2025-2026 World House Student Fellows (Undergraduate)

Description

Perry World House invites applications from rising Penn sophomores, juniors, and seniors for its 2025-2026 class of World House Student Fellows. This competitive program is intended for undergraduate students from any School or department who have demonstrated a serious interest in exploring global affairs in-depth during their time at Penn. World House Student Fellows will participate in a series of weekly seminars, projects, and activities oriented around critical global inquiry. They will receive unparalleled access to, and direct interaction with, faculty and distinguished visitors, along with unique opportunities and activities oriented around global affairs. Between new and returning fellows, we plan to have a class of approximately 30 students for the 2025-2026 Academic Year.

 

What the program offers

Core experiences:

The goal of the World House Student Fellows Program is to broaden and deepen students’ existing academic experiences at Penn. Students will explore a range of global issues outside of their immediate area of study and deepen their understanding of these issues through focused policy projects and expert briefings. The World House Student Fellows Program will offer students leadership opportunities and the chance to directly tackle global issues through four different types of engagement:

Policy Project: Directed by faculty and staff, World House Student Fellows work in teams on a year-long project. Each group will partner with a real-world organization to develop a policy-relevant report linked to the organization’s work. Past partners have included both domestic and international governmental, non-governmental, and inter-governmental organizations. Policy project teams explore the needs of their partner organization over the course of the year under the guidance of Perry World House postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and visiting fellows. At the end of the academic year, each group presents its work to project partners, policymakers, practitioners, and affiliated Perry World House faculty and scholars. This research may also be published, as appropriate, by Perry World House.

Unique access to faculty and visitors: World House Student Fellows explore and analyze pressing global issues in regular seminars facilitated by Perry World House faculty, staff, and visitors. These seminars are also used to teach students skills to translate research into policy-relevant output.

Research and career mentorship: World House Student Fellows receive research mentoring from affiliated faculty and/or visiting scholars, postdocs, or distinguished visitors. Hands-on collaboration with experts is aimed at honing research and critical thinking skills. Exclusive career development events with alumni and other guests are also held during the year, including three field-learning experiences visiting organizations in New York City, Washington D.C., and an international trip (previous cohorts have gone to Geneva, Brussels, and the Hague) over Spring Break. All World House Student Fellows will have the opportunity to learn how to produce and publish various types of products aimed at influencing government, international, and/or NGO policy communities in the U.S. and around the world. Thesis research and internship funding may be available on a competitive basis to students working in areas related to Global Innovation Program priorities.

Special Events: World House Fellows have preferential access to small-group conversations with World House Distinguished Visiting Fellows and guest speakers over the course of their fellowship.

 

Expectations

Fellows are expected to be active, full participants in all elements of the Fellowship experience and will spend on average approximately 4-5 hours per week involved in the program. This time includes meetings with faculty/visitors, project meetings, research, and other activities at Perry World House. There is a mandatory Student Fellows meeting each Friday during the Academic Year at Perry World House. Becoming a Student Fellow is a one-year commitment with the potential to renew based on your performance in the program and continued interest.

Qualifications

This program is open to any student who will be a sophomore, junior, or senior at the University of Pennsylvania at the beginning of the fall 2025 semester.

Weekly, in-person participation in this program is a requirement. You must plan to be on campus in Philadelphia the full 2025-2026 Academic Year. If you plan to study abroad during the 2025-2026 Academic Year, you plan to spend a semester in Washington, D.C., or for any other reason you do not expect to be on-campus in Philadelphia for the entirety of AY2025-2026, you would be ineligible to apply to the pr