Nebraska Lead Program – AmeriCorps Fellowship Application 2022 | $30,000 taxable stipend
The Rural Impact Hub is empowering rural communities throughout the state in a big way. Nebraska partnered with Lead for America (LFA) as an affiliate program that places AmeriCorps Service Members in Nebraska’s rural communities to serve and revitalize Nebraska’s small towns.
Lead for Nebraska is proud to be a program of AmeriCorps ServeNebraska!
Lead For Nebraska (LFNE)
Lead For Nebraska is a state affiliate of Lead for America, a national 501c(3), sharing national recruitment and operations support. LFNE Fellows serve as AmeriCorps Service Members and are part of LFA’s national movement of change-makers. They attend the annual Summer Institute, build an intimate network of locally-rooted leaders, engage in the wide breadth of LFA programming across core pillars, and have access to LFA’s national network of leading mentors – which includes mayors & elected officials, Nobel Peace Prize nominees, scholarly experts, and community leaders.
Nebraska Fellowships (Host-Led)
Lincoln, NE – Health Data Fellow with the Nebraska Hospital Association (NHA)
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- This AmeriCorps Fellow will mine historically significant hospital data and provide analysis and forecasting. The AmeriCorps Fellow will serve with the NHA executive team to use the data forecasting in developing and prioritizing action steps for the management of clinical and financial outcomes for rural healthcare in Nebraska.
Host-Led Experience
Our country has rarely been more divided than it is today, and our communities are facing critical challenges like poverty, homelessness, the rural-urban divide, and public health crises. Lead For America Host-Led Fellows have an opportunity to be a part of the solution and help stitch our country back together.
Our country has rarely been more divided than it is today, and our communities are facing critical challenges like poverty, homelessness, the rural-urban divide, and public health crises. Lead For America Host-Led Fellows have an opportunity to be a part of the solution and help stitch our country back together.
Lead For America believe that in order for any community to strengthen, it must have a bench of dedicated civic leaders who will do whatever it takes to move their hometowns forward. The problem is that too often our community’s greatest resource––its people––are told success requires leaving and never coming back. Lead For America Host-Led Fellowships address this by connecting local leaders with impactful organizations that need their help to take on these critical challenges.
Just like the Lead For America Hometown Fellowship, Host-Led Fellowships are full-time, one-year AmeriCorps Service terms (what is AmeriCorps?). Host-led Fellowship candidates apply to pre-existing Fellowships – listed above- in which a host organization, location, and project scope are already determined. Host-led Fellows are members of the larger Fellowship cohort, and take part in trainings, launch their own Community Ventures, and enjoy the same benefits every Fellow receives. These Fellowships serve as a launching pad to a lifetime of leadership and service to our communities and country.
Check out the Host-Led Fellow Roadmap here to learn more!
Fellowship Overview – Nebraska Lead Program – AmeriCorps Fellowship Application 2022
A Lead For America Fellowship is a launching pad for a lifelong career of leadership and public service, starting in the places that Fellows call home. We are looking for our nation’s most outstanding young people who aspire to positions of significant public responsibility in their communities, states, and country, and who are committed to leading with courage and integrity.
- Placement & Community Venture. Fellows are placed in a paid, full-time position in which they work on a critical challenge alongside an existing community leader in their hometown or home state. Working together for 35 hours per week, the placement serves as an “apprenticeship” in leadership and local service for the Fellow within a nonprofit or local government. Outside of the leadership apprenticeship, Fellows begin their service with a community-wide listening tour. Fellows talk with community members from all walks of life to understand the challenges, assets, and opportunities of their community. Following the listening tour, each Fellow will be responsible for launching a community venture––a project of the Fellow’s choosing that addresses a critical challenge they have identified. Previous Fellows have done everything from getting elected to their local nonpartisan City Commission to launching a nonprofit that raised more than $18M to serve their community. As AmeriCorps service members, all Fellows will receive a $30,000 stipend for the year, and a $6,345 Education Award upon completion of the Fellowship.
