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Fellowship Overview

Wisdom for Citizenship | Courage for Leadership

Scholarship program beginning Fall 2027

A Community for Serious Intellectual Formation

The Civic Thought Fellowship brings together students eager to explore the enduring questions of citizenship, leadership and public life. Through scholarship support, rigorous academic study, close engagement with faculty and distinctive experiences beyond the classroom, students develop the knowledge, judgment, and character needed to contribute to their communities and professions.

The Civic Thought Fellows

The Civic Thought Fellowship is the Civic program’s premier opportunity for students seeking an intensive, cohort-based education in Civic Thought and leadership.

Questions Worth Studying

Fellows pursue a carefully sequenced program of study alongside their primary major. Seminar-style learning emphasizes close reading, thoughtful discussion, clear writing and serious engagement with competing viewpoints.

Students will explore questions such as:

1. What does it mean to be an American?

   Competing sources of national identity and the customs that can build civic unity across differences.

2. What enables liberty and human flourishing?

   How enduring principles and inherited practices can guide a free society amid contemporary challenges.

3. How do institutions shape our common life?

   The role families, religious communities, civil associations, and other institutions play in forming character and sustaining the common good.

4. How should the United States exercise power abroad?

   Competing views of America’s role in the world and the ethical responsibilities of statesmanship.

5. What is democracy, and what sustains it?

   How democracy is defined and measured, including its development and present challenges in Eastern Europe.

6. What makes leadership principled and effective?

   How judgment, character, responsibility, and practical wisdom shape leadership in public and professional life.

7. What grounds moral judgment and the common good?

   Major ethical traditions concerning natural law, virtue, wisdom, and human flourishing.

8. How has natural law shaped American political life?

   Traces natural law’s political application and its relevance to contemporary political polarization.

Learning Beyond the Classroom

The Fellowship is more than a scholarship. It is a learning community designed to connect ideas with experience and to build civic friendship across a cohort.

• Seminars: Small-group conversations on enduring civic questions, leadership, professionalism and personal development.
• Excursions: Off-campus learning connected to American history, culture, institutions and public life.
• Public debate: Fellows participate in a public debate on a civics-related topic.
• Scholars and lectures: Exclusive opportunities to engage visiting thinkers, professionals and Civics Center speakers.

Eastern Europe Abroad Experience

See the World Differently.

Civic Thought Fellows take part in an immersive international experience examining the history, ideas, cultures and political institutions that have shaped modern Europe.

Potential destinations include Hungary, Poland or the Baltic states. The experience is expected to carry a value of approximately $4,000.

Who Should Apply?

The Civic Thought Fellowship is designed for intellectually curious students from any prospective major who want to think seriously about citizenship, leadership, ordered liberty and the common good.

Strong applicants will demonstrate academic achievement, intellectual curiosity, a willingness to engage with difficult questions and an interest in contributing to a community of civil inquiry.

Eligibility and Selection

• First-time college students applying during their senior year of high school
• Strong academic credentials
• Essay required
• Finalists invited to an interview

Application Timeline

Begin Your Civic Journey

Join a community devoted to wisdom for citizenship.

Applications open October 1, 2026.