It’s shaping up to be the biggest year yet in the history of the Summer Leadership Fellows Program at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University.

The program is a collaboration between the new Experience Hub at CSB+SJU and the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement.

It is made up of participants from the John Brandl Scholars, the Fleischhacker Fellows, the Marie and Robert Jackson Fellows and the Global Health Fellows – provides opportunities for students to take part in 10-week summer internships with nonprofit or government organizations.

The participants are drawn from various majors, interests and experiences. They are selected through an application and interview process. Each student selected receives $6,000 – subject to taxes and paid throughout the summer.

Students can elect to register for and receive internship credits, though it is not required.

This year’s cohort includes a total of 82 students – 11 John Brandl Scholars, 33 Fleischhacker Fellows, 35 Marie and Robert Jackson Fellows and three Global Health Fellows – making it the largest in the program’s history.

“This is the largest cohort we’ve ever had, and it is incredibly exciting to think about not only the impact on these students, but how their work will impact the communities and organizations with whom they work,” said Adia Zeman Theis, Assistant Director of Experience and Professional Development (XPD) in the Experience Hub and one of the directors of the Summer Leadership Fellows Program.

“The 2022 Summer Leadership Fellows represent a wide array of majors and interests. Their work will have broad impact while also helping them develop their own skills and passions. Training this year will be designed to help students with both their short-term internship goals as well as their long-term, post-graduate careers. Through conversations with alums and other prominent leaders, students will hear from a diverse array of voices and build connections within their cohort. The skills they learn will allow them to make the most of their experience and also prepare them for the world of work.”

One of those students is Durran Thompson, a junior finance major and the chair of the Activities and Allocations Board of the SJU Student Senate. He is a Marie and Robert Jackson fellow who hopes to intern with a nonprofit organization in Washington D.C.

“I’ve always been a person who wants to try and find ways to give back to the community,” Thompson said. “That’s what excited me about this opportunity – it offers the chance to work with groups and organizations that are doing just that.

“I think a lot of the time, people see policies and laws that are enacted. But they don’t know all the work that was put in – inside and outside of government – to make them happen. This is a chance to get behind the scenes and see what things I can be doing to make communities better.”

The Marie and Robert Jackson Fellows program, which began thanks to an anonymous gift in 2008, boasts the most members of this year’s cohort. But very close behind is the Fleischhacker Fellows program, which just celebrated its fifth anniversary last November.

The Mark and Teresa Fleischhacker Center for Ethical Leadership in Action was created thanks to a $10 million anonymous commitment in November of 2016, the largest gift in CSB history.

“The cohort of Fleischhacker Fellows represent nearly half of the Summer Leadership Fellows cohort, and the fellowship is only in its infancy,” said Angie Schmidt Whitney, Executive Director of Experience and Professional Development (XPD) in the Experience Hub and one of the directors of the Summer Leadership Fellows Program.

“It’s exciting to see the growth as individual Fellows discover their own stories. The Fleischhacker Fellows are also forming women as future leaders and change makers in climate, global health, public policy, immigration  and more. I am honored to be able to work with women writing their future stories as ethical leaders.”