- Training and Fellowship Experiences. All Fellows will attend a ten-day pre-service training in Washington, DC where they will learn about American history, the most significant challenges facing our country today, how to build bridges across lines of difference, and how to be an effective leader in the community they call home. This will include off-site visits to rural and urban environments, historic sites like Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Shenandoah National Park, as well as the White House, Capitol Hill, and museums and monuments across Washington, DC. Fellows will have the opportunity to meet leaders from across sectors, including members of Congress, leaders in foreign and domestic policy, distinguished academics, and more. Throughout the course of the Fellowship, Fellows will also attend further retreats and training. This will include a visit to Wichita and Dodge City, Kansas (home to the Kansas Leadership Center and Lead For America’s headquarters), as well as a “Fellow exchange” in which Fellows will complete a ten-day (five days in each location) “home and home” experience with a member of their Fellowship cohort serving in a community very different from their own. At the end of the Fellowship, Fellows will come together for a graduation summit in Washington, DC, where their accomplishments will be celebrated and they will meet and inspire the incoming cohort of Fellows. All travels, housing, meals, and miscellaneous costs associated with Fellow programming will be covered by Lead For America in full.
- Mentorship and Fellow Advising. Each Fellow will have access to a network of their state’s, and our country’s, most exceptional leaders across the fields of politics, government, nonprofit, business, and more who will support Fellows in their personal and professional development. Lead For America’s staff and team of Fellowship advisors will also support Fellows in their career discernment and growth as moral and dynamic leaders, including providing advice on their community venture, how to navigate interpersonal challenges, and what paths each Fellow might consider post-Fellowship. Each Fellow will be free to choose their mentors but is asked to build at least one professional relationship with a mentor from a different ideological background.
- Alumni Support. For LFA, alumni success looks like every Fellow continuing to serve their hometown or home state and advancing into the highest levels of leadership and public responsibility, while maintaining a strong moral compass and a commitment to working across lines of difference where possible. Each of the benefits that LFA provides to alumni––from training on how to launch social ventures or serve in public office, to graduate scholarship opportunities––is aligned with keeping Fellows in their communities long-term, and to fostering lifelong friendships amongst people from very different backgrounds and belief systems.
- Friendship. Friendship is fundamental to personal fulfillment, but we also believe it is the most powerful tool for bridging divides in our country. Lead For America’s co-founders came together across different backgrounds and political beliefs and want the Fellowship to leave each Fellow with lifelong relationships with people different from them, too. The training, retreats, mentorship, and alumni opportunities are all designed to leave Fellows with a network of the nation’s most outstanding young leaders who, together, are committed to bringing a moral, dynamic, and bridge-building leadership ethic to lifelong public service.
What is the application process for the Lead For Nebraska Fellowship?
- Eligibility Quiz. A few “yes or no” questions to ensure you are eligible for the Fellowship before filling out our full application.
- Submit your application. Applications will be reviewed after our June 5th deadline, but we encourage you to get your application in early!
- Phone Call. Some candidates will be asked to schedule a 15-minute phone call with a member of our staff to elaborate on the materials shared in their application. This phone call is a necessary step before becoming a Finalist.
- Finalist: 30-45 Minute Interview. Every Fellow will be interviewed by a panel of Lead For America staff. The interview is designed to be challenging. Panelists will ask questions to better understand a prospective Fellow’s vision for their communities, their future aspirations, and how they would respond to critical leadership challenges they might face over the course of their Fellowship and public service career.
- Endorsed Finalist: Host Interview. The top 1-3 Finalists for each Host-Led Fellowship will be asked to interview with their potential host. This is an opportunity for both you and the host to get to know each other and ensure both parties would work well together.
- Confirmed Fellow. If you are selected by the host organization, you will be confirmed as a Fellow.
*It is important to note that some Endorsed Finalists are not able to secure a host organization based on the limited number of host organizations. In this case, Endorsed Finalists become highly competitive candidates for the later cycles of the Fellowship.
Benefits of the Lead For Nebraska Fellowship – Nebraska Lead Program – AmeriCorps Fellowship Application 2022
Beyond the opportunity to build transformational change in your community amongst outstanding peers nationwide, every Fellow enjoys the following concrete benefits as part of the fellowship:
Training
- Fully paid 12-day Summer Institute training in Washington D.C. at the beginning of your fellowship.
- Fully paid 3+ day leadership training and retreat with your cohort in Kansas.
- Fully paid Fellow Exchange experience, where Fellows visit and learn from other members of their cohort.
- Fully paid 2+ day in-person graduation ceremony and summit in Washington, DC.
- Regular virtual trainings and plenary conversations.
- Past training partners include Harvard Kennedy School, UNC School of Government, Urban Rural Action, Community Renewal International, Tisch College of Civic Life, and leaders such as Shreveport (LA) Mayor Adrian Perkins, author, and AEI Senior Fellow Ti Carney, Acting Chief Executive Officer of AmeriCorps Mal Coles, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Amanda Nguyen.
Support
- Monthly calls with an LFA Fellow Advisor to ensure you are meeting your professional and personal goals and planning for the future.
- An Employee Assistance Program that provides legal, financial, tax, and mental health resources.
- A hand-selected, local mentor who is a leader in their field, tailored to each Fellow’s personal aspirations.
Alumni
- Segal AmeriCorps Education Award – Fellows will earn $6,345 in scholarship funding for every 1,700 hours of service (one program year) that can be applied to current educational expenses or to repay qualified student loans. Learn more here. Note this scholarship is taxable and a person cannot earn more than the aggregate value of two, full-time education awards.
- Alumni graduate scholarships to a growing list of top MPA and MPP schools, including the Fels Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown.
- Grants of up to $2,500 for alumni to launch entrepreneurial initiatives to serve their community.
- A lifelong community of some of the most talented, passionate, and dynamic leaders in the country.
Living Allowance
- A $30,000 taxable stipend.
- Health Care Reimbursements – The opportunity for medical premium reimbursements. Reimbursements fully cover Bronze plans, and up to $386/month for Silver, Gold, or Platinum plans.To be eligible, the health care plan must meet Minimum Essential Coverage requirements and Fellows must pay directly for their own insurance costs (not paying a spouse or family member).
Purpose and Mission
Our country has rarely been more divided than it is today. Over 75% of each party sees strong supporters from the opposite party as a “clear and present danger” to American democracy. Study after study shows increasingly stark disagreement on the economy, racial justice, immigration, climate, law enforcement, international affairs, and a long list of other issues. Meanwhile, our communities and the American people are hurting. Even before the pandemic, life expectancy had declined for three of the previous four years, and record numbers of Americans were dying of suicide and drug overdose. Communities and neighborhoods that were once thriving are shrinking and fighting for economic survival. Challenges of poverty, homelessness, and illiteracy continue as we confront the pandemic and increasing division.
At times of dysfunction on a national level, reform and renewal have often arisen from the local level and a new generation of leadership. As a nonpartisan, 501(c)3 nonprofit, Lead For America aims to be part of the solution by cultivating a leadership force of our nation’s most outstanding young leaders, each committed to serving and building bridges in the places they call home, and stitching our country back together one community at a time. We believe that there is common ground, mutual respect, and even friendship to be found through a shared commitment to place and to service.
About Lead For America
Lead For America believes that building stronger communities, and a stronger America, starts by serving and leading, where you live. As a nonpartisan, 501(c)3 nonprofit, Lead For America is building a leadership force of our nation’s most outstanding young leaders, who will make their communities stronger, change the narrative about what communities are worthy of investment, build friendships across lines of difference, and bring their experiences and relationships with one another to the highest levels of leadership in their communities and American life for decades to come.
How To Apply – Nebraska Lead Program – AmeriCorps Fellowship Application 2022
If you are interested in applying for a Host-Led Fellowship in Nebraska, please use the “apply” button to complete our 3-minute quiz to ensure you are eligible for a Host-Led Fellowship. This is NOT the Full Application. After submitting the quiz, you will automatically receive an email connecting you to our Full Application.
