The Center for Spirituality & Healing, Dalai Lama Fellows

Deadline: 1 February 2012
Open to: Applicants must have The ability to manage long-term, complex projects and strong work ethic
Fellowship: Fellows receive a project grant of up to $10,000  and ongoing, personalized support from program officers to undertake mentored projects and then integrate findings and insights from this work back into the lives of their campuses.

Description

The Center for Spirituality & Healing at University of Minnesota is part of the Academic Health Center and works to support health and well-being of people by educating health professionals and empowering consumers. The Center aims to transform the delivery of health care through the creation of interdisciplinary academic, research, clinical care, and outreach programs that advance integrative health and healing. The Center enjoys rich expertise of faculty and community practitioners who help to advance the understanding of diverse cultures, beliefs and health practices, and builds on the University’s strengths of innovation and clinical excellence. The Center for Spirituality & Healing is currently inviting applications for Dalai Lama Fellows Program. The Dalai Lama Fellows, a new global educational and social impact program, aspires to improve the well-being of the human community by engaging university students in advancing the values that have distinguished the life and teachings of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama: compassion, contemplation, courage, interconnectedness, collaboration, humility and service. Each year, the program selects exceptional Fellows and equips them with new perspectives, tools, structures and networks, designed to help each of them make a significant and measurable impact on major social challenges facing the world.
The outcome of the Fellowships will be the advancement of youth leadership and action in addressing four major and persistent global challenges:
1. Promoting cooperation and understanding between cultures and religions;
2. Alleviating poverty;
3. Diminishing violence;
4. Promoting the environment.

Eligibility

• Graduate/professional students

A successful applicant has:

• An appreciation of the Dalai Lama’s leadership style, compassion, and universal values
• A deep commitment to collaboration
• A strong work ethic
• An excellent academic record
• A demonstrated capacity to problem solve and manage challenges
• The ability to manage long-term, complex projects
• Commitment to the empowerment of the communities the projects propose to work with and facilitating leadership amongst others
• Ability to integrate the project into the life of the campus.

A successful project has:

• A faculty mentor, or a clear plan for securing faculty mentorship
• An orientation to service: the projects deepen fellows’ ability to give time and non-monetary resources
• The ability to plug into and springboard off existing networks
• Innovation: creating new solutions to old problems
• Sensible, prudent and creative budgeting
• Ideally, all projects will engage with the target community in a sustained and meaningful way

Fellowship

Fellows receive a project grant of up to $10,000  and ongoing, personalized support from program officers to undertake mentored projects and then integrate findings and insights from this work back into the lives of their campuses.
Fellows are expected to attend an opening Global Learning Community retreat in June 2012 in Northern California and a closing Global Learning Community retreat the following June. This year’s Global Learning Community institute is scheduled to take place in Petaluma, California June 17 – 24. The Dalai Lama Fellows Program covers the cost of round-trip travel to the retreats, as well as room and board when there. During the course of the fellowship year, fellows are required to be available for meetings with program staff twice per month by phone or Skype, and available by email as needed.

Application

Application form online.
Before starting to complete this application, please create an account.
The Official Website