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Tucker Fellowship Criteria

Fellowship Mission Requirements

  • Fellowships should combine a service-learning experience with personal growth.  The concept of service learning implies an obligation to contribute to the welfare, development, and fulfillment of other human beings.  Engagement in a service task should compose the majority of a Tucker Fellowships; any study, training, or international exploration components should play a much less prominent role in the overall project.

  • Fellows should devote approximately 60% of their time to direct community service, defined as work in which volunteers engage personally with those or with that being served, providing the labor that fills an identified community need.  Examples of direct service include teaching, youth programming, work with the elderly, construction work, medical work that involves direct engagement with patients, hands on environmental work, and community organizing.  Activities such as research, public policy, office support, fundraising, and event planning may be part of a fellowship, but are not considered direct service, and should not constitute more than 40% of the proposed fellowship.

  • Tucker requires fellows to intentionally explore moral and/or spiritual concerns.  When conceiving a fellowship experience, candidates are encouraged to consider what aspects of the fellowship will facilitate their moral and/or spiritual development.

  • We strongly encourage students to seek the challenge of unaccustomed environments and situations for their work.  We discourage placements with excessive fees and/or a tour component.

Logistics

  • Fellowship placements should involve 35-40 hours of work per week and should span a Dartmouth term (8 to 10 weeks).

  • Each fellow must identify a Supervisor and submit a signed CSO Supervisor's Statement of Agreement to the Tucker Foundation by the application deadline.

  • Fellows must be willing to share their fellowship experiences upon their return, usually through small group presentations, writing articles for The Dartmouth, or by making the written reflection paper available to others to read.

  • Fellowships should be in geographic areas outside of the candidate's hometown or the Upper Valley.  We believe that, regardless of a candidate's sophistication or experience, the reflection, challenge, and personal growth inherent in Tucker Fellowships is greatly enhanced by living situations that are as free of accustomed influences as possible.

  • Fellowships may not take place in regions currently bearing a U.S. State Department travel warning.  See http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis_pa_tw_1168.html or the Fellowships and Internships resource center for the most up to date listings.

Community Service Organizations, within which candidates work, should fill the following requirements

  • Agencies should afford an opportunity for the fellow to experience direct involvement with the group of people being served.  This direct service should comprise 60% of the fellow's work experience; the remainder of the fellow’s work time can be devoted to research, policy, etc.

  • Advocacy agency fellowships must provide intensive experiences through staff interaction and/or direct contact with people and/or the issue.  Research-based projects, which do not involve direct contact, are not allowed.  School or camp placements must involve student groups assessed to be specifically disadvantaged or challenged in some way.

  • Candidates should have a clear idea of how they will fit into the work and mission of their community service organization.  Candidates should be very specific about the job they will be performing.

  • It is preferable that the agency be small and manageable, or that within a larger agency the candidate’s prospective placement area be small.

  • Agencies should be non-profit and politically non-partisan.  By federal law, lobbying projects are excluded from our funding.

  • Direct service work in association with religious groups is encouraged; however, fellowships may not be for the purpose of direct evangelism.

Last Updated: 3/29/05