Summer Scholars Fellowship
Broadening the pathway into applied, positive youth development research for scholars from groups historically underrepresented in research.
The Experience
The Summer Scholars Fellowship is an invaluable collaboration between Search Institute and new and emerging scholars in the field of positive youth development. The participating scholars have the opportunity to support active Search Institute projects, while providing new approaches, insights and perspectives that are vital to the mission of ensuring that all young people thrive.
The Fellowship pairs scholars with a mentor from Search Institute’s research team, with each scholar developing new insights around their topics of interest, placing a strong emphasis on generating actionable knowledge that can inform best practices around inclusive and equitable relationship building and positive youth development.
Through these mentoring relationships, scholars will learn new analytical techniques, receive career development support, and learn how large, practitioner-oriented projects are structured. Scholars may also have opportunities to connect to Search Institute’s extensive network of practitioners and community partners.
In addition to developing knowledge and skills in data analysis, applied research partnerships, and dissemination to practitioner audiences, the fellowship will support Scholars’ career development focused on topics like finding the right fit when making career decisions, work-life balance, building a mentoring network, and experiences as scholars from groups underrepresented in academic and applied research settings.
Opens Spring 2025
Search Institute Summer Scholars Fellowship Application
"I believe that the Search Institute Summer Scholars Fellowship is a great opportunity for those who are passionate about positive youth development and are interested in exploring a career in applied research."
Alumni Stories
Summer Scholars Fellowship alumni share their experiences in the program.
The Search Institute Summer Scholars Fellowship helped to hone my skills in secondary data analysis and writing for diverse audiences through the preparation of both a public-facing blog post and an academic manuscript. I enjoyed digging into strengths-focused data in order to examine the factors that support LGBQ+ youth's positive identity development. I also appreciated the opportunity to learn from a community of scientists who have dedicated their careers to studying what helps young people to thrive. I highly encourage anybody seeking a career in a non-profit and/or applied research setting to apply for the Summer Scholars Fellowship!
I was in a unique place when I applied to the Search Institute Summer Scholars Fellowship. I had just re-engaged with writing my dissertation after taking more than two years off while I had been focused on co-founding a youth serving non-profit. Getting back situated in my academic work and research was more challenging than I had expected, and I knew I would benefit from some formal mentorship to help get me unstuck. The Summer Fellowship ended up being the ideal opportunity for me. I was partnered with an amazing mentor that helped me refine my ideas and created a supportive environment for me to enhance my ability to conduct qualitative research, particular she helped me gain more familiarly and confidence developing codebooks and using Dedoose. Her support and capacity building has directly translated to my dissertation research and I'm drawing from what I learned last summer as I analyze the data I've collected for my dissertation this year. Moreover, other Search Institute scholars and my mentor truly invested in my research and provided me support even after the fellowship ended. I also built strong relationships with other Summer Scholars which have continued to be a resource since the end of the fellowship. Overall, my experience helped me feel a part of an academic community, filled with brilliant and interest aligned scholars that truly valued my research.
Search Institute's Summer Scholars Fellowship afforded me an opportunity to hone my applied research skills and expand my professional network. A highlight of the fellowship was the chance to author blog posts aimed at practitioners, which allowed me to translate complex ideas into accessible content – a skill that I value and rarely get to practice during my graduate studies. I'm truly grateful that my fellowship experience evolved into an ongoing collaboration with my summer mentor. Since the summer, we have been co-authoring an academic manuscript, which has been instrumental in sharpening my focus on applied research. Overall, I found last summer to be an enriching learning experience to complement my graduate studies and, as an added bonus, was incredibly appreciative for the generous stipend I received as a participating fellow.
As a 2022 Summer Scholars Fellow, I worked with my mentors Dr. Ashley Boat and Dr. Diane Hsieh to conduct a study on the socioemotional learning of Latinx youth. I appreciated this fellowship for providing me with the opportunity to conduct applied research that aligned with my interests of supporting the positive development of Latinx youth. Through this fellowship, I strengthened my quantitative analysis skills and knowledge of statistical software, like Mplus. I also obtained unique insight from my mentors and other Search Institute staff about the experience of working in a non-profit research organization and potential career options outside academia. Importantly, I learned about translating academic research to a practitioner audience through publishing a blog post about my study findings at the Search Institute website. Overall, I believe that the Search Institute Summer Scholars Fellowship is a great opportunity for those who are passionate about positive youth development and are interested in exploring a career in applied research.
Becoming a Search Institute summer research doctoral scholar in 2022 was a pivotal moment for my academic training, deeply intertwined with my aspirations as a future clinical psychologist committed to integrating critical consciousness and positive youth development into my research and practice. Through this program, I delved into a project that examined the compounding effects of COVID-19 and racial injustice on the coping mechanisms of Black adolescents. Our investigation underscored the significant role of socio-emotional support from community mentors in empowering Black youth to employ adaptive coping strategies in navigating the stresses of the pandemic.
This experience also fostered my growth in statistical proficiency, as Dr. Diane Hsieh mentored me on how to utilize STATE modeling software. The insights I gained from this program fueled my dedication to uncovering protective factors that foster positive development among Black youth amidst systemic adversities. Building upon the data accessed through the Search Institute Fellowship, I embarked on my master's thesis journey, examining the impact of critical consciousness and parental civic modeling in mitigating the adverse outcomes of community violence exposure among Black youth.
My tenure as a Search Institute summer research doctoral scholar was instrumental in honing my research skills and amplifying my commitment to fostering resilience and empowerment within marginalized communities. It propelled me closer to my goal of leveraging research to inform culturally responsive interventions and support systems for youth grappling with multifaceted challenges.
