Call for Applications: Us@250 Fellowship (United States)

New America’s Us@250 (pronounced “us at 250”) initiative seeks to accomplish this by employing three core themes in its work: pride in the nation’s progress from its origins, reckoning with historical and contemporary wrongs that have caused the nation to fall short of its ideals, and aspiration for an inclusive democracy governed by the principles of equality, fairness, and opportunity.

The Us@250 Fellowship provides funding, resources, and community for those engaged in projects that seek to tell a more comprehensive American story; expand their concept of American culture and identity; create connections across differences; and model how an inclusive multiracial society might thrive. The fellowship will facilitate projects in civic engagement, narrative change and storytelling, and cultural education that foster public participation.

Us@250 Fellows will be actively engaged in the work of renewing, reimagining, and realizing the promise of America as they approach their 250th year as a nation.

What’s in It for You?

• An honorarium of $10,000, paid in installments;
• Regular engagements with the fellowship cohort to share best practices, workshop ideas and drafts, and facilitate new connections and collaborations;
• Educational and professional development opportunities, including access to New America’s expertise and networks, and in-person and virtual panel discussions and seminars; and
• Connection to the constellation of organizations, programs, and individuals working to protect democracy or mark the nation’s semiquincentennial to increase the awareness and visibility of your work.

Who Can Be a Us@250 Fellow?

• For the second annual fellowship class (2024 to 2025), they are looking for longform journalists reporting on local human-interest stories that engage the core themes of pride, reckoning, and aspiration.
• Ideal candidates for this fellowship are journalists or reporters, whether working in a newsroom or as a freelancer, who are working on local stories about communities that come together across differences to solve hard problems, confront local history, or build community in a polarized country. The differences may be along generational, partisan, racial or ethnic, religious, class, or other lines. They are especially interested in stories from communities undergoing significant change (such as major economic or demographic shifts or social issues); and from under-resourced or rural areas. The focus of the work would be truly local in nature and not simply snapshots of a broader national debate. The fellowship is non-resident, fellows will continue their work in their local communities for the duration of the fellowship.
• The common thread among candidates for the Us@250 fellowship is their involvement in public engagement activities and that their work centers on the past, present, or the future of the country, while also fostering interactions between people from diverse groups.
• Fellows can be journalists or reporters at any stage in their career, and they will have previously published a feature or longform article (approximately 3,000 to 5,000 words). The fellowship deliverable will be a publishable article.

For more information, visit New America.