Carnegie Endowment James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Program

Estimated annual campus deadline: Early December

The Carnegie Endowment's James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Program provides a substantive work experience in the form of one-year fellowships for uniquely qualified seniors or recent graduates with a strong academic and career interest in international affairs. Fellows work as research assistants to the Endowment's senior associates, focusing on a specific annual project in connection with the Endowment's ongoing international affairs and diplomacy research.

Eligibility: Seniors or students who have graduated within the past academic year; serious career interest in international affairs; significant amount of course work completed related to the student's disciplines of interest; permission to work in the United States for a full 10 months from September 1 through June 30 in the year following an application.  

Award: Up to $40,000 and benefits.

Campus nomination: required for all UCSB applicants.

UCSB campus application information

Class Level: 

  • Senior

Scholarship Deadline: 

December 13, 2023

Expanded Scholarship Details: 

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, one of the world’s leading think tanks specializing in international affairs, conducts programs in research, discussion, publication, and education in international relations and U.S. foreign policy.  The Endowment's James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Program is designed to provide a substantive work experience for students who have a serious career interest in the area of international affairs.  Each year the Endowment offers rouhgly 12 one-year fellowships to uniquely qualified graduating seniors and individuals who have graduated during the past academic year. Junior Fellows work as research assistants to the Endowment's senior associates, focusing on particular projects each year in connection with the Endowment's ongoing efforts. The following year's projects are announced in mid-October at the start of the application cycle.

Applicants for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Junior Fellows Program must be nominated by their undergraduate institution. For more general information about the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Junior Fellows Program, please visit the Carnegie Endowment web site. The Carnegie Endowment does not accept application materials directly from the students. Instead, students are nominated by their campuses.  Students interested in the Junior Fellows Program should contact the Scholarships Coordinator at scholarships@ltsc.uscb.edu well before the campus deadline.

Eligibility requirements:

  • Senior standing or graduated within the past academic year;
  • Permission to work in the United States for a full 10 months from September 1 through June 30 following graduation;
  • Serious career interest in international affairs and a significant amount of course work completed toward discipline of interest;
  • Please note that only students with strong academic records (cumulative GPA of 3.7 or better) will be competitive for UCSB nomination.

Campus Application Deadline: December 13, 2023

The following must be sent electronically as Word Documents or PDFs to scholarships@ltsc.ucsb.edu by the campus deadline:

  • Completed application form (see the Junior Fellows application materials linked below)
  • 1-2 page resume
  • Transcripts from all colleges and universities you have attended (may be unofficial) other than UCSB.
  • Essay #1: 1 page or less on why you would like to become a junior fellow
  • Essay #2: 3 pages or less typewritten, double-spaced pages responding to one of the topic prompts provided in Carnegie application materials (made available each October for the following year).  Use the prompt from the project you are most interested in working under.
  • Two letters of recommendation, which should be signed on letterhead, scanned, and sent by the recommender to scholarships@ltsc.ucsb.edu. These recommendations can come from anyone the student feels can best speak to their abilities as a potential Fellow, but it is recommended that at least one be written by a professor in the student’s major department.

See the following link for the list of available Carnegie projects in the coming year, essay prompts, and the application form (note that the January deadline shown in this packet is the NATIONAL deadline, whereas campus applicants must submit by the CAMPUS deadline listed above):

2023-24 James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Packet