A Bush Fellowship provides individuals with opportunities to increase their understanding of, capacity for and practice of leadership to work with others to improve the quality of life in their community.  The work of the Fellowship is to blend opportunities for personal development with efforts to effectively engage with others to create positive change within their communities. (Meet the 2013,  2012 and 2011 Bush Fellows.) Click here to be added to the fellowship mailing list.

The Bush Fellowship is based on four core principles:

• Know yourself.  Without understanding your strengths, weaknesses, intentions and motivations it can be difficult to effectively work with others.
• Know your community.  Actively listening, reflecting, and building and nurturing relationships accesses a community’s knowledge and resources.
• Mobilize.  People need to care enough to take action.
• Manage conflict.  Answers are often found among the differences between people.

During the Fellowship, Bush Fellows are expected to pursue experiential and formal learning opportunities that touch on each of these core principles.  At the end of the Fellowship, we expect them to:

• Have increased self-awareness.
• Have a deeper understanding of their community.
• Be more experienced and skilled at mobilizing stakeholders.
• Have greater understanding and appreciation of the role of conflict in bringing about positive change within a community and increased experience in working through conflict.

Who should apply for a Bush Fellowship?  We are looking for individuals who:

• Care deeply about their communities and have a vision to start from for how those communities can be better places for everyone.
• Desire to work with others—even those with whom they disagree—to create a shared vision for their community, and are committed to working with others to make that vision a reality.
• Are passionate about learning and committed to improving their effectiveness in service of improved quality of life in their community.
• Understand that risk, failure and conflict provide valuable learning and are necessary for making progress.

Read more about eligibility and selection criteria.

In the application, we ask individuals to describe:

• An issue affecting their community and its impact.
• Other stakeholders who care or need to care about the issue.
• Strategies they will likely try to engage and mobilize stakeholders.
• Their vision for how their communities can be better if they are effective in working with others to bring about positive change.
• The conflict that will likely arise from the work.

Elected and Government Officials at a Policymaking Level
If you are an elected official or government official who has the authority to enact policy, please contact GTS Educational Events at 651.222.7409 or BushFellows@mngts.org to learn about the application process.