Fellowship Program

Team PA invests in the personal and professional development of Fellows, fostering individual confidence and unique expertise. The 12-week experience is approximately 50% learning and 50% ownership of a project and includes responsibilities of administrative task support (ex. meeting scheduling, drafting communications) and policy support (ex. writing copy, researching).

Location is flexible with the option to participate fully in-person, fully remotely, or a combination/hybrid with 1-3 visits to Harrisburg, PA but primarily remotely.

Team PA’s full-time staff work Monday – Friday from approximately 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST. You may be expected to participate in meetings during normal business operating hours, particularly where collaboration is needed. However, your working hours can vary during the week based on your time zone, your other commitments, and/or your project(s) expectations.

The Fellowship is 12 weeks long, beginning May 28, 2024, and running through August 16, 2024.

It will include an onboarding period with “Team Pennsylvania 101,” meeting the team, familiarizing yourself with potential project(s), and goal setting. The remaining weeks will be full of hands-on work, engagement with our policy directors and partners, and advancing the work of the Collaboratives. The fellowship will conclude with performance development reflections and project presentations.

You do not need a specific number of years of academic or work experience in policy to apply for the Fellowship. During our fellowship, we will cover various aspects of the unique nonprofit, nonpartisan, and state-level policy work of Team Pennsylvania, as well as the strategies and approaches we take to convene our cross-sector collaboratives.

While we may prioritize candidates with prior experience within Core Impact areas (if you identify a preference in your application), above all, we seek Fellows who demonstrate our core values, have a growth mindset, and are willing to learn and roll up their sleeves to advance the common goals, regardless of years of experience.

We believe strongly in our core values and organizational commitments and assess current and potential Team Pennsylvania staff and board through the lens of our values and commitments. While Fellows with specific policy expertise are a valuable asset to the work of Team PA, we prioritize candidates who exemplify our values and can demonstrate these commitments.

Our organizational commitments are what we promise of our work, while our core values are who we need to be as individuals to fulfill those commitments and our mission, see them here.

All Fellows, whether in person or virtual, will need access to a reliable computer and WiFi.

While the experience will vary depending on the week, organization-wide commitments, and project deliverable timeline(s), Fellows can expect to work approximately 30 hours per week.

For example, the first couple of weeks will include more intensive onboarding, then Fellows transition to more hours on self-directed project work and cohort learning opportunities. Typically, a week’s schedule will be a blend of professional development learning sessions and hands-on work.

Fellows are paid a stipend of $6,500. Travel expenses are covered separately by a reimbursement process for official travel to Team PA-sponsored events.

If the Fellow’s school program or other professional commitments require them to be unpaid, the Fellow must receive educational credit or another form of compensation for the experience.

More details on this year’s application period coming soon. When the application opens, you can apply here: teampa.com/fellowship

As part of the application process, please be prepared to submit:

1. Indicate your interest in an in-person, virtual, or hybrid fellowship;
2. Option to indicate your preferred Core Impact Area(s);
3. A resume;
4. Your answers to a series of questions that reflect a demonstration of our core values and organizational commitments;
   1. Provide a specific example of how you have demonstrated one or more of our core values in action over this last year of your professional or academic experience.
   2. Team PA works closely with a broad network of organizations pursuing a diverse set of missions. How would you feel about working in a nonpartisan environment, regardless of how work may align with your own political orientations?
   3. What attracts you to Team PA’s mission and/or our work?
   4. What are you looking for in a fellowship experience? Understanding your interests and motivations could help us determine fit as well as better tailor the experience.
   5. Please share how securing a fellowship with Team PA advances and/or informs your career trajectory.
5. Two (2) work samples (one writing sample and one work product in the format of your choice); and
6. Two (2) professional references.

Finalists will participate in a virtual interview in February. All applicants will be notified of Team Pennsylvania’s final decision by the end of February.

As a Fellow, you will almost certainly be interacting or working closely with leaders across business & industry, government, academia, nonprofit organizations, and organized labor. Though it may not be every single day, Fellows will be actively engaged with our partners, learning from them, working with them, and developing your network.

Team Pennsylvania relies on several communication and digital workplace tools like Slack, Zoom, and Google Workspace to perform our work and keep in touch with one another, so that no matter which Fellowship experience you choose, you have options to connect and collaborate with the team.

Fellows will have a direct “contract lead” who will be their main policy area point of contact, as well as the opportunity to work with staff across the Team Pennsylvania organization, depending on their scope of work.

Additionally, our Fellowship program director oversees the program experience and is available for support and guidance throughout the Fellowship period.

Team Pennsylvania is a growing organization and successful Fellows may find opportunities to support their projects and continue to work with their team following the conclusion of the Summer Fellowship. Several previous Fellows have gone on to work with Team PA in a paid, part-time capacity as they resumed their coursework, as well as ultimately joining the organization as a full-time member of the team.