Now that you know just a little about me…there are so many things I want to share and talk about!
Due to the current time of year and the fact that Administrative Fellowship applications and interviews are upon us, I thought it would be most helpful to start with this topic.
When I started thinking about Administrative Fellowships in 2017, there were not many resources out there. Recently, I have seen more and more past fellows sharing information on various social media platforms which is amazing. I can imagine (and know) that each year the fellowships seems to get more competitive. I want to break down the process and share my experience.
In fact, I didn’t know much about Administrative Fellowships at all and sort of stumbled upon them by chance. I was an unconventional student since I was in graduate school part time and I often didn’t know everything that was happening on my grad school campus. I’m sure there were conversations or meetings about Administrative Residents and Administrative Fellowships, but I was totally out of the loop.
I first found out about them by looking at the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) website: (Fellowships | SPH (bu.edu)). They sounded amazing and an awesome opportunity but I didn’t really understand it. It was 2016 and I wouldn’t be eligible yet anyway so I sort of forgot about it and actually didn't think about it again for a year.
Then in August 2017, knowing I’d be graduating the following spring, I found the website again and started to seriously consider applying. At the time, I was getting close to ~5 years at Boston Children's, and didn’t really have too much tying me to Boston, except for family and friends of course. The thought of moving further from my family was scary, but I also always said at some point I wanted to live somewhere else and I thought it would be a great opportunity for both personal and professional growth.
So my first step was looking at programs and creating a list of potential programs I would want to apply. Here are my thoughts on how to make your list:
Think about what cities/towns you would want to live in. This was a big thing for me. I knew I wanted to be in a major city because while this was a great professional opportunity, I also wanted to grow personally and living in a city would be easier to meet people.
Think about what type of hospital/system you may be interested in (and you might not know). Do you want to be at one hospital or part of a larger system? Do you want to be at an academic teaching hospital or a community hospital?
Are you interested in a 1 year program or 2 year program? Interestingly, I applied to both and I did not fully understand the difference until I was already in the Fellowship. I was very close to choosing a 1 year program and in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't because 1 year went by so fast and knowing I had the whole 2nd year and did not have to think about jobs yet was great. Some people know they only want to do 1 year and that is also ok!
Research! Once I decided I wanted to seriously pursue this, I looked at Administrative Fellowship websites constantly. I read about the programs and their philosophies, as well as how the programs were structured and supported. I was interested in understanding what a rotational or a project-based fellowship looked like and also whether I would have direct contact with and mentorship from high-level leaders.
Reach out to current and past fellows and set up informational phone calls. This was immensely helpful for me as I narrowed down my list (I ended up applying to 9 Fellowship programs - personally I think anything more than 10-12 is too many).
Most importantly, think about what is important to you and whether your values are reflected in the organization.
If you are interested in Administrative Fellowships, please leave a comment or reach out to me and let me know your questions or what information you might want to know!
Next up - Completing the application process and the start of the interviews!