program and leadership accelerator for early to mid-career BIPOC professionals committed to racial equity and social impact. In addition to fully-funded graduate education, Fellows gain ongoing personal and professional development. They also receive a $25,000 stipend distributed over the 14 months of the program, along with reimbursements for health care, books, and relocation expenses. Fellows also receive travel and lodging at NUF’s annual leadership conference in January.
Tikvah Summer Fellowship for College Students
The Tikvah Fund is offering an intensive seven week seminar for college students living in America, Canada, or elsewhere in the Diaspora. Led by preeminent professors, rabbis, educators, and intellectual & political leaders, “The Jewish Idea: Morality, Politics, and Culture” will explore some of the most foundational Jewish teachings, including biblical and rabbinic texts, the lessons of Jewish history, the insights of modern Jewish thought, and the conversation between Jewish and Western ideas. Seminars will take place at the Tikvah Center in the heart of New York City’s Midtown East district. Participants will receive a generous stipend of $4,000.
Lime Connect Fellowship Program
The Lime Connect Fellowship Program is a highly selective program open to accomplished current sophomores/rising juniors who happen to have a disability and are attending a 4-year university in the U.S. The program kicks off with an all-expense paid Leadership & Development Symposium in NewYork City this summer, where Lime Fellows will receive professional development training, access to our U.S. corporate partners and potential summer internships. Upon completion of the program, Fellows will join the lifelong experience of the Lime Connect Fellows Community, where they will receive ongoing support such as group coaching, webinars, and mentoring, as well as continued professional development, community, and networking opportunities throughout their careers.
Summer Public Health Scholars Program
The Summer Public Health Scholars Program (SPHSP) is a 10-week summer program for undergraduate students to increase interest in and knowledge of public health and biomedical science careers. This is a rigorous program which includes Public Health course work at Columbia University; hands-on field experience and immersion in a diverse, economically disadvantaged urban environment; seminars and lectures with public health leaders; and mentoring by faculty members. Accepted students receive a stipend, housing, travel and meals. The program is designed for undergraduates in their sophomore or junior year and recent baccalaureate degree students.
Fellowships for Entrepreneurs
Activate Fellowship
Activate empowers scientists and engineers to reinvent the world by bringing their hard-technology research to market to address climate change and other global challenges across industries. Activate transforms scientists into high-impact entrepreneurs through the Activate Fellowship, a two-year immersive experience that provides funding and fosters the resources, knowledge, networks, investors, and partnerships that fellows need to succeed as startup founders. Fellows receive a yearly living stipend of $80K – $110K, health and travel benefits, and $100,000 in research funding. And it’s free—Activate is a non-profit and does not take equity in fellows’ startups.
AJC’s Goldman Fellowship Program
AJC’s Goldman Fellowship Program is designed to develop young Jewish leaders in the areas of international and domestic politics, diplomacy, public relations, and management. This competitive Fellowship gives undergraduate and graduate students the unique opportunity to work in offices domestically and throughout the world – from New York City to Melbourne, Australia. AJC Goldman Fellows receive $3,000 for the 9-week program plus major travel expenses. A mandatory debriefing session, immediately following the Fellowship, is held during a week-long trip to Germany.
The Purposeful Growth Institute MBA Social Impact Fellowship
PGI’s MBA Fellowship is a highly selective,10-week paid opportunity that matches Fellows with one of our high-impact partner organizations that use business as a force for good. The Fellowship also gives participants the opportunity to learn from social & environmental impact industry experts and gain access to over 50+ hours of learning, reflection, and practice to grow purposefully during their career path.
Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship
The Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship is a 3-year program that provides internships, mentoring, and enriched educational opportunities to promising New York City undergraduates with the goal of increasing their life choices and capacity to make a difference. The fellowship offers paid 10-week internships for 3 consecutive summers. Fellows are encouraged to sample work in nonprofit organizations, government service, and private enterprise. The stipend is $5,500 for the first summer, $6,500 for the 2nd and $7,000 for the 3rd. You must be enrolled at one of the 12 participating colleges. Deadlines vary by partner institution. See website for details.
Work First Fellowship
The Work First Fellowship is open to enrolled and recent graduate students who are interested in the intersection of poverty, policy, politics and business. Fellows spend one year in NYC, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Milwaukee, and San Francisco working one-on-one with individuals living below the poverty level. Fellows work specifically on issues of human capital development and training. Work First Fellows also participate in a group research project on the current contextualized literacy program with HRA of New York. Work First Fellows are paid $35,000 over the course of 12 months. At the end of the fellowship, students are eligible to earn a $5,000 research reward. Start date is in October.
© Victoria Johnson 2017, all rights reserved.