Call for Applications: Groundwork Fellows
How are communities built? What sustains them? And what gets in the way?
The Kenan Institute for Ethics invites first, second and third-year students to apply to a new fellowship program, Groundwork Fellows. The priority deadline for this program is 12pm (EST) on Friday, April 3, 2026.
PROGRAM
As a complement to a summer commitment that includes working with any kind of collective — whether a workplace, a grassroots community organization, or sports team — Groundwork Fellows will observe and reflect on the often unseen social infrastructures that are holding that collective together. What makes it possible for people to connect, even when — or especially when – they hold complicated or conflicting commitments? What goes into the labor that creates a culture of belonging and mutual trust?
In ongoing conversations with peers, faculty and staff, and partners, Groundwork Fellows will learn about relational and structural organizing: how groups form, how they make decisions, why they fall apart, and what helps them endure. They will experiment with practices that support cultures of belonging, and, after returning to Duke in the fall, they will co-create a small repeating gathering that brings people together to connect on campus (and maybe beyond).
COMMITMENT
Groundwork Fellows is a nine-month-long commitment involving in-person training in the spring, a series of Zoom meetings over the summer (in tandem with students’ pre-existing commitments), and a half-day debrief in the fall. Employing what they’ve learned through the summer, students will design a repeated gathering that promotes group belonging that they will test out during the fall semester.
• Initial half-day training on a Saturday in April, followed by one to two planning meetings in late April and early May.
• Committed summer engagement in an approved setting. Students must be engaged for at least 15–20 hours per week over a minimum of eight weeks during Summer 2026. The Groundwork Fellowship is not a placement program, and fellows are responsible for arranging their own summer experiences that provide a context for observing how people organize, navigate institutions, and/or build and sustain groups, whether in a team, workplace, nonprofit, campaign, movement, or even government agency. Participation in formal Duke civic engagement or research programs may qualify with permission from those program directors. Alternative forms of sustained summer engagement may also qualify on a case-by-case basis.
• Observational practice involving short readings and a few small experiments, all designed to fold into your everyday life. These practices help Groundwork Fellows notice how people gather, drift, and stay connected — and reflect on how their own presence shapes those dynamics.
• Every-other-week Zoom reflection circles. These biweekly sessions will ask Fellows to discuss and reflect on what they’re noticing about themselves, their roles, and the groups they’re part of.
• Half-day session in August before class begins, focused on debriefing the summer and brainstorming and/or designing in the fall.
• Pilot a small experiment in belonging by the end of the Fall 2026. Groundwork Fellows will design and test a small, repeating slow-practice gathering — something that cultivates rhythm, care, and belonging in a way that makes sense for this moment on campus (and possibly in Durham).
Through the program, Groundwork Fellows will be mentored by Kenan faculty and staff with experience in social movements, restorative justice, and community-building.
ELIGIBILITY
This program is open to all first, second, and third-year students who will be on campus during the spring and fall semesters in 2026. Please note that students need to have a pre-approved summer commitment that will allow them to observe a collective to be eligible for this program.
Students with all or some of these qualities may also find this program a good fit:
• Students who care about service, supporting social connection and collective life, and promoting justice in its many forms
• Students who think something is missing in Duke campus culture and want to spark something different or new
• Students who have seen student clubs, teams, or initiatives lose momentum and want to understand how to build something that lasts
• Students who feel caught between diametrically opposed positions and want spaces where people feel empowered to have difficult, honest, and nuanced conversations
AWARD
Students who successfully complete the program will receive a $500 stipend for the summer and a $500 stipend for the fall. Fellows can also propose reasonable budgets for materials or activities to support the repeated gatherings they will design in the program.
APPLY
The priority deadline for this program is 12pm (EST) on Friday, April 3, 2026.
CONTACT
If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to Kay Jowers, kay.jowers@duke.edu.
Kay Jowers is Executive-in-Residence and Director of Social Inquiry & Community-Engaged Practice at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke. Her work is shaped by earlier experience in public-interest law and environmental justice. She works at the intersection of political sociology and community-engaged scholarship, with a focus on how movements and institutions, especially universities working with local partners, sustain the long work of justice and repair. These days, she builds programs, community partnerships, and learning spaces where rigorous inquiry and relationship-building go hand in hand, and where curiosity is treated not just as an intellectual habit but as a form of care. Across classrooms, community collaborations, and research projects, she’s interested in what it takes to keep returning to the table long enough for real change to take root.