Overview

Overview Image

We are now accepting applications from both undergraduate and graduate students.

Admission decisions begin October 1st, final application deadline is November 15th.

The Next System Fellows are among the newest additions to Mason's prestigious undergraduate Arlington Fellows program. Their fellowships involve:

  • Internships with a partner organization, union, or research group, or with one of our projects at Next System Studies at Mason (DNOVA, Digital Commonwealth, Next Constitutions).
  • Preparation for a career in social and public service, organizing, research, technology development, cooperative and social entrepreneurship, teaching, and more.
  • Learning about and engaging directly with real world next system projects such as worker cooperatives and solidarity economy initiatives, community owned enterprises and services, campaigns for abolition and political democracy, transition and resilient communities, democratic and sustainable technologies, non-violent conflict resolution and restorative justice projects, and more.
  • Joining a cohort of students taking multiple courses together (four courses for undergrads, three for graduate and professional students): 
    • Next System Studies Seminar (required for all)
    • Internship Practicum (6 credits) (required for all)
    • Power, Politics, and Society/Political Sociology Seminar (required for undergrads, elective for graduate students)*
    • Data, Technology, and Society/Social Networks, New Media, and Inequality (elective for all)*
    • Social Movements and Political Protest/Social Movement Studies Seminar (elective for all)*

* Note that the graduate courses offered may fulfill some of your concentration requirements. Contact us for confirmation. 

We provide a $500 honorarium to each Next System Fellows to support their participation in extra-curricular research and community engagement.

The first Next System Fellows at Arlington

The first Next System Fellows at Arlington

The original Next System Fellows leaflets posed several thought provoking questions to their readers: “Where is our society going, and where does it need to go? How do we get there, and what must we do to get there?” By posing these questions, the program implies it can provide answers to them. And perhaps it can. But essential is the pedagogy involved. By calling students to address the systemic challenges of the 21st century, the Next System Fellows program invites students to become a part of creating solutions.