Strategic Advising Summer Fellowship 2025

Use your knowledge of data and your communication skills to strengthen the impact of education organizations that are working to eliminate achievement gaps among students furthest from opportunity.

Bellwether is excited to launch the search for Summer Fellow(s) to join the Strategic Advising team in summer 2025. The ideal candidate(s) for this position will have success in a similar role requiring analytical thinking and problem-solving, bring a sophisticated understanding of relevant issues in education reform, and possess an entrepreneurial spirit. We are a remote-first organization and our work is national in scope, which means this role can be based anywhere in the United States. This enables us to hire the best person for the role, regardless of geography. Up to approximately 30% travel may be required for this role, including travel for in-person Kickstart Training and potentially 1-2 trips over the course of the fellowship, depending on the specific client.

About Bellwether

Bellwether is a national nonprofit that exists to transform education to ensure systemically marginalized young people achieve outcomes that lead to fulfilling lives and flourishing communities. We work hand in hand with education leaders and organizations to accelerate their impact, inform and influence policy and program design, and share what we learn along the way.

Our Strategic Advising practice advises leaders and organizations on their most pressing strategic and operational issues. Our work ranges from supporting entrepreneurs through business plan development, to partnering with established organizations on growth and performance improvement, to assessing new opportunities for impact as the field evolves.

Responsibilities

Summer Fellows work as members of small teams and take on leadership roles in our strategic advising work with clients. Summer Fellows play an important role within Bellwether teams on client engagements by identifying issues, forming hypotheses, developing work plans, designing and conducting analyses, building models, synthesizing conclusions into recommendations,, and ultimately helping to implement change with our clients. Throughout an engagement, a Summer Fellow is directly involved in discussions and presentations with senior client leadership. Fellows will also have the opportunity to contribute to internal capability building. Throughout the fellowship, fellows will work closely with Bellwether Associate Partners, Senior Advisors, Senior Associate Partners, and Partners to execute projects.

Summer Fellows are managed by Associate Partners and Senior Associate Partners within Bellwether who, in turn, guide their work and invest in their professional development. While the Summer Fellow will have exposure across Bellwether’s program areas to broaden his/her skills and perspectives, the majority of time will be allocated to supporting Strategic Advising.

In that context, the Summer Fellow’s primary responsibilities and duties will be to:

• Take on client strategic advising responsibilities, as described above;
• Partner with clients and senior Bellwether team members to develop high-impact business strategies and implementation plans in response to real-world, time-sensitive challenges brought forward by the client;
• Develop work plans and execute against these plans with independence and a high degree of ownership;
• Perform quantitative and qualitative analysis on core strategic issues for clients and synthesize insights;
• Identify key data sources and gather data through interviews and secondary research;
• Manage client interactions, including strong meeting preparation and follow-up;
• Serve as a thought partner, leveraging internal and external networks to engage in team problem-solving, share evolving business trends and best practices, and contribute to knowledge creation initiatives;
• Write and deliver presentations, strategic plans, and research briefs; and
• Generate creative, action-oriented insights and recommendations for both internal and external improvement.

Qualifications

Bellwether is a strong fit for professionals who possess strong personal drive and motivation; demonstrate exemplary professional behavior and values; and who are resourceful, responsible, tenacious, independent, and self-confident.

Excited? We are too. You should apply if you have:

• Familiarity with the challenges and disparities facing underserved students, PreK-20 education, and workforce through age 24 in the United States;
• A commitment to Bellwether’s core values, including diversity, equity, and inclusion;
• A commitment to our work to address policies and practices that lead to inequitable outcomes for systemically marginalized groups;
• Ability to model a high degree of reflection and self-awareness, build trusted relationships across lines of difference, and seek out and respond to perspectives different from your own;
• At least three years’ professional experience in a role requiring strategic thinking, project management, research, and analytical problem-solving;
• A well-rounded interpersonal skill set with the capacity to build strong client relationships, work effectively in a team environment, and facilitate joint problem-solving with clients and internal teams;
• Excellent quantitative analytical skills (including a high degree of comfort with financial modeling and data analysis), creativity in problem-solving, and a keen business sense;
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written;
• A highly self-motivated work style and willingness to proactively take on leadership roles within project teams and the firm;
• Maturity, flexibility, and comfort with working in a small organization;
• Currently enrolled as a student in a graduate program;
• A strong academic record; and
• Comfort with some travel.