I’m kicking off 2025 with a new year-long fellowship opportunity. I’m among the 50 conservative professionals selected for Club for Growth Foundation’s 2025 Fellowship Class.
This year-long fellowship brings together public policy analysts, elected officials, nonprofit and business leaders who champion free market principles, economic freedom, and limited government. More broadly, the Fellowship Program “educates public and private sector leaders with a firm understanding of first principles; empowers them with the communications skills to become effective leaders; and engages them with an enduring network of like-minded leaders.”
Here's my fellowship bio page.
With the conservative movement flirting with tenets of populism, it’s imperative to keep timeless principles and related policies alive. We can appeal to new constituencies without betraying our values. My hope with the fellowship is to craft better arguments in favor of traditional conservation viewpoints under the three-legged stool model that encompasses fiscal conservatism.
I. Fellowships Defined
Fellowships are programs that are geared towards personal and professional development. They can be short-term or long-term. These programs cross industries, age groups, and experience levels–not just for college or graduate students.
As a mid-career professional on track to one day be a high-career professional, fellowships gave me a needed boost in my career. When I was building my freelance business, I hit a slump. I was acquiring new skills beyond copywriting and public relations, but something was missing. I didn’t feel challenged enough and wanted new experiences to
Benefits of fellowship include forging meaningful connections, gaining new skills, solving complex questions, and challenging yourself to new experiences.
Middle English felaweschipe, going back to Old English fēolagscipe, from fēolaga fellow + -scipe -ship
Merriam Webster Dictionary
II. The Value of Fellowships
The Club for Growth Foundation Fellowship isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve successfully completed two long-term fellowships and several short-term seminars (aka “mini fellowships”). One fellowship even evolved into my current job as director of IWF’s Center for Energy and Conservation.
Forbes Magazine argued in 2020 that fellowships are the future of learning and development:
Fellowships are a model for leadership development that achieve exactly those win-win-wins, for professionals, their employers, and society around them; fellowships create impact on the Me, We, and World Levels. Fellowships are ideally suited to professionals’ most pressing 2020 needs: connectivity, inclusion, collaboration, innovation, and resilience. They are flexible in terms of time and content for the participants, effective at building authentic relationships among peers, and are highly cost effective for employers.
The article said these three pillars of an effective fellowship:
- Self-paced, multimedia learning and reflection
- Live inputs with experts
- Peer reflection and accountability
Round-Up
This new fellowship means there is no change to my work schedule. I can participate concurrently with my full-time job at IWF and my various freelance contracts.
Cheers to an enriching year as a Club for Growth Foundation Fellow!