WHAT IS THE PATHY FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIP?

The Pathy Foundation Fellowship is an intensive, 12-month, experiential learning opportunity for graduating university students across Canada who have an idea for social change in a community they have a meaningful connection with, anywhere in the world. Fellows are provided with comprehensive training, dedicated support, and $50,000 in funding to make a sustainable impact in their chosen community and to support their growth as active and effective leaders and change-makers.
This year-long Fellowship is designed for students who have:
  • The capacity and potential to develop as effective changemakers
  • A meaningful connection with a community anywhere in the world
  • An innovative idea of how this community could be strengthened

Fellows are provided with $50,000 in funding to support their living costs (including housing, food, transportation, and other necessary personal expenses), initiative-related travel expenses, and start-up and operational costs for their community initiatives.

BENEFITS OF THE FELLOWSHIP

Professional Development

You will learn how to pitch, plan, budget, implement, evaluate, and report on a socially-innovative project. You will develop as a leader and gain valuable connections and in-demand skills as you kickstart your career.

Personal Growth

With personal leadership coaching you will tap into and enhance your capacities as an individual and leader. You will set and achieve areas of personal growth and development and build competencies that will serve you for life.

Community Engagement

You will learn how to find creative solutions to community priorities through tangible participatory tools. You will be introduced to leading development approaches, practices and principles.

KEY FEATURES OF THE FELLOWSHIP

Fellows are afforded significant flexibility to optimize their opportunity for learning and growth, whilst being offered sufficient guiding support to create a safe and supportive environment to progress efficiently and effectively through the Fellowship.

Fellows learn how to find creative and collaborative solutions to community priorities through experiential learning. Fellows are introduced to leading participatory community development principles and methodologies, including citizen-led, community-driven, asset, strength, and abundance-based approaches. Fellows will connect with other change-makers and will create and gain valuable networks within their community.

Fellows are introduced to all elements of the design, development, mobilization, and management of a socially-innovative community project (e.g., pitching, planning, budgeting, implementing, evaluating and reporting). Fellows develop as a leader and gain valuable connections and in-demand skills.

With dedicated personal leadership coaching, Fellows tap into and enhance their capacities as an individual and leader, focusing on internally-driven intentions for areas of growth and development. Fellows face and overcome personal and professional challenges, building competencies that will serve them for the rest of their lives.

Fellows have personalized support in the form of personal development and leadership coaching. Personal coaching enables each fellow to reflect on their individual leadership style and set intentions for areas of personal growth and development. Check-ins with the leadership coach occur periodically throughout the Fellowship, are non-prescriptive, and follow the pace set by each Fellow.

Fellows have continual support from, unfettered access to, and periodic check-ins with the program coordinator. During check-ins, Fellows are encouraged to discuss their reflections on the nuances of their projects, significant learning moments, successes, concerns, and all things related to the Fellowship experience. Fellows receive informed, constructive feedback and resource suggestions, discuss and fine-tune project activity details, and receive leadership, skills-development and emotional support.

Each Fellow is paired up with mentors based on their self-determined learning interests and priorities. Fellows have the opportunity to work closely with these Resource People who act as knowledgeable supports for initiative development, idea stimulation, network access, and more. These associates are leaders and trailblazers in their field who Fellows are able to contact on a one-on-one basis for technical support and expertise throughout their Fellowship year.

Fellows develop and lean on a co-created system of peer support throughout the Fellowship. Triads (small group/Fellow pairings), and the cohort at large are unique, self-sustaining, and rich peer supports, where Fellows can provide and benefit from peer feedback, emotional support, shared learning, and resources. Fellows will build and sustain a community with their peers, and learn from and contribute to the diversity of experience which creates the fabric of the cohort.

The Pathy Alumnx network brings Fellowship graduates together through commonalities of experience to a space where past Fellows can continue to grow and contribute to the Pathy learning space with future Fellows and peer-to-peer engagement. The prestige of this Fellowship extends into the Alumnx space, where the collective wisdom and experience of former Fellows continues to benefit individuals and the program at large. As Fellows, and upon graduation, new cohorts will have access to this growing network of change-makers.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Applications open every year on September 1st and close on December 15th. Following the review of applications, up to 20 shortlisted candidates will be invited and funded to attend a centrally conducted interview process in Montreal. All shortlisted candidates must make themselves available to attend the Selection Days (and potentially travel days on either side).

Each Cohort of up to 12 Fellows will participate in:

  • The Foundations for Community Change (FCC) experiential learning component on-campus at the Coady Institute during which Fellows are introduced to the Coady approach to development; self-assessment and analysis of leadership styles and interactions with others; introduction to Fellows’ personal coaching sessions; working equitably with communities; and participatory project planning and management, including such topics as financial management and monitoring, evaluation and learning.
  • A Transition Phase (TP) during which Fellows return home and further develop their initiatives based on learning from FCC. TP includes regular check-ins with peers and Coady, along with further distance-based learning and planning before beginning the Community Phase.
  • The Community Phase is when Fellows will work in and with their identified communities. During this phase, Fellows will receive ongoing support and distance learning from Coady, as well as regular sessions with the Fellows’ personal coach.
  • A Debriefing in Montréal when Fellows will evaluate personal and professional growth, outcomes from the community phase, next steps, and complete visioning of possibilities in their journey as change-makers.

* Please note that the program only covers travel within Canada for candidates and Fellows.

Table of fellowship schedule
Table of fellowship schedule
Table of fellowship schedule
Table of fellowship schedule

All dates subject to change*

OUR PARTNERS