Early Career Fellowship
The Early Career Fellowship is a two-year program that supports promising early career teachers—particularly teachers of color—giving them the strategies, resources, and emotional support they’ll need to continue working in this demanding, but immensely rewarding, profession.
Teachers begin their careers full of passion, but most don’t get the support they need, and 50% burn out by year five. The percentage is higher for teachers of color, who are already underrepresented in the profession.
Those accepted into the Early Career Fellowship join an intimate cohort and, over the course of two years, meet monthly for master classes, workshops, and mentoring. They learn alongside and from one another and in the process, become friends. Most importantly, they join the Academy’s larger community of passionate, veteran teachers who show them how to keep the joy and the passion alive.
Applications and nominations for the '24-'25 school year will open on May 8. In the meantime, please direct any questions or nominations to Paige at paige@academyforteachers.org.
K-12 English and special education teachers with zero to five years of experience from public, charter, and private schools in the New York City metropolitan area. All are welcome, particularly teachers of color.
The Early Career Fellowship offers a year of support. Monthly activities include:
- Fun, creative community-building events
- Mentoring with gifted veteran teachers
- Content-based master classes with world-class experts
- Strategy sessions and time for reflection
- Social events, dinners, happy hours
Tuition for this year-long program is subsidized. Public schools pay only $1,500 for the year; independent schools pay $3,000. A limited number of scholarships are available.
Year 1: Supporting the Whole Teacher
In the first year, we provide each teacher with tools, inspiration, and support that will dramatically increase their confidence in the classroom. Early Career Fellows meet monthly, after school, for workshops and mentoring from veteran Academy Fellows, who are among the best teachers in New York. Each session ends with a shared meal where teachers share war stories and laugh. Twice a year, during a school day, Early Career Fellows take part in a master class led by an expert who will deepen their knowledge of the subjects they teach.
Year 2: From Surviving to Thriving
In the Fellowship’s second year, teachers affirm why they wanted to teach in the first place, and learn what it will take for them to become great teachers. In monthly after-school sessions, they’ll reflect on their own successes and failures, workshop lesson plans, and brainstorm strategies. The goal of the second year is to make visible and celebrate the quiet advancement of the early career teacher—all the while, strengthening the already close-knit community they established in their first year.
Mentorship
Our mentors, veteran teachers and Academy Fellows, are the heart of the Early Career Fellowship. Through workshops and mentoring sessions, they share their experience, wisdom, and joy, giving Early Career Fellows a road map to a long and rewarding career.
Apply to become a mentor for next year’s English or Special Education cohort.
Thank you to the donors who made this program possible!
The Catherine and Joseph Aresty Foundation
Agnes Gund
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
The Charles H. Revson Foundation
An anonymous family foundation