The Upstate Fellowship Program
The Upstate Foundation's second initiative to assist Upstate businesses in attracting and retaining Upstate graduating students is the Upstate Fellowship Program. This Program aims to connect Upstate businesses to Upstate graduating students through the Foundation itself.
Annually, the Upstate Fellowship Program is planning to offer one hundred $1,000 Fellowships to top students who apply for and are offered jobs in Upstate New York. If they accept these jobs, they get this grant at an awards ceremony with no strings attached. This monetary incentive will come with State-wide recognition (including, hopefully, from the NYS government), and a free award/ networking weekend.
The networking weekend is a critical part of the Upstate Fellowship Program. Not only will they receive their awards and recognition at a dinner event, but they will also get to meet and to connect with other Fellows, especially those who are planning on living within their employment city. This opportunity to network will be supplemented with young professional speakers on-call from target cities to discuss things such as: the best areas to live (for more on this, see Shake Upstate), tips about living in the city, winter/ summer activities, young professional/ local college alumn chapter organizations & resources available, and hot social spots to check out.
We also hope to, eventually, in coordination with our Shake Upstate initiative, work with city officials, local developers, and utility companies to offer significant discounts on housing and living expenses for Fellows choosing to live in targeted communities.
Also, after the first year, we plan on connecting the new Fellows with Fellowship alumns, rapidly expanding this connected Upstate demographic.
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