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EAs interested in US policy: Consider the Scoville Fellowship
11 min readSep 7, 2022
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The Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship is a prestigious opportunity for early-career bachelor’s or master’s graduates to gain hands-on experience working at a think tank or NGO in Washington, DC, for 6-9 months. Fellows can work on EA-relevant topics such as AI, biosecurity, and nuclear security and gain valuable career capital, including a very welcoming and invested network, relevant skills, and knowledge about policymaking processes and the work of think tanks and NGOs.
Applications open twice a year: Applications for the Fall 2023 fellowship deadline are due January 29th, 2023. The Spring 2024 cohort applications close October 2nd, 2023.
If you are interested in applying for the Scoville Fellowship—including if you are still unsure or plan to apply in future years—we encourage you to fill in this form so that we can support your application and potentially connect you with others who have gone through the program.
The Scoville Fellowship is open to early-career bachelor graduates who are either US citizens or non-citizens with work authorization living in the US. The fellowship does not sponsor individuals to obtain work visas (beyond Scoville, see this post for general information on how non-US citizens may work in US policy).
Preference is given to candidates without substantial prior policy or government experience beyond internships in Washington, DC (though some experience with “public-interest activism or advocacy” is positive). The fellowship aims to provide an initial work opportunity for promising entry-level individuals or those seeking a career change who wish to break into the DC policy world.
Generally, applicants are about to complete an undergraduate degree or have graduated within a few years. There are no strict requirements in terms of applicants' backgrounds or college majors, though most fellows have majored in government, history, international studies, or related fields. If you are a STEM major, it could still be worth applying if you have some minimal “peace and security”-related experience (an extracurricular, minor, etc.).
There are two cohorts each year during the spring and fall semesters. The spring cohort deadline is in October, and the fall cohort deadline is in January.
Fellows have leeway to determine their start and end dates—for example, spring fellows can begin working any time from January 15th to April 1st of that year and decide exactly how long they would like to work, from six to nine months.
The type of work depends on your host organization. Regardless of the organization, however, you can expect to work in an entry-level Research Assistant/Program Manager role. This work may entail:
Each Scoville Fellow writes a blog post about their journey to the fellowship and their work at their host organization. To learn more about the backgrounds and experiences of Fellows, read some of their blog posts here.
Your work at any host organization must relate to one of the five Scoville “Policy Issues” listed below—you could not, for example, decide to carry out your fellowship at Brookings to work on economic or education policy. Additionally, Scoville Fellows can’t directly lobby Congress or write grant proposals.
While the fellowship began with a focus on nuclear arms control, it has since expanded to cover several other EA-related issues. The current list of five issues is:
Scoville Fellows can work at >20 participating think tanks and nonprofits in the security and arms control space. Several Scoville host organizations do EA-relevant work, including:
Fellows receive a salary of $3,600 per month and basic health insurance compensation, plus travel expenses to Washington, DC. The program also provides $1,000 per fellow for professional development to attend relevant conferences or meetings that could cover travel, accommodation, and registration fees, or to take a language or policy course.
The fellowship does not have an employer-sponsored health insurance plan for fellows. Instead, fellows get an additional $82.50 per pay period to cover the cost of health insurance. This money will be taxed and may net fellows approximately $150 monthly after taxes, depending on deductions. That amount may be used to reimburse your parents for the extra cost of having you covered under their plan if you are under 26 years of age, or you may purchase individual short-term insurance for the duration of your fellowship.
Some lenders may permit Scoville Fellows to defer college loan payments during their fellowship, so check with your lenders.
If the salary and benefits of the fellowship would be insufficient to cover your living costs in DC and present a barrier to your participation, consider applying for a top-up grant from the Long-Term Future Fund, the EA Infrastructure Fund, or Open Philanthropy’s early-career program and biosecurity scholarship.
The fellowship and its accompanying salary cannot be extended beyond nine months. Staying at your host organization would separately require securing a permanent position there.
However, the fellowship is highly respected among all partnering organizations, so it increases your chances of getting an interview at any partner organization for any permanent positions that may be open toward the end of your fellowship.
Former fellows commonly work on international peace and security issues with domestic and international NGOs, the federal government, academia, and the media. Former fellows also often attend graduate school in international relations and related disciplines. As Scoville host organizations are generally well connected in the DC policymaking ecosystem, the fellowship provides good references for fellows pursuing any DC-based track after their fellowship. The Scoville Fellowship website has a comprehensive list of fellows’ post-fellowship careers.
Other activities and benefits associated with Scoville include:
The Scoville Fellowship is a useful entry-level temporary job for those transitioning from another location to DC or from another field to peace and security issues. You may not want to apply if you are looking for a permanent position or already have a few years of work experience in the fellowship’s “Policy Issues”.
