U.S. SCHWEITZER FELLOWS PROGRAMS

The U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Programs® provide community service fellowships for graduate students in health-related professional fields who are dedicated to addressing unmet health needs in their local areas.

Since its launch in 1992, the Schweitzer Fellows Programs have grown to include programs in Baltimore, Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Greater Philadelphia, Houston-Galveston, Los Angeles, New Hampshire/Vermont, New Orleans, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh. 

The U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Program has four overall goals:

• Provide direct services that address health-related needs of underserved communities;
• Influence the professional development of students in health-related fields in ways that strengthen their commitment to, and skills in, public service;
• Alter the culture of professional schools so they more effectively address needs of surrounding disadvantaged communities;
• Support program alumni who continue in lifelong community service and who, as Schweitzer Fellows for Life, are influential role models for other professionals. 

CORE ELEMENTS OF THE U.S SCHWEITZER FELLOWS PROGRAMS

1. Service Project
Each Fellow designs and carries out a service project that provides at least 200 hours of service through an existing community agency and under the supervision of an academic and community based mentor.  Service hours should include at least 100 hours of direct contact with clients as well as some hours planning the project, mobilizing other volunteers, and evaluating its results.  Local programs may elect to set higher direct service hours requirements.  The project should enhance the services offered by the agency and the Fellow should work with the agency staff to develop a project relevant to the population being served.

In the design of projects, explicit emphasis is placed on activities that will have enduring benefit to the agency and its clients after the Fellow's direct service project has ended.  Projects that can be continued or emulated by other health professional students in the future are also encouraged. 

2. Core Knowledge and Skills
The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship has been working on defining a minimal standard set of knowledge and skills that all Fellows should have developed by the end of their first-year experience.  Activities during Fellows’ meetings, as well as other information and resources provided to each group of Fellows, should:

• Ensure that Fellows have a basic understanding of the nature of health disparities and unmet health needs in the U.S. today, and how to learn more;
• Strengthen skills and habits of reflection that can reinforce and deepen the service-oriented values that underlie all Schweitzer Fellowship activities;
• Provide Fellows with tools to plan, implement, and evaluate successful service projects; 
• Help Fellows identify the skills and support they will need in future work with the underserved, and how to obtain those.

3.  Orientation/Retreat(s)
An orientation/retreat at the beginning of the program year is a mandatory part of each local Fellows Program.  The retreat offers the Fellows an opportunity to get to know each other, learn about the life and thought of Albert Schweitzer, and continue the development of their service projects.  Attendance at the retreat is mandatory for all Fellows. 

4.  Project Description Form
Each Fellow must complete a project description form where they outline their goals for the service project, their expected activities, how they will measure their results, and their proposed time line in carrying out their community service project.  We also ask the Fellows to consider what will happen to their project once they have completed their Fellowship year.  The project description form serves as a contract between the Fellow, the community agency where they will serve, their university mentor, and the Schweitzer Fellows Program. 

5.  Monthly Reports
Each Fellow is required to submit a monthly written report, generally by email, on activities and experiences during the past month and any reflections about those.  These should be copied to the Fellow’s academic and site mentors.

6.  Fellows’ Meetings
Fellows are required to attend monthly meetings in city-based Schweitzer Fellows Programs. State-based programs should set up meetings of all local Schweitzer Fellows at least three times per year that accommodate the distances Fellows have to travel. 

Fellows’ meetings provide a regular forum for the Fellows to plan and organize events or discuss topics of general interest.  These meetings also allow the Fellows to report on their projects and receive feedback, support, or advice from those present.  Whether monthly or less frequent, Fellows’ meetings should be designed to provide Fellows with peer solidarity and support, as well as leadership development.  Fellows are expected to attend all of the scheduled meetings.

7. Public Outreach
Each local program conducts public outreach activities that should:

• Educate students in health-related fields, professionals, and/or the general public about the nature and seriousness of current, local health disparities and unmet health needs;
• Strengthen existing links among the Schweitzer Fellows Program, community agencies and health professional schools, and site and academic mentors;
• Identify new community organizations and other partners that the Schweitzer Fellows Program may collaborate with in the future.
• Help Fellows develop leadership, organizational, and team building skills useful in future public education activities; and
• Provide Fellows with an experience of collaborative and shared responsibility within a small interdisciplinary group.

8.  Mid-year Meeting
Each local Program Director must conduct a mid-year review with each Fellow.  While an in-person meeting is preferable, phone conversations will suffice in state-based programs where in-person meetings pose difficulty.  While local Program Directors are expected to be in touch with all Fellows on a regular basis, this more formal check-in ensures that all the Fellows have an explicit time to reflect on their experiences, report on progress or difficulties, seek any assistance they may need to complete their Fellowship, and comment on the ways in which the local program staff have been helpful, or could be more helpful, with time to address any issues that are identified.  It also ensures that the Program Director is able to give feedback to the Fellow and guidance about how best to focus his/her energies during the remaining time as a Fellow.  The meeting may also be conducted with or through a member of the Local Advisory Board.

9.  Final Report
All Fellows are required to submit a final report before they can be given the balance of their stipend. The final report is a public document and serves as a formal assessment of the Fellow's service project. 

For more information about the U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Programs, please contact:
Meghan L. Johnson (Kalinich), M.S.
National Program Director
330 Brookline Avenue (BR)
Boston, MA 02215
T: 617-667-3115 F: 617-667-7989
E: mjohnso9@bidmc.harvard.edu

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