By Saida Abdalla
This fall, the Center for Public Leadership is thrilled to welcome 148 fellows from across Harvard University to our fellowship community.
These remarkable students come from diverse backgrounds, disciplines, and experiences, yet they share a common commitment: a passion for serving others and fostering positive change in their communities and around the globe.
This year, we are particularly excited to welcome the inaugural cohort of American Service Fellows, who join our esteemed fellowship community alongside the Emirates Leadership Initiative, Gleitsman, George, Gergen, Equity, Rubenstein, Wolk, and Zuckerman Fellows. Together, these nine fellowships form a dynamic network of leaders who will challenge one another, learn collaboratively, and cultivate relationships that extend far beyond their time at Harvard.
While each fellowship has its own unique mission and cohort experience, we recognize that true leadership rarely happens in isolation. In the inaugural year of the American Service Fellowship, the curriculum focuses on monthly cohort sessions led by Harvard faculty and affiliates where fellows can reflect on their past experiences and consider what comes next. These sessions are designed to build on and develop the fellows' vast experience and public service leadership skills such as leading through uncertainty, navigating conflict, and principled leadership. As part of the Gergen Fellowship, fellows gain hands-on experience through 10-week public-service internships while building professional networks and leadership skills within a supportive cohort. In our other fellowships, they will engage deeply within their cohorts while also connecting across the larger fellowship community through Practitioner Dinners, Taste & Takeaways, policy field experiences, CPL Speaks, Leadership Intensives, and other collaborative events. These opportunities are designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas across sectors, disciplines, and lived experiences, thereby strengthening both individual leadership and the broader CPL community.
This year, some of the cohorts are exploring the True North Leadership framework developed by Bill George, guiding fellows to explore authentic leadership by reflecting on their life stories, identifying pivotal moments that have shaped them, clarifying their core values, and developing a stronger sense of purpose. Coupled with our Intentional Learning Plan (ILP), mentoring, peer coaching, and structured reflection, the curriculum encourages fellows to view leadership as an ongoing process of growth rather than merely a set of skills to acquire.
Our in-person journey began at our welcome event at the end of August followed by our annual Fall Fellows Retreat. These two gatherings established a positive tone for the year ahead, fostering relationships and nurturing a sense of community among our diverse group of leaders. As fellows gathered from various programs, they engaged in reflective discussions and collaborative exercises that not only enhanced their understanding of leadership but also promoted a sense of belonging. This collaborative environment empowered participants to embrace diverse perspectives and developed essential skills for navigating challenges ahead. The bonds formed during this event will serve as a strong foundation as we navigate the fellowship year together.
Leadership is not built in a single classroom, workshop, or retreat. It develops through reflection, authentic relationships, meaningful challenges, and the willingness to learn alongside others. We encourage every fellow to embrace the opportunity to share their experiences, remain curious about their peers, and fully engage with the CPL community.
To our returning fellows, welcome back! To our newest fellows, we extend a heartfelt welcome to the Center for Public Leadership. We are excited to learn with you, grow alongside you, and witness the impactful contributions you will make throughout this year and long after your time at Harvard.
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Student fellows are the heart of our mission to develop principled, effective public leaders capable of solving the world’s most pressing problems. CPL's fellowships provide tuition support and robust, cohort-based co-curricular programming grounded in experiential learning.
Facts Only
* 148 fellows from Harvard University joined the fellowship community.
* The group includes American Service Fellows alongside Emirates Leadership Initiative, Gleitsman, George, Gergen, Equity, Rubenstein, Wolk, and Zuckerman Fellows.
* The American Service Fellowship curriculum includes monthly cohort sessions led by Harvard faculty focusing on leadership skills such as leading through uncertainty and navigating conflict.
* The Gergen Fellowship involves 10-week public-service internships.
* Fellowships utilize collaborative events like Practitioner Dinners, Taste & Takeaways, policy field experiences, CPL Speaks, and Leadership Intensives for cross-sector exchange.
* Some cohorts explore the True North Leadership framework involving reflection on life stories, core values, and purpose, coupled with an Intentional Learning Plan (ILP).
* In-person gatherings included a welcome event at the end of August and an annual Fall Fellows Retreat.
Executive Summary
The Center for Public Leadership welcomes 148 fellows from Harvard University for the fall term, drawn from diverse backgrounds focused on serving others and fostering positive change globally. The cohort includes the inaugural American Service Fellows alongside nine other fellowships: Emirates Leadership Initiative, Gleitsman, George, Gergen, Equity, Rubenstein, Wolk, and Zuckerman. These fellowships create a network designed to foster mutual learning and relationship-building across disciplines.
The curriculum varies by fellowship; the American Service Fellowship features monthly cohort sessions led by faculty focusing on skills like leading through uncertainty and navigating conflict. The Gergen Fellowship includes 10-week public-service internships. Other fellowships facilitate connection through events such as Practitioner Dinners, policy field experiences, and Leadership Intensives. A core element across cohorts is exploring the True North Leadership framework alongside an Intentional Learning Plan (ILP), mentoring, and reflection, positioning leadership as an ongoing growth process.
The initial group engagement included a welcome event and a Fall Fellows Retreat in late August, which established community bonds through reflective discussions and collaborative exercises. The organization emphasizes that leadership develops through reflection, relationships, and shared challenges outside of formal instruction.
Full Take
The structure reveals a deliberate strategy to build leadership capacity not merely through knowledge acquisition but through relational experience and reflective practice across disparate programs. The blending of structured components (curriculum, internships) with unstructured opportunities (social gatherings, field experiences) suggests an understanding that deep leadership is contextual. The framework emphasizes process over outcome, positioning leadership as iterative growth rather than a fixed skillset, which resists reductive categorization.
The pattern observed is the weaving of diverse experiential modalities—from internal reflection (True North) to external action (internships) and inter-group exchange (dinners)—to cultivate a communal sense of belonging alongside individual competency. This layered approach implies an acknowledgment that external pressures and real-world complexity necessitate a holistic approach to development, rather than singular disciplinary mastery. The focus on collaborative learning suggests a recognition that the challenge of global service requires interdependence, where shared vulnerability accelerates growth.
This structure implicitly frames leadership as a continuous negotiation between internal conviction (values, purpose) and external engagement (networks, policy). The implication is that true resilience in public leadership stems from mastering the reflective space necessary to integrate varied experiences, rather than simply accumulating specialized knowledge. What is being leveraged here is the capacity for deep engagement and mutual accountability within a high-achieving cohort, which serves as a powerful mechanism for developing principled action under uncertainty.
Bridge Questions: How does the emphasis on "authenticity" in leadership translate practically when fellows face conflicting demands from their diverse personal backgrounds? What mechanisms exist to ensure that the collaborative structure avoids becoming another layer of performance rather than genuine relational trust? If leadership is an ongoing process, how can the program sustain this momentum and reflective rigor long after the fellowship concludes?
Sentinel — Human
This text reads like a standard organizational announcement, effectively blending personal enthusiasm with structured description of complex program components.