Digital Thriving Fellowship Program (US)

The 2025 Thriving Fellows Program invites changemakers whose work can progress forward-thinking approaches to digital well-being. They invite applications for fellowship projects that specifically explore, embody, and seek to catalyze mindshifts essential for supporting youth in our digital age.

The Center for Digital Thriving — and this Fellows program — is catalyzed by generous founding grants from the Susan Crown Exchange and Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda French Gates Company. They’ve launched this Fellows program in order to:

• Build a community of practice and mutual support with promising and/or emerging leaders
• Incubate new ideas, practices, and tools
• Support relevant research and projects on emerging topics of relevance to thriving in a tech-rich world

Aims

• These mindshifts can be aimed at:
  • Adults who directly serve young people (parents, educators, clinicians, practitioners, youth organizations, etc.)
  • Adults whose work impacts youth (policymakers, researchers, etc.)
  • Youth themselves, shifting the ways they think and talk about tech and wellbeing.

Benefits

• Monthly Fellows seminar virtual meeting to incubate ideas and discuss projects in progress with fellows cohort, the Center research team, and guests with relevant expertise
• Opportunities to contribute relevant expertise to the Center’s ongoing research and resource development work
• Communications support: As desired, the work of the Fellows will be featured in Center communications (social media, e-newsletters, website)
• Project Zero engagement: All Fellows are Invited to engage in PZ Community meetings and other PZ staff events (participation is optional)
• Access to shared oce space at Project Zero when in Cambridge
• Access to Harvard Libraries of resources, tools, and publications

Funding Information

• Fellows will each receive $25k to support expenses directly related to their fellowship project (e.g., time on your project, supplies, travel and registration fees for conferences/events, etc.)
• Fellowships will run from Sept 1, 2025 – May 31, 2026.

Costs Covered

• Fellows can carry out their projects remotely, but will be required to attend 1 – 2 in-person convenings in Cambridge, MA during their fellowship term (travel to Harvard and related expenses will be funded by the Center).
• Additionally, Fellows will be encouraged to participate in future convenings beyond their fellowship term

Eligibility Criteria

• They warmly welcome applications from U.S.-based researchers, K–12 educators, designers, policymakers, artists, community leaders, creators, journalists and other relevant experts who have a demonstrated history, interest, and passion for advancing youth thriving in a technology-filled world.

Selection Criteria

• Alignment with the year’s theme of “Mindshifts for Youth Thriving in a Digital World”, displaying potential for impact in shifting conversations among adults who serve young people, adults whose work has an impact on young people, and/or among young people themselves.
• Applicant’s work aligns with the Center’s guiding values and approaches: youth-centered, equity-focused, and/or embodies critical optimism about tech.
• Areas of expertise and interests complement and extend beyond those of the Center’s current research and resources.
• Fellows’ individual identities enrich diversity of perspectives at the Center and/or represent identities beyond those of the Center’s core team.

For more information, visit Center for Digital Thriving.