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The Fellows
If you’re a proven doer and believe you know where the world should aim next you’re a Mira Fellow. We’re looking for mid-career applicants with a proven track record, an undying need to sink their teeth deep into a specific problem, and the openness to reframe their assumptions to find a new solution.
Selected Mira Fellows will work individually and gather several times during the year to share their research and build on each other’s ideas. It’s a deep dive mixed with a little creative structure and a small group of excellent people.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Applicants Should Be
Observant
Flexible yet determined enough to push through rough patches
Enjoy working collaboratively
Seek other perspectives
Deeply knowledgeable in your field
Mid-Career - You’ve done something. You want to do something more.
Nominate Someone
Give us the name and email of someone you think would make a great fellow and we’ll reach out to them.
Several Overly Specific Examples
A mid-career finance executive who wants to change the frame on our cultural view of child rearing.
This candidate worked high powered jobs in corporate America. She went to an ivy league school and studied economic theory. She worked as a consultant and then in finance. She’s begun to raise a child and is questioning how we value child rearing. She wants to research and present a new way of valuing child rearing.
A mid-career data scientist who wants to change the frame on privacy.
This candidate worked in the field of advertising or social media. He acknowledges that in order for us all to work together over long distances information must be shared. But if large corporations collect and control all the data it creates a vast power imbalance. He’s curious how we can change our expectation of privacy for a new more connected world.
A mid-career community organizer who wants to change our frame on diversity.
This candidate has been fighting for equal rights for years only to find opportunity shrinking and public sentiment heading in the wrong direction. She wants a chance to step back and look at the problem of opportunity through some new lenses. How do we make opportunity available to everyone in the coming connected world? How do we measure one individual against another?
A mid-career teacher who wants to change our frame on education.
This candidate has worked in the world of education and become disheartened. Now that we don’t need to memorize everything to appear educated what does education mean? If we remove national interests in indoctrinating populations what do people need to contribute to society? What are the key components of an education where the internet is available 24/7?
Application (June 1st deadline)
Application Timeline
June 1st initial application deadline - though we highly encourage early applications
Summer 2019 - Round 2 prospective fellows interviews
August 2019 - Finalists weekend
Sept 2019 - Final cohort selected and notified
Nov 2019 - Fellowship launch
Application Directions:
Please submit the following materials to mirafellowship@gmail.com. Make sure full name and contact information is on each component.
Video statement: (2 min or less) Tell us a simple story about something that happened to you recently. A trip to the store. A vacation. Meeting a new friend. The story should be two minutes or less. We’re interested in how you tell the story more than how “good” the story is. This doesn’t have to be high production value. Using your phone is fine. Just make sure you’re not in a noisy place.
Idea and Impact Description: (250 words or less) You have an idea that’s been knocking around in your head that will make the world a better place. What is it? How will it change the world? Why is it so important to you? How will the world be different after your idea is implemented? Visuals are welcome.
Resource Analysis: What resources would be the most valuable for the fellowship to provide for you? What resources will you bring to support your work? What are some of the key alternate perspective you would like to get?
Work experience: Outline your work history to this point (classic resume). Tell us how you are uniquely prepared to solve this problem?
Written Statement: (1500 words or less) Tell us about you. We’re looking to get a sense of who you are removed from your work experience. What inspires you? What do you think is worth doing? Describe the future world you would like to live in.
A Professional Achievement: Show or tell us about a personal professional achievement. You can use images or text or both. We want to get a sense of what high quality impactful work means to you.