The fellowship does not provide a very competitive salary for DC, so those with higher salary requirements may not want to apply without securing additional income streams (see the salary and benefits section for suggestions).
The Scoville Fellowship provides a broader network of high-caliber individuals to tap into than applying directly for think tank jobs. For instance, working directly as a Research Assistant at a host organization would allow regular interaction with your team members. Still, as a Scoville Fellow, you also have access to the board and alumni—who are spread out across all types of organizations and levels of seniority, each with the understanding that anyone in the Scoville network may reach out to them. The experts with which you have discussions as part of the fellowship programming all provide their contact information, and the fellowship director often arranges follow-ups.
Applying to the Scoville Fellowship avoids the regular hiring process by think tanks and NGOs. Whereas the Scoville host organizations may not have any openings for regular positions, they are almost always willing to accept fellows as free labor. Scoville application cycles happen every six months, and you can reapply if initially unsuccessful.
Compared to other policy fellowships like the Open Philanthropy Technology Policy Fellowship (OPTPF), the Scoville Fellowship is truly entry-level, providing an entryway for those with little to no familiarity with the Washington, DC, NGO scene. Judging by the bios of OPTPF fellows, for example, they have more experience than the average Scoville Fellow.
A short appendix lists some other policy fellowships that readers of this post might be interested in.
Over the past several years, fewer than 3% of applicants were selected to be Scoville Fellows. In each application cycle, up to around 8-9 applicants may be selected for final interviews out of more than 100 applications, and a maximum of 4-5 are selected to be fellows.
See also the section on What qualities does the Scoville Fellowship look for?
The written application is fairly standard and straightforward, including the following:
Candidates selected for interviews are given the contact information of former fellows who have consented to be contacted. Candidates are free to ask them whatever advice they might need regarding their upcoming interview or about selecting a host organization.
Candidates then participate in a final interview with the fellowship’s Board of Directors. Before the pandemic, finalists were flown out to Washington, DC, for a marathon weekend consisting of the final interview with the board and informational interviews with potential host organizations at their offices. This also included a group dinner the night before the final interview. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, this entire process has been carried out remotely, and there are currently no plans to return to an in-person format.
Fellows who successfully pass the interview are then given time to select a host organization, being guaranteed work at one of the available organizations. Fellows can continue discussions with potential host organizations, former fellows, and board members to decide. Organizations are not permitted to host fellows two semesters in a row, so that a few organizations will be unavailable in any given application cycle.
In the rare event that multiple fellows select the same organization as their first choice, the organization will choose which fellow to accept, and the remaining fellow(s) will select a different organization.
The fellowship is designed to be a pipeline to develop the next generation of leaders in the field of peace and security. It provides a pathway to the Washington, DC, think tank and NGO world for individuals seeking to enter it generally for the first time—preference is given to those without substantial prior public sector or government experience in Washington, DC. However, having internships in DC does not count as “substantial”.
The website highlights “recent graduates” of undergraduate or graduate programs. Still, there is no required time frame in which you must apply after earning a degree (unlike most federal government fellowships). Applicants must have at least a bachelor’s degree by the time they begin the fellowship. Due to the entry-level nature of the work, applicants are often finishing up or already holding a bachelor’s degree.
The fellowship also makes sense for graduate students seeking to pivot from another field into one of the Scoville Policy Issues while relocating to DC. During the past five years (Fall 2017 – Spring 2022), almost 28% of incoming Scoville Fellows (10/36) had a graduate (usually master's) degree or were enrolled in a graduate program when beginning their fellowship.
Applicants ought to be committed to working in peace and security—which they should emphasize in their application—as the fellowship prefers not to invest in individuals who will work in an unrelated sector afterwards.
The board prefers candidates with a demonstrated background in advocacy, preferably in the fellowship’s policy issues. Board members differ in how important this factor is in selecting candidates, and lack of advocacy experience should not deter potential applicants. Other activities making you more attractive as a candidate include conducting research for professors, studying abroad, or being involved with student government, Model United Nations, or activist groups.
The Scoville Fellowship is a great opportunity for early-career bachelor’s or master’s graduates to gain hands-on experience exploring the think tank and NGO world in Washington, DC. Fellows can work on EA-relevant international peace and security issues while gaining valuable career capital for a policy career—including a relevant credential, network, skills, and knowledge.
Are you looking for opportunities to pivot into or accelerate your policy career? If so, check out this database of EA-relevant US policy fellowships. It includes opportunities for people from various backgrounds (STEM, social sciences, etc.) and career levels (undergrad to mid-career). The database allows you to filter by cause area, degree requirements, location, and more.
If you are eligible for the Scoville Fellowship, please also consider these fellowships: