GradFUTURES Social Impact Fellowships

Gain Experience and Make an Impact!

Explore potential career paths and gain invaluable professional skills.
Social Impact Banner

GradFUTURES Social Impact Fellowships are bespoke opportunities for Princeton graduate students with nonprofit organizations that have partnered with the Graduate School. Host organizations work closely with the Graduate School to determine the learning outcomes and professional development goals for these immersive experiences. Each fellowship is custom-designed for you to apply discipline-specific skills, gain interdisciplinary project team experience, and receive one-on-one mentoring while contributing to the social impact mission of the organization. You gain exposure to organizational dynamics and leadership strategies, participate in virtual meetings and/or presentations, and complete meaningful projects that address local, regional, national, and global challenges. The average time commitment is 10 hours per week for the length of a semester or during the summer.

Isla Xi Han, GS, ARC
“Sometimes you don't realize how transferable your skill sets are until you have to apply them in different circumstances—this works both ways between industry and academia. The GradFUTURES Social Impact Fellowship gave me the chance to reevaluate my skills and research field from a novel perspective. It's both reassuring and freeing to see how academic trainings can be situated in real-world contexts."

Isla Xi Han, GS, ARC

Spring 2025 Opportunities

Social Impact Fellowship opportunities will be posted soon! Questions? Please email [email protected]

Current & Former SIF Fellows & Mentors

In the News

Pierre Azou & Emma Buttin

Image: Sameer A. Khan / Fotobuddy

Grad students and nonprofits are learning from each other in a partnership for the public good

Denise Valenti, Office of Communications
April 6, 2022

Related Programs

GradFUTURES Star

In addition to Social Impact Fellowships, the Graduate School offers a range of immersive experiences, all structured to support the timely completion of your degree program. Most of the fellowships are offered throughout the academic year and/or during the summer, and include University Administrative FellowshipsCommunity College Teaching Fellowship​​​​​s​, Higher Education Leadership FellowshipsMicro-Internships in Industry, and Pre-Matriculation Internships.

Graduate Student Employment Policy and Funding Considerations

All graduate students must adhere to the Graduate Student Employment policy when participating in an opportunity that is compensated or funded by an external entity or an experiential opportunity funded by the Graduate School. When participating in internships that involve receiving compensation from private sector organizations, paid positions at national government labs or research institutes, and research assistantships funded by institutions outside of Princeton, graduate students must obtain approval from their faculty adviser prior to acceptance of a position and must also complete an External Opportunity Application Form. Additionally, all international graduate students must review and comply with the guidelines on the Davis International Center’s Employment Page to avoid risking their visa immigration status. The Davis International Center maintains a list of all graduate programs that offer Curricular Practical Training (CPT) for international graduate students during the academic year or summer. Please note that CPT is only available to international graduate students with F-1 visas when an academic department requires an experiential opportunity or offers an internship course as part of the established curriculum. International graduate students whose departments do not offer CPT are encouraged to speak with the director of graduate study about their interest in pursuing a paid experiential opportunity at an external organization. International graduate students are also encouraged to explore the following experiential fellowships offered by GradFUTURES (and funded by the Graduate School) which do not require work authorization or CPT: University Administrative Fellowships, Community College Teaching Fellowships, Social Impact Fellowships, Higher Education Leadership Fellowships, and Professional Development Associates.