Students enrolled in graduate, undergraduate, or professional degree-granting programs in our listed Consortium Schools may apply. While the applicant’s field of study does not have to be traditionally health-related, their proposed service project must focus on health and/or the non-medical drivers of health.

Past Fellows have addressed health from a wide variety of perspectives and disciplines, including, but not limited to:

• Dentistry

• Education

• Engineering

• Law

• Medicine

• Music

• Nursing

• Occupational therapy

• Pharmacy

• Physical therapy

• Public health

• Social work

Applicants must be enrolled throughout the Fellowship year. Applicants scheduled for a December graduation should contact the Program Director, Carol Jacob, at carol.jacob@asfhg.org to determine if they are eligible for a waiver to this requirement.

Applicants should apply to their relevant Fellow levels:

• Junior Fellows can be any student who is a junior or senior at an accredited local university.
• Senior Fellows can be any student in any graduate-level program at a local university.
• Scholars can be any medical resident or medical fellow based in the Houston region.

A note to applicants from Dallas
Since the Dallas ASF chapter closed in 2023, ASFHG staff have been working to bring Dallas universities into our Consortium of Schools.

Currently, schools in our Consortium that are based in Dallas-Fort Worth are:

• Texas Woman’s University
• UTHealth School of Public Health Dallas Campus
• University of North Texas Health Science Center College of Public Health
• University of North Texas Health Science Center College of Osteopathic Medicine

If you are interested in applying, we kindly request that you speak with a faculty member at your school to connect us with someone at the dean level—typically a dean of student activities or student life. Our financial model is predicated on some support from our Consortium Schools, so we cannot make exceptions at this time.

Before starting an application:

• Please check if your school is on our list of Consortium Schools. If you do not see your exact school and program on the list, please email the Program Director Carol Jacob at carol.jacob@asfhg.org.
• Review the tracks that a proposed project could fit. If your program idea does not directly fit into one of these areas, you may select Open Track on the application.If you are interested in continuing a legacy project please see our “Current Fellow Projects” page. Projects can be done solo or as a pair. ASF will not be accepting groups of 3 or more.
• We are unable to accept applications from former Fellows who have previously completed a year in ASF as Junior or Senior Fellows.
• ASF’s focus is on initiatives that are just beginning and can greatly benefit from our support during their formative phase. This does not apply to Legacy projects that are planning to expand. ​If your project is new to ASF, but is already underway, this Fellowship may not be the right fit.
• Research, fundraising, and policy-based projects are typically not considered eligible for a Schweitzer Fellowship.

Your proposed project should:

• Provide a direct service that meets a community-defined need and be of enduring value to the agency served.
• Focus on addressing health and/or the non-medical drivers of health in the population served.
• Consider sustainability of the project at the end of the Fellowship year.

Prospective applicants should:

• Investigate and reflect on unmet local health-related needs, and think through the ways in which their own energies and talents can contribute.
• Communicate with potential community partners about needs prior to submitting their applications, and be specific in their proposals about what they learned through this communication.Applicants are welcome to partner with any agency of their choosing and are encouraged to look at spotlight sites.
• Identify an l Academic Mentor at their schools and a Site Mentor at the agencies where they propose to conduct their projects. All applicants must share this introduction document with their potential mentors.
• Keep in mind that they may utilize their unique experience and expertise to expand upon or improve a past Schweitzer project, but should not simply duplicate or continue one that has been carried out previously.
• Contact the Program Director at carol.jacob@asfhg.org if they would like to request assistance in identifying a project and/or a project site.

Orientation:
Fellows must attend a full-day ASFHG orientation in Houston, which will take place on Saturday, April 11, 2026, as well as a one-hour online National ASF orientation with their fellow Fellows around the country (date TBD).

Service Project:
Working in collaboration with a local community agency, each Fellow must design and carry out a service project of at least 200 hours (100 hours for Junior Fellows) that addresses an unmet community health need. Each Fellow will work under the supervision of a Site Mentor from the participating agency, an Academic Mentor from the student’s current academic institution, and a Public Health Mentor from ASF. At least 100 of the 200 hours must be spent in direct, contact with the population being served; the exception to this is a “Capacity Building Project” which is described below. In designing a project, applicants should carefully consider the issues of evaluation and sustainability.

Capacity Building Projects:
Capacity-building is defined as a project that seeks to advance a system of care to better meet the needs of the clients. These projects often have more contact with the staff of an organization, and as such, hours that a Fellow spends implementing the project can allow for up to 180 hoursto be planning and working with the system representatives (e.g., agency staff and other health and human service collaborators). The remaining 20 hours still need to be spent in contact with the population being served to ensure that their needs and perspectives are addressed. Fellows should work with their Public Health Mentor to ensure that the project focuses on implementing an intervention rather than just providing research. Examples of these kinds of projects:

• Helping a clinic better serve the mental health needs of a community.
• Teaching medical students about issues to keep in mind when caring for disabled individuals.

Reports:
Fellows are required to submit monthly reports about their activities and a comprehensive written final report to their Public Health Mentor, Academic Mentor, and Site Mentor. All Fellows will also be asked to create a poster, which they will present at the Evening of Difference in April of their Fellowship year.

Evaluation of the Fellowship:
Fellows are required to complete a pre- and post-survey for the Fellowship as well as additional program evaluations that will occur throughout the year to gauge satisfaction with all Fellowship programming.

Communication:
All Fellows receive an email every Monday called the Round Up that contain all the information Fellows need for that week. Fellows are expected to read this and take any action steps that are needed. It is the expectation that Fellows return all emails that are related to the Fellowship within 48 hours. This includes emails to mentors, ED, or other staff or stakeholders of the Fellowship. Fellows are also asked to give at least a 48-hour notice if they will miss any monthly meeting or schedule a group activity or special event.

Monthly Meetings:
Fellows are required to attend all monthly meetings. Monthly meetings provide the Fellows with leadership development, skills-based workshops, interdisciplinary discussions, reflection time on community service, and an opportunity to network with like-minded students and professionals from diverse fields. As long as COVID conditions allow, all Houston-based and Galveston-based Fellows are expected to attend these in-person. Fellows based in College Station, Austin, DFW, and Prairie View are asked to attend at a location on their campus where they can Zoom in together.

Recruitment:
In the fall of each year, Fellows work with the Fellowship Program Coordinator to organize information sessions about the Schweitzer Fellows Program and present information at their schools about their Fellowship experiences.

Evening of Difference and Celebration of Service:
Fellows are required to attend the Evening of Difference in the spring of the Fellowship year to celebrate the end of the year of service, and they are invited to attend our annual fundraiser, the Celebration of Service Luncheon, where we award our Humanitarian of the Year.

The Executive Director may call on Fellows to accompany her to important stakeholder meetings and media appearances. These are incredible opportunities to meet with funders, leadership of agencies and professional schools, or other key stakeholders. In the past, Fellows have met with university presidents, appeared on Great Day Houston, been interviewed for articles in print journalism, and had their projects filmed for promotional videos.