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The Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) and the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) invite current HGSE graduate students to apply for the Meade Fellowship.

This invaluable one-week summer experience offers one Meade Fellow an opportunity to come to Washington, DC, visit leading education organizations, and meet with chief architects of change in education policy. A stipend will be provided (amount to be determined).

How It Works

IEL and the Meade Fellow create an ideal slate of appointments, as guided by the Fellow’s research and professional interests. IEL contacts the chosen experts, makes the introductions, and coordinates the entire agenda. The Meade Fellow then engages in one-on-one meetings and creates professional and lifelong connections. As one recent Meade Fellow, Christina Weiland, assistant professor at University of Michigan School of Education, explains: 

"My Meade Fellowship experience can be summed up in seven words: access, access, access and context, context, context! I consider the Meade Fellowship to be one of the crucial pieces of my excellent HGSE education. Through meeting with lobbyists, researchers, policymakers, and advocates, I gained a clearer understanding of the context in which my research on early childhood education would be read and understood. I also gained direct access to leaders in my field. Four years later, I have worked closely with one person I met during the fellowship. I contacted another recently for some future work and received an immediate response.  Others, I continually bump into at policy and research events when I am in DC. I am forever grateful to have received this honor."

Origin

The Meade Fellowship was established in 1996 in honor of Edward J. Meade, Jr., (HGSE C.A.S. ’59, Ed.D. ’60), who was instrumental in leading many educational reform initiatives for the Ford Foundation. 

Fellow's Reflections

Why We Can't Give Up on Talking to Each Other by Pei Pei Liu

Additional Testimonials

• “As a researcher and teacher, I came into the Meade Fellowship open and eager to learn as much as possible about the inner workings of U.S. education policy. The opportunity to connect to people in the real-world of education policy was a powerful learning experience, and has become an anchor point for how I view and discuss issues in the field of education. Being a Meade Fellow really opened my eyes to tangible connections between research, policy, and practice in my own work."
  Maleka Donaldson Gramling
  Meade Fellow 2015

• “As the first Meade Fellow, I found the experience invaluable in helping to kickstart my career working in educational policy.  The individuals I met provided me with extensive knowledge of how the educational policy process works on the ground level, and many of the contacts I made during my fellowship have been extremely valuable to me through my career in academe.  I would strongly recommend the experience for anyone who wants to work in educational policy.”
  Donald E. Heller
  Dean College of Education, Michigan State University
   
• “It was an extraordinary experience… I have a much more concrete understanding of how policy work happens than I would have without the fellowship.”
  Amanda Taylor
  Professional Lecturer, School of International Service, American University
   
• “I credit the Meade Fellowship with being one of the most meaningful experiences I have had as a student at HGSE. It was an exceptional opportunity to meet with leading thought partners in the field of education and deepen my understanding of the ways in which we can strengthen our system to serve all students through meaningful, supportive, and purposeful learning experiences.”
  Kelly A. Kovacic
  Doctor of Education Leadership Candidate '15, Harvard Graduate School of Education