Apply for the Chancellor's Service Fellowship

The Chancellor’s Service Fellowship is a one-year interdisciplinary, mentored fellowship program focused on health-related community service and leadership development.

The Fellowship program is designed to provide health services to underserved populations by facilitating opportunities for students to:

• Serve – Fellows are expected to engage their chosen community with a well-designed and measurable project aiming to improve a specific facet of health or health awareness.  All fellows are expected to demonstrate depth of understanding of the community’s needs as well as a genuine desire to meet these needs.

• Innovate – Fellows will initiate novel projects or programming efforts that fill currently unmet health-related niches (as opposed to seeking funding for currently active projects).  This innovation could occur through the creation of a new student project or through a significant expansion of scope of an already existing group.

• Lead – Fellows should exhibit and develop their capacities of self-awareness, communication, teamwork, mentorship and motivation.  Students will have the opportunity to reflect on their leadership development and should seek leadership coaching throughout the project cycle.

• Sustain – Fellows are expected to design projects that have the potential to be continued successfully beyond the funding period.  Projects should possess the potential to become self-sustaining and have plans for future student and community engagement.

ELIGIBILITY

The Fellowship grant can be awarded to individuals, groups of students, or student organizations. Student organizations applying must identify at least two but no more than five persons as Fellows who bear the responsibility for the completion of the project. Applicants must be enrolled in the Duke School of Medicine, Nursing, Physical Therapy or Physician Assistant program throughout the Fellowship year. Only one project may be submitted per applicant (i.e. an applicant cannot be part of two initiatives). 

FUNDING

Students may apply for up to $7,500 of funding for their projects. The Fellowship will be awarding up to $7,500 total this year that can be divided between different projects or allotted to a single project. While the Fellowship is one year in length and funding is only given for the first year of the project, the application budget should reflect planned finances for three total years. If Fellowship recipients find additional funding is needed after this first year, they will need to pursue outside funding sources. Preference will be given to projects that are predicted to be self-sustainable after the first year. The allotted stipend should be used only for the proposed project and related activities.

PRIOR TO APPLYING

Prospective Fellows should design an innovative and sustainable community service project that seeks to provide direct service to an underserved population.  This project should focus on addressing health and/or the social determinants of health in the population served. Interdisciplinary partnerships with local agencies or other professional schools are encouraged.

The project should:

• Provide a direct service that meets a community-defined need and reflects global, national, and local health priorities. Prospective applicants should investigate and reflect on unmet local health-related needs, and think through the ways in which their own energies and talents might contribute, even in small ways, to ameliorating one or more of these problems. Applicants are required to communicate with community partners prior to submitting their applications and to be specific in their proposals about their relationships with their community partners.

• Be of meaningful value to the community/agency served.  The project proposal should include a long-term plan addressing the sustainability of the project.

• Involve one or more faculty mentors affiliated with Duke. This mentor must submit a letter of agreement acknowledging that they have read these instructions and agree to the time commitment and nature of this fellowship.

Of note, research or fundraising projects are not eligible.

Please also review the Duke SOM policy on community health activities prior to applying:

Fellows from Duke School of Medicine are required to comply with the institutional policy for community health activities.  The purpose of this policy is to provide guidance regarding the conduct of community health activities that require training and institutional oversight to assure patient continuity and appropriate resource allocation.  If a Duke Medicine employee or learner participates in a community health activity which has not been formally approved through the Community Health Activity (CHA) process, they will not be protected by Duke University Health System against liability claims for injuries arising out of the activity.

Web links:

Important information regarding the Community Health Activity process can be found here: https://fmch.duke.edu/education-training/community-health-training-module. Please be sure to review this material and complete the Community Health Activity Request form and the Community Health Training Module if indicated for your project.

For more information and details of the above policy contact: Eang King, by phone 919.681.6595 or email eang.king@duke.edu.

REQUIRED ACTIVITIES OF FELLOWS

Service Project: Each Fellow or group of Fellows must design and carry out a service project of at least 200 hours or 100 hours for each member of a group that addresses an unmet community health need. Each Fellow or group will schedule quarterly meetings of review and progress with their specified Duke mentor(s). The mentor should be available to provide support and guidance throughout the Fellowship year beyond these four meetings. The service hours must be conducted separately from any school course requirement. These are direct service hours and do not include administrative duties, research, or needs assessments. In designing a project, applicants should carefully consider the issues of evaluation and sustainability and include their ideas for addressing these aspects of the project. As noted above, applicants should also be familiar with the Duke SOM policy on community health activities.

Reports: Fellows are required to submit one-page biannual reports about their activities, including their expenditures to date. Fellows will receive e-mail reminders of these midterm and final reports. Furthermore, the written final report must be distributed to the Fellow’s mentor(s), the Davison Council, and the Chancellor’s Office.

Project Presentation: Fellows are required to present their work to the Chancellor at project onset and at the conclusion of the fellowship year.

Budget: All expenditures of grant money must be approved beforehand by the Fellow’s mentor and by the Davison Council treasurer to ensure the funds are spent appropriately in line with the stated project goals. These expenditures may be paid in advance or reimbursed depending on approval.

PARTS OF THE APPLICATION

 Project Summary/Abstract (two pages maximum)

 Proposed Budget (one page maximum) – include section addressing prior funding received and any concurrent funding sources you are considering or applying for

 CV or Biosketch from Student Applicant(s) (one page maximum per student)

 Letter of Agreement from the Mentor

 Letter of Project Support from Community Mentor/Liaison

DEADLINE

The application deadline is Friday, February 14, 2020 at 11:59pm.  Please submit all application materials with a coversheet in a combined PDF in the order listed above to Davison Council Service Chair Elizabeth Kobe (elizabeth.kobe@duke.edu) with the subject line: Chancellor’s Service Fellowship 2020 Application – (*Project Name*)

Winners will be selected by a committee comprised of individuals from across the Duke administration, student body, and faculty. Interviews may also be conducted prior to selection.