Lucas Holter
With the Schwarzman Center slated to open in September, the Woodbridge Fellowship — which provides opportunities for recent Yale graduates to work within the University administration — will offer a position within the new division.
According to Andrew Forsyth, assistant secretary for student life and coordinator of the Woodbridge Fellowships, the 2020-21 school year is the first in which the Schwarzman Center will offer the fellowship. Other units and programs — including the Office of Public Affairs and Communications and the Chaplain’s Office — around Yale also provide versions of the fellowship that are tailored toward their respective needs. According to Schwarzman Center Director of Marketing and Communications Maurice Harris, fellows for the Schwarzman Center will concentrate specifically on arts and culture management.
“Consistent with the aims of the Woodbridge Fellowship, the Schwarzman Center offers professional experience for a potential career in higher education and non-profit organizations, specifically within the field of arts management,” Harris wrote in an email to the News. “The Schwarzman Center’s approach focuses on creating artistic and cultural experiences that promote wellness, collaboration, and belonging, which recent Yale graduates are well positioned to address.”
As recent graduates of Yale College, Woodbridge Fellows bring the “immediacy” of their undergraduate experiences to the fellowship and have a fresh sense of how they could enhance Yale’s culture, Harris added. For the 2020-2021 school year, Harris said, the Schwarzman Center is offering a single fellowship.
According to Forsyth, the Office of the President subsidizes divisions that host fellows in order to pay for activities and the salaries. Each fellow receives around $50,000 per year. Classified as “managerial and professional” staff at Yale, fellows also receive benefits alongside other M&P staff members.
According to the fellowship job description posted to Orgsync, the Schwarzman Center fellow will “support a broad range of communications needs,” including marketing both the Center itself and its events and programs. For example, the Schwarzman Center fellow will help plan an October gala to celebrate the Center’s opening.
Fellows will also meet regularly with administrators such as Vice President for Global Strategy Pericles Lewis and Associate Vice President for Global Strategy Donald Filer.
Established in 2005 by former University President Richard Levin, the fellowship is designed to introduce recent Yale graduates to the University administration. According to the Woodbridge fellows’ website, fellows regularly meet and discuss their work, both amongst themselves and with University leaders such as the president and provost.
“The fellowship provides valuable professional experience for potential careers in higher education and non-profit organizations, particularly for recent graduates belonging to minority communities currently underrepresented in university administration,” the website reads.
Applications for the 2020-21 school year close on Friday, and several first-round interviews will take place in late February.
Aside from the opening for the Schwarzman Center, applications are open for fellows in the Chaplain’s Office, the Office of International Affairs, OPAC, the Office of the Secretary and Vice President for University Life and the Office of Sustainability.
Funded with an initial $150 million donation from Blackstone co-founder Stephen Schwarzman ’69, the Center began construction in June 2018.
Valerie Pavilonis | valerie.pavilonis@yale.edu