MacDonald Community Fellowships

The MacDonald Community Fellowship provides selected students with funding, mentorship and support to create and implement a signature service project during their junior and/or senior year. Recipients of Community Service Scholarships will be invited to apply and receive priority, but applications from other students with significant community partnership will also be considered.

The MacDonald Community Fellowship program provides students with:

• Opportunities and resources to plan and implement a project in collaboration with a community partner to respond to an identified community need
• Structure to establish a meaningful partnership and relationship with a community partner
• Education and skills training on project planning and development
• Financial, educational and professional resources to implement and fulfill their plan.

Components of a fellowship project:

• Fellows should have an invested relationship with their community partner. Except under rare occasions, this partner should be a community-based organization and not affiliated with UNC.
• The project should meet a need identified collaboratively by the fellow and their community partner.
• The project should take approximately one to two years to implement and ideally will be sustained by the organization or future volunteers.
• Fellows will have access to up to $1,500 over one to two years for project needs such as supplies, transportation, event costs, marketing and other materials.
• Fellows will make an effort to present their work publicly (such as presenting to the partner organization’s board or staff, presenting at a conference, writing an op-ed or simply posting a description of the project and what they accomplished on social media).
• Fellows will complete a final report on their projects.

For examples of fellowship projects: MacDonald Fellowship Recipients

Applications for the next round of MacDonald Community Fellowships open Monday, Mar. 6 and close Thursday, Apr. 20. Apply online though the CCPS Application and Nomination Portal.

Contact Ryan Nilsen at RBNilsen@unc.edu with any questions.