Fellows program
The Fellows program trains new civil rights compliance practitioners inside live practice, under the supervision of people who carry the matters, to the standard the file will eventually be read against.
17 months two fellows at a time rolling intake paid hourly
About the program
The civil rights compliance field has no reliable pipeline. Coordinators arrive from student conduct, from human resources, from a dean's office, and are handed a portfolio with real legal consequences and almost no training.
That is not a criticism of the people who take those roles. It is a description of how the field is built. Institutions post a coordinator opening, hire someone capable, and expect them to learn Title IX, Title VI, Title VII, ADA and Section 504, and the Clery Act on the job, while matters are already open. The cost of that arrangement shows up years later, in a resolution agreement that reads like a list of process failures.
The Fellows program exists to change how people enter this work. Fellows are not interns and they are not observers. They train inside live practice, contribute to real engagements under the supervision of a practitioner who carries the matter, and are corrected in detail. The point is not exposure to the field. The point is that a fellow finishes able to carry a matter.
The program is deliberately small. Supervision at this standard does not scale, and we would rather train a few practitioners properly than run a cohort we cannot supervise.
Who this is for
Student conduct staff, human resources generalists who inherited investigations, deputy coordinators, recent law graduates, and career changers with adjacent judgment. We are less interested in credentials than in whether you can hold a fair process under pressure.
At a glance
The terms, before the detail
Everything below expands on these. If any of them do not work for you, the rest of the page will not change that, and we would rather you knew now.
- Length
- Seventeen months, full term.
- Cohort
- Two fellows at a time, no exceptions.
- Intake
- Rolling. Dates announced ahead of each cohort.
- Pay
- Hourly for hours worked, plus a $2,000 stipend on completion.
- Status
- Not employment, and not a guaranteed role afterwards.
- Supervision
- Every file reviewed by the practitioner whose name is on it.
Program overview and commitment
The fellowship provides structured instruction, supervised practice, and a documented record of the work completed. In return it asks for obligations that are not negotiable, because they are the same obligations every practitioner working under our name carries.
Instruction across all five frameworks
Title IX, Title VI, Title VII, ADA and Section 504, and the Clery Act, taught to the statutory and regulatory text rather than to a summary of it. Fellows work from the same materials our practitioners use, including the playbook series and the Learning Institute curriculum.
A named supervising practitioner
Every fellow is assigned a supervising practitioner for the duration of the fellowship. Supervision means your work is read closely and corrected specifically. The first correction usually arrives in week one. That is the program working, not a warning sign.
Supervised live engagement work
Fellows contribute to real engagements, scoped to what a fellow can responsibly carry and always under supervision. The standard does not drop because a fellow is doing the work. Access to any engagement follows background screening, without exception.
A body of work you can point to
Fellows finish with drafted instruments, a defensible method they can describe in an interview, and references from people who watched them work. In a field where most credentials confirm attendance, that record is the point.
What we ask in return
- Confidentiality, without exception, during the fellowship and after it ends.
- Background screening completed before any engagement contact.
- Consistent availability across the term, agreed in advance.
- Willingness to have your work corrected in detail and to correct it again.
- Mandatory reporting obligations, carried in every engagement regardless of how your state classifies the role.
Who fellows train under
Supervision comes from the core team and the contracted practitioner network, the same people carrying institutional engagements. A fellow's work is reviewed by someone whose name is on the file.
Meet the firmHow to apply
All open rolesCohort dates and the application window are announced ahead of each intake. Write to us at any point and we will tell you where the next cohort stands.
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Write to us
Send a short letter explaining what draws you to civil rights compliance and what you have already done that is adjacent to it. A resume helps, but the letter is what we read first.
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A working conversation
Not an interview. We will put a procedural problem in front of you and talk through how you would handle it. There is no correct answer we are waiting to hear, and saying you do not know is a legitimate move.
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Screening and placement
Background screening is completed before any engagement contact, as it is for every practitioner working under our name. Placement is matched to the frameworks where you can learn the most.
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Start
You are assigned a supervising practitioner and a first body of work, and the correction begins immediately.
Questions about the fellowship
Eligibility, entry points for career changers, and how the fellowship relates to our certifications are covered in the practitioner section of our frequently asked questions. If your question is not there, write to us at hello@fractionalcoordinator.com with Fellows program in the subject line.
Read the fellowship program questionsIf the fellowship is not the right fit
The Learning Institute
Certifications, workshops, and residential retreats for practitioners who are already in a seat and want the credential and the method.
Explore programsThe Playbooks
Four volumes covering Title IX investigations, Title VI compliance, ADA and Section 504 coordination, and Title VII workplace matters.
See the seriesCoffee Talks
Off-the-record peer exchange with other practitioners. The lowest-commitment way into the community around this work.
Join a session