FAO Schwarz Fellowship in Social Impact at Children's Literacy Initiative

Application deadline: February 1, 2027 at 9pm ET

Please note that the application deadline for the Fellowship is February 1, 2027 at 9pm ET. We will refresh our Handshake posting for the Fellowship each month until the deadline.

ABOUT THE CHILDREN'S LITERACY INITIATIVE FELLOWSHIP IN PHILADELPHIA, PA

The FAO Schwarz Fellowship is an intensive, transformative two-year experience in the world of social impact. Fellows work at leading nonprofit organizations in Boston, New York City and Philadelphia. Each organization is deeply valued in their communities and has a strong record of delivering high-quality services that address critical issues of social inequity and producing consistent results. The Fellowship is a two-year commitment that pays $50,000 in year one (includes $2,000 start of Fellowship bonus) and $55,000 in year two (includes $3,000 end of Fellowship bonus). 

DIRECT SERVICE

In the first year, the Fellow will learn CLI’s approach to literacy instruction and look for patterns across classrooms and schools. 

The Fellow will spend time in schools and educator communities, learning alongside CLI literacy coaches, teachers, school leaders, and families. They’ll visit classrooms, join coaching debriefs and family literacy events, and listen to how educators and families describe children’s experiences with reading and writing. 

Throughout this work, they’ll pay attention to how language, culture, identity, access, and teaching practices shape those experiences.

As the Fellowship progresses, they’ll bring what they’ve heard and observed into conversations with educators and CLI staff, help lead those discussions, and use what they learn to make recommendations for CLI’s work.

The Fellow will:

• Conducting structured classroom observations and documenting how evidence-based and culturally sustaining literacy practices are implemented in different environments.
• Building relationships with educators, school leaders, instructional coaches, and families through regular school visits, interviews, coaching sessions, and family engagement experiences.
•  Identifying themes related to language, culture, identity, access, and literacy instruction.
• Analyzing practitioner experiences to identify opportunities for organizational learning and innovation.
• Facilitating educator and school-based learning exchanges that elevate community voice.
• Connecting field experiences to broader questions of educational equity, systems change, and organizational strategy.

STRATEGIC PROJECT

What the Fellow learns in schools and communities will help shape CLI Literacy Companion, a new platform CLI will design, test, and refine during the Fellowship. Working with CLI’s program, technology, marketing, and business development teams, the Fellow will bring educators’ and families’ experiences into decisions about how it works.

In the first year, the Fellow will lead focus groups, document what educators and families need, help plan how they’ll use the platform, and gather feedback from early pilots. In the second year, they’ll take a larger role in deciding what to improve and how to expand access to literacy support.

The work will include shaping content and the steps people take through the platform, developing content for AI-supported features with attention to equity, reviewing how people use the pilot, and turning their feedback into recommendations for CLI’s next steps.

The Fellow will:

• Lead and synthesize focus groups with educators, families, and school leaders to ensure platform development reflects diverse perspectives and lived experiences
• Design and refine user journeys, engagement pathways, and content structures that align with CLI instructional frameworks and culturally sustaining practices
• Own development and continuous refinement of equity-centered prompts and content for Literacy Companion’s AI-supported features while ensuring alignment with responsible AI principles
• Direct pilot implementation processes including feedback collection, usability review, and interpretation of implementation findings to strengthen user experience and accessibility
• Translate implementation findings into recommendations related to long-term platform strategy, sustainability, organizational learning, and partnership growth

TYPICAL WORK SCHEDULE

CLI has a hybrid work model. Based on the work of the Fellow, they will work 2 days in the office or with coworkers at a coworking space, 2 days on work sites, and 1 day remotely.  Fellow will work 8 hours/day Mon-Fri with occasional event work that happens nights and weekends (but no more than one weekend or evening per fiscal quarter).

HOW TO APPLY

Applicants must be college seniors at accredited four-year colleges or universities at the time of application and be eligible to work in the United States for the duration of the two-year Fellowship.

For more about what we are seeking, please see What We’re Looking For.  Please visit our website for more information about the new positions.  

To apply, visit our website where you’ll see detailed instructions. You will be asked to answer some questions about yourself, upload your resume, and respond to four short answer questions by February 1, 2027 at 9:00 pm ET. You may apply to more than one host, but you must submit a different application for each host you’re applying to.

The deadline to apply is February 1, 2027 at 9:00 pm ET. Host organizations will select applicants for interviews and make their decisions by the end of April 2027. Fellowships begin in the summer of 2027.
 

QUESTIONS?

Visit our website to research the opportunity, and attend an info session if you can. If you have any additional questions, reach out to us: contact@faoschwarzfellowship.org.