Elon Year of Service Fellows Program

Purpose

The Elon Year of Service Fellows Program is your opportunity to enact positive change here and now. Tap the knowledge and passion from your Elon education to serve with community partners developing and implementing solutions to improve health, education, and economic development in Alamance County.

Elon Year of Service Fellows will:

• Apply relevant knowledge and skills to real time, real world challenges
• Refine professional skills through direct collaboration with community partners
• Engage in significant community projects that address pressing needs
• Build meaningful relationships with change makers in the community
• Be paid as nonexempt Elon University employees

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Intent

The Elon Year of Service Fellows Program is a 12-month, post-graduation program connecting Elon graduates with community partners to help tackle challenges in health, education, and economic development unique to Alamance County.  Fellows utilize their knowledge and skills in collaboration with their partners to strengthen the community and facilitate lasting change.

Program participants are considered Elon University nonexempt employees and given a contract for the one-year fellowship. In addition, they are entitled to all of the benefits, including the option to participate in health insurance, available to a full-time Elon University employee. Throughout their year of service, the Fellows receive strong mentorship from their site supervisors and Elon faculty mentors, as well as having access to professional development opportunities. Participants are also eligible for an incentive stipend at the completion of the one-year program if they attend graduate school in North Carolina or accept employment in Alamance or a surrounding county.  To date, 29 of the 38 (76%) alums of the program have either accepted a job or attended graduate school in North Carolina the year following their fellowship! Five of the six Fellows from 2021-2022 have stayed to work in Alamance County.

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What Do Fellows Do?

Fellows have the opportunity to do a wide variety of things depending on their placement.  Some of the areas Fellows work with include:

• Nonprofit Capacity Building
• Education Equity
• Economic Development
• Food  Insecurity
• Grant Making
• Literacy Education Initiatives
• City Planning
• DEI Initiatives
• Policy Change
• Public Health
• Health Equity
• Advocacy
• Community Convening

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Here’s What 2021-2022 Fellows Have to Say

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Where Do Fellows Work?

Six local agencies participate in the fellowship program:

Alamance Achieves

Alamance Achieves seeks to improve education equity outcomes across the cradle to career education continuum for all kids in Alamance County. We do this work through the cultivation of authentic community partnerships, facilitating spaces where community makes decisions from ideation to implementation of projects using results based facilitation (RBF) tools, and by supporting evidence-based programs such as Book Nook and Ready 4K that are literacy resources for children and families to access for free.

Alamance County Health Department

Alamance County Health Department is a local public health authority committed to protecting and improving the public’s health in Alamance County through programs in maternal and child health, family planning, communicable disease prevention and treatment, environmental health, and emergency preparedness.

Alamance Regional Medical Center

Alamance Regional Medical Center (ARMC) is a community health system offering comprehensive health services (inpatient, outpatient, emergency, preventive health and education) to residents of Alamance and surrounding counties.

Economic Development Department, City of Burlington

The City of Burlington Economic Development Department is an administrative agency of the City committed to helping Burlington’s economy remain strong by supporting existing businesses, recruiting new industries to the City, empowering entrepreneurship success and facilitating new residential, commercial and mixed-use investments.  The Economic Development Department is excited to partner with the Elon Service Year Graduate Fellows program and provide a fulfilling opportunity to join some exciting City initiatives including the development of a strategic plan, establishing formal business acceleration and incubation programs, and forging public-private partnerships for new industrial site and building development.  Students interested in an a immersive experience covering the real world intersections of business, government, real estate and development will discover an engaging field that touches many potential career paths and specialties.

Harwood Institute

The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization that for over 30 years has equipped people, organizations, communities, and networks with the tools to bridge divides, create a culture of shared responsibility, and build a community’s civic capacities. The Harwood Institute’s Turning Outward practice has spread to all 50 U.S. states and 40 countries. A growing network of thousands have adopted the approach and made it their own.

Impact Alamance

Impact Alamance is a philanthropic foundation that gives over $2 million annually to improve outcomes in strategic priority areas; early childhood/school readiness, healthy eating and active living, healthy built environment, non-profit capacity, and K-12 education.