Spread the news near and far– we are now accepting applications for our 2019-2020 associate fellowships! These fellowships are part of the Aldo Leopold Foundation’s Future Leaders Program, an innovative fellowship structure designed to provide recent graduates with the skills and experiences they need to kick-start their careers in conservation. The incoming cohort of fellows will have the opportunity to specialize within one of two program areas, Education and Communication or Land Stewardship, depending on their career aspirations.
The Education and Communication Fellows will support a wide array of on-site programs, outreach initiatives, and communications efforts, creating opportunities for audiences to learn about Aldo Leopold, the foundation, and our work to advance a land ethic and land health locally and globally.
A former Education Fellow reads excerpts from A Sand County Almanac to students.
The Land Stewardship Fellows will assist with a wide variety of land management and monitoring techniques on Aldo Leopold Foundation lands and across the Leopold-Pine Island Important Bird Area. They will also participate in and contribute to an array of on-site programming.
Two former Land Stewardship fellows pose during a prescribed burn.
In the spirit of interdisciplinary conservation, Education & Communication Fellows will be provided with opportunities to experience tasks historically conducted by Land Stewardship Fellows and vice versa. Fellows will also have the unique opportunity to engage in a professional development series through the Future Leaders Program.
What is the Future Leaders Program?
Many organizations have internships. The Aldo Leopold Foundation has the Future Leaders Program. We believe that having diverse, capable leaders in the conservation field is a critical piece to solving the ongoing and emerging environmental issues of today. That’s why we decided to go beyond the internship model and create a more strategic experience to help train the next generation of conservation leaders: the Future Leaders Program.
The Future Leaders Program is designed to help fellows gain exposure to seven key elements of leadership: finance and fundraising, applied science and natural history, partnership building, strategic planning, communication, conservation leadership, and land ethics. The 2019 fellows will be the second cohort to complete our newly-designed fellowship curriculum focused on these elements, spending 20% of their hours engaging in professional development trainings and applied on-the-job experiences to help them develop their leadership skills. They will also be the second group of fellows to reside in the newly-constructed Future Leaders Center, bringing them even closer to the landscape that inspired Leopold.
A Lasting Legacy
Training the next generation of conservation leaders is a legacy that can be traced all the way back to Aldo Leopold himself. As a professor at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, Leopold mentored and challenged his graduate students, helping them foster a deep love and respect for nature and inspiring them to go on to do great things.
Since then, three generations of fellows have received in-depth field training and diverse professional development through the work of the Leopold family and Aldo Leopold Foundation, with over 50 fellows graduating from the program since 1996 alone. These future leaders of decades past have gone on to leadership roles in important conservation efforts across the country, demonstrating the power of the Future Leaders Program and proving that Leopold’s legacy lives on.
Are you a future conservation leader? Be part of the tradition and apply for a fellowship today!
Applications are due March 10th, 2019, and fellowships begin on June 3rd, 2019. For full position descriptions and application instructions, please see the program-specific pages linked above. We eagerly await your applications!