Frequently Asked Questions

A Reconciliation League Fellowship covers tuition, room, board, visa costs where applicable, program activities, transportation required as part of the program, and other required costs of participating in the summer session and the following January Summit. Fellows are generally responsible for the cost of travel to and from both the summer session site and the January Summit. Some member schools may provide assistance with these travel costs to qualifying students.