The Empower Program administers a competitive fellowship program for current Tufts undergraduate and graduate students who demonstrate a thriving commitment to social entrepreneurship.
The Fellowship provides grants for students to launch social enterprises and stipends to fund internships and applied research related to social entrepreneurship in international or local community development. Students who are granted the Fellowship will join the Social Entrepreneurship Network at Tufts, which encourages collaboration, mentorship, and the promotion of social entrepreneurship on campus.
Empower Fellowship — Social Entrepreneurship Grant
The Empower Program will fund individuals who want to become social entrepreneurs, start their own social enterprise or continue working on their social ventures. Social entrepreneurial initiatives and social enterprises are organisations that use market and business mechanisms to achieve social goals. Empower does not give out seed capital for such ventures. Although not exclusive, examples of what Empower is willing to fund include travel, accommodation and board costs for students developing ventures.
Empower Fellowship — Internships
Empower funds and places students in internship positions with social entrepreneurs and social enterprises all over the world. All grants go towards individual cover of expenses such as airfare, housing and transportation for internships outside the Great Boston area over the Summer and Winter breaks.
There are three kinds of internships eligible for an Empower Fellowship:
Empower Fellowship — Applied Research
To obtain the Fellowship for applied research, applicants must be prepared to demonstrate that their project is a market analysis, impact assessment or evaluation for program development of a social venture. Applicants are required to work with/for a host organisation and must have a letter of affiliation stating that their work is needed for any of the above. It is imperative to have a tangible deliverable at the end of the research period, preferably a report to the organisation. The deliverable cannot be limited a thesis, though applicants are encouraged to use the data from the project for their thesis.