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U.S. SCHWEITZER FELLOWS PROGRAM: Improving Health, Developing Leaders, Creating Change

Each year, The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (ASF) selects and supports more than 250 new university graduate school students to follow in Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s footsteps by improving the health and well-being of vulnerable populations.

ASF's U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Program immerses these students in an experiential learning process designed to develop and sharpen the skills and abilities necessary to become lifelong Leaders in Service: professionals skilled in creating positive change with and in our communities, our health and human service systems, and our world.

Each U.S. Schweitzer Fellow partners with a community-based organization to identify an unmet health need, design a yearlong, 200-hour service project with a demonstrable impact on that need, and bring that project from idea to implementation and impact—all on top of his or her usual academic responsibilities.

Simultaneously, Fellows undergo a mentored, reflective, and multidisciplinary leadership development program that enhances their ability to successfully carry out interventions that improve the health status of underserved people.

Rooted in a holistic understanding of health, ASF’s programming and the Fellows’ Schweitzer service projects focus not only on clinical health issues, but also on the social determinants of health—the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, and which are mostly responsible for health inequities.

Accordingly, Schweitzer projects encompass everything from improving the physical environment where people live, to promoting early-childhood literacy and parent engagement, to encouraging healthy exercise and nutrition habits, to launching and staffing community health centers and clinics.

After successfully completing their initial year, Fellows become members of the Schweitzer Fellows for Life alumni network of over 2,500 Leaders in Service.

Since its launch in 1992, the U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Program has grown to include thirteen program sites (Baltimore, Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Columbus-Athens, Greater Philadelphia, Houston-Galveston, Indiana, Los Angeles, New Hampshire-Vermont, New Orleans, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh). 

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

• Develop leaders in service who are educated, experienced, and committed to addressing unmet health needs;
• Improve community health by providing direct service to individuals and strengthening the capacity of community-based organizations.;
• Expand educational opportunities in partnering professional schools while raising awareness of the needs of underserved communities;
• Maintain a growing and vibrant community of Schweitzer Fellowship alumni committed to lives of service.

For more information about the U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Programs, please visit the program site pages on the menu above.  For additional questions, including how to launch a Schweitzer Fellows Program, please contact info@schweitzerfellowship.org.