The Gordon Fellowship

From the inception of the Urban Studies Program at Penn, connecting theory and practice has been one of our guiding principles. In this spirit, we offer the Gordon Fellowship, sponsored by alumnus Jacques Gordon (URBS1978) and his family. Winners of the Gordon Fellowship receive a $5,000 stipend to explore a summer internship that improves the quality of life in cities, and will benefit from career mentoring through alumni activities during the school year. 

Internships can take place in a wide range of organizations, including public interest, policy research, government, arts & culture, planning and preservation, built environment, community development, education, and advocacy. Internships may be located anywhere in the U.S., including Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories.

Internships should be scheduled for between 8-10 weeks during the summer. Fellows are expected to provide updates about their internship experiences and to participate in fellowship activities during the following school year, such as advising future Gordon Fellowship applicants and participating in alumni/career events. We have an Info Session each spring, so that students can learn more about the Fellowship from previous Fellows, and discuss ideas and strategies for identifying a placement.
 

Eligibility:
Applicants can be Urban Studies majors or minors finishing their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd year of study. You may apply if you are a 1st or 2nd year student who is strongly considering a major or minor in Urban Studies. Preference will be given to Urban Studies majors. We strongly encourage applications from students who are members of groups underrepresented in careers in urban studies fields. Recipients of the Gordon Fellowship award may not receive any concurrent funding or compensation for their proposed internships.

Proposals: Due by Friday, April 26th, 2024, via email to urbs@upenn.edu.

The application asks for a statement of purpose, which should include:

1) a description of activities that you would like to undertake during the summer experience;
2) how the proposed internship will support the mission of the Gordon Fellowship – contributing to improving the quality of urban life; and
3) how the internship will contribute to your scholarly, activist, creative, and/or professional aims.

The Urban Studies Program will make every effort to notify selected students by or on Friday, May 10th.

If you are close to the deadline, would like to apply, but do not yet have a placement finalized: Please do not let that keep you from applying on time. Contact Urban Studies as soon as you can ahead of the deadline, and we'll help you navigate this part of the process!

Please always feel free to write to urbs@sas.upenn.edu(link sends email) to indicate your interest, or with any questions.

 

 

The 2023 Gordon Fellows have hit the ground running; click to see what they're working on this summer!

Our 2022 Fellows represent a range of interests. This summer all of the Fellows will be keeping their skills local, participating in Philadelphia-based programs.

The 2021 Cohort of Urban Studies Gordon Fellows
continued in the shared goal of taking urban theory into the real world, participating in summer internships and organizing community events for their fellow Urbies.

Meet the 2020 Gordon Fellows, featured in Penn News Today this summer. The Fellows collaborated on a blogpost, reflecting on the future of cities, informed by their work over the summer.

See the write up of 2019's Fellows for examples of the internship experiences developed by students in the previous summer. And here are their summer pics(link is external)!