FAO Schwarz Foundation Fellow

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FAO Schwarz Foundation Fellow
The Museum of the City of New York fosters understanding of the distinctive nature of urban life in the world’s most influential metropolis. It engages visitors by celebrating, documenting, and interpreting the city’s past, present, and future. Founded in 1923, the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) showcases the city’s unique stories and cultural treasures. The country’s first and largest city museum, MCNY presents immersive exhibitions and programs at the intersection of history, popular culture, and art to 200,000 people annually, including 30,000 students and educators, fostering shared identity, civic pride and engagement, and social cohesion for New Yorkers. MCNY has been recognized as one of the leading museums in New York City by publications such as Condé Nast Traveler and the New York Times, with Time Out New York awarding MCNY “Best Museum” in New York in 2021.

The FAO Schwarz Foundation Fellowship Program is an intensive, transformative two-year experience designed for new college graduates interested in social impact leadership careers. The Fellowship program provides opportunities to be part of organizations that are deeply committed to social justice. Through a combination of direct service and leadership challenges, professional development and mentoring, Fellows gain first-hand experience leading change and learn how effective nonprofits create lasting change and measurable progress addressing critical challenges. At the Museum of the City of New York, the Fellow will be a part of the Education Department, working to provide content-rich and interactive learning experiences for visitors for their direct service work and developing and facilitating Professional Learning programs and creating teacher resources for their strategic project work. This is a full-time role. For the first four to five months, the position is fully in person. After that, it moves to a hybrid schedule with four days at the Museum and one day remote, upon manager approval.
 

Direct Service

The FAO Schwarz Fellow will be a vital member of the Education Department, working with museum staff and visitors to provide content-rich and interactive learning experiences directly to students and educators.
 

The Fellow will:

• Lead on-site school year and summer field trips (approximately four days per week) for grades K-12 focused on the Museum’s special and ongoing exhibitions and collections.
• Observe and participate in staff workshops, individual coaching, and professional development opportunities to learn content, pedagogy, and techniques of inquiry, visual literacy, hands-on learning, and discussion.

Strategic Project

The FAO Schwarz Fellow will be a critical partner to the Museum’s Manager of Professional Learning in the development and facilitation of new and revised Professional Learning programs and the creation of classroom resources (e.g., in-classroom lesson plans and museum resource guides) for educators and teachers.

In addition, the Fellow will help assess the Museum’s Professional Learning programs holistically, with an eye towards maintaining program consistency and growing the Professional Learning Community.

The Fellow will:

• Co-develop and facilitate workshops, lectures, and panel discussions for MCNY’s Professional Learning programs, including background and pedagogical research, curriculum development, timeline management, and guided tours of MCNY’s galleries and collection.
• Create educator resources including lesson plans, resource guides, and other materials that support teacher engagement and experiences, both in the museum and the classroom, that foster curiosity, creativity, and meaningful cross-disciplinary connections.
• Partner with the Museum’s Marketing and Communications Department on the development of marketing and outreach plans for Professional Learning programs.
• In Year 1, the Fellow will begin developing educator resources for the classroom and building direct relationships with teachers, which will inform the Professional Learning program they design in Year 2.
• In Year 2, the Fellow will have the opportunity to fully develop and lead at least one educator Professional Learning program.

A successful candidate will have:

• Demonstrated leadership in their college communities and have a proven record of academic success. They seek to immerse themselves in an experience that will challenge them, train them, and empower them to lead in social impact careers.
• Strong written and verbal communication
• Comfort and experience with public speaking
• Experience lesson planning and/or curriculum writing is preferred but not required.
• Applicants must be college seniors graduating between November 2026 - summer 2027 from an accredited four-year institution at the time of application. They must also be eligible to work in the United States for the two-year duration of the Fellowship.

Physical Requirements & Work Environment:

Sedentary work. Work is performed in an office environment and requires the ability to operate standard office equipment and keyboards. Must be able to remain in a stationary position 90% of the time and able to traverse through office and museum gallery environment. Exerting up to 50 pounds of force occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects. Repetitive motion. Substantial movements (motions) of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers. The worker is required to have close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color and peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus. While performing the essential functions of the job, this role primarily works on Monday-Friday with occasional weekend or evening work required.

Benefits:

The annual salary for this position is $55,000 that includes a $2,000 bonus at the start of the Fellowship in year one. The annual salary for this position increases to $60,000 that includes a $3,000 bonus at the end of the Fellowship in year two. The position offers a competitive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, FSA, HSA, life insurance, short and long-term disability, and an Employee Assistance Program, with options for critical illness insurance, accident insurance, legal services, and pet insurance. The Museum provides a paid time off policy that includes 10 days of annual leave, rising to 15 days in year two, plus 12 sick days per year and 12 paid holidays. Your employment relationship with the Museum qualifies you for free or discounted admissions to other participating cultural institutions.
 

How To Apply:

Please visit the FAO Schwarz Fellowship website to find more information and to apply: https://www.faoschwarzfellowship.org/mcny-2027/

The Museum of the City of New York is committed to fostering a collaborative and respectful work environment with staff as diverse as New York City and the audiences who are curious about learning more about its history and engaging in contemporary urban issues. Our staff members are dedicated to working towards a common goal: creating the most dynamic and inspiring city museum in the world.

The Museum of the City of New York is an equal opportunity employer. As such, the museum provides equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants without unlawful discrimination with respect to age, citizenship status, color, creed, disability, ethnicity, gender identification or expression, marital status, military status or veteran, national origin, political association, political/personal convictions, predisposing genetic characteristics, race (including traits historically associated with race, such as hair texture and style), religion (including attire, clothing or facial hair worn in accordance with religious requirements), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions and transgender status), sexual orientation, socio-economic status, geographic location, philosophies, or any other classification protected by federal, state or local laws, in all employment decisions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, training, compensation, promotion, demotion, transfer, lay-off, and termination, and all other terms and conditions of employment. The Museum complies with applicable state and local law governing nondiscrimination in employment which prohibits discrimination and harassment against any employees, applicants for employment or interns, as well as contractors, subcontractors, vendors, consultants, other individuals providing services in the workplace or their employees in every location in which the Museum has facilities.