Student Fellowships

The Ford Foundation Mason Fellowship will be awarded every year to meritorious Mason Fellows with financial need. Leading candidates will demonstrate strong interest in the overarching issues of concern to the Ash Center: city government leadership and innovation, smart cities, and urban mobility; Indigenous governance; political and social development in China and Southeast Asia; and democratic institutions, politics, and engagement. Leading candidates will also demonstrate the capacity for leadership in the public sector and a commitment to the study and implementation of effective and innovative governance, including non-traditional approaches to civic and political development.

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The Roy and Lila Ash Fellowship in Democracy will be awarded every year to a meritorious Mid-career student with financial need. Leading candidates will demonstrate the capacity for leadership and a commitment to the work of the Ash Center to generate deep understandings about how to improve democracy in the United States and around the world. Strategic areas of interest include: Full participation and civic engagement; city government leadership and innovation, smart cities, and urban mobility; Indigenous governance; and responsive, fair, and effective institutions. Leading candidates will also demonstrate the capacity for leadership in the public sector and a commitment to the study and implementation of effective and innovative governance, including non-traditional approaches to civic and political development.

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The China and Globalization Program Fellowship was awarded to Chinese students with financial need. Leading candidates demonstrated a strong interest in the areas of domestic politics and social development of China, with a focus on public policy challenges. Fellowship recipients joined the Ash Center in co-curricular activities such as lectures, workshops and conferences.

The Dalio Fellowship is awarded each year to one Chinese mid-career Mason Program MPA degree student with financial need. Recipients selected are proven leaders in philanthropy or demonstrate clear philanthropy sector leadership potential.

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The HKS Indonesia Program offered limited financial aid to support Indonesian students admitted to Harvard Kennedy School degree programs.

The Hui Fellowship was awarded each year to Chinese mid-career Mason Program MPA degree student and Chinese MPP degree students with financial need. Recipients demonstrated a strong interest in the areas of China’s integration with the world economy and polity, sustainability, socio-economic stability, and those active in civil society, with a focus on public policy challenges. 

The Lee Kuan Yew Fellows Program brought a group of 20 to 25 mid-career students to HKS for one semester each year. Coming from every country in Asia, these students were candidates for the Master in Public Management degree at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. The student fellowship program was the cornerstone of the Ash Center's Singapore program, which included a number of joint research projects, case studies, faculty exchanges, policy conferences, and executive education programs. The Lee Kuan Yew School was officially launched in 2004, dedicated to educating and training the next generation of Asian policymakers and leaders. Its objective is to contribute to the transformation of Asia by raising the standards of governance throughout the region and improving people’s lives. It inherited the Policy Programme that NUS had set up with Harvard Kennedy School in 1992.