Building Legacies with Real-World Impact
Apply Your Experience to a Greater Purpose
The Georgetown University Fellowship for the Common Good is an innovative program designed for professionals with significant career experience looking to reflect and focus their talents towards addressing society’s challenges.
This in-person, year-long program explores what it means to live a life of enduring value through two concurrent core courses, immersive experiences, exclusive policy briefings, intergenerational learning through student mentorship and the option to audit additional select courses. Every Fellow leaves the program with a Purpose Plan, built during the year as part of the curriculum, to help address an issue of their choosing.
Grounded in Jesuit Principles
The Fellowship for the Common Good is inspired by Georgetown University’s Jesuit mission to educate the whole person and encourage personal reflection in order to make a tangible social impact. Since our University’s founding, we have welcomed people from all religious and cultural backgrounds. We hope that whatever your background, you will find values here that you can incorporate in your own distinct way. Learn more about the Spirit of Georgetown.
Program Objectives
This program is designed to help Fellows transition to their next challenge. As a Fellow, you will:
- Learn strategies for working on a societal issue of interest, such as education reform or affordable housing
- Explore larger questions of meaning and purpose in your life
- Focus on intellectual growth
- Build on ethical frameworks to guide decision-making
- Collaborate with peers from interdisciplinary fields committed to making a difference
- Encourage intergenerational learning and connection through student mentorship
- Develop a Purpose Plan to work on an issue at the scale of your choosing following the completion of the program
Meet the Faculty Director
I have spent more than 30 years at the intersection of entrepreneurship, capital, and policy. I have served in the Clinton and Obama administrations, built ventures, led funds, and taught at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. I have worked with more than 5,000 founders and helped generate over $1 billion in wealth creation. Across all of it, the question I keep returning to is the same one this Fellowship is built around: What does it mean to apply your full expertise toward something that outlasts you?
– Melissa L. Bradley, Professor of the Practice, McDonough School of Business
Study What Matters to You
As a Fellow, you’ll have the opportunity to customize your own program journey, centering topics that best reflect your unique expertise and interests in your Purpose Plan. You’ll also attend exclusive, in-depth policy briefings with leaders in democracy, ethics, environmental issues and more.
From public health and global relations to sustainability and racial justice, you’ll find meaningful opportunities to make an impact on every field. Explore research centers and programs at Georgetown.
Exclusive Policy Briefings, from the Experts
Our faculty affiliates are experts in numerous fields, from democracy to ethics to environment.
Eugene (EJ) Dionne
Distinguished University Professor
Columnist, The Washington Post
Peter Marra
Dean, Earth Commons Institute for the Environment and Sustainability
Maggie Little
Senior Research Scholar, Kennedy Institute of Ethics and Director of Ethics Lab
Located in the Heart of DC
Fellows will have a dedicated workspace on Georgetown’s innovative Capitol Campus. Core classes will take place at 111 Mass Ave, just steps away from Georgetown Law, the McCourt School of Public Policy, and the U.S. Capitol. Explore more amenities at Capitol Campus.
Register for More Information
Are you ready to build a legacy of enduring value? Please register for more information. Our inaugural cohort of Fellows launches in August 2027, and we welcome conversations with future Fellows of all enrollment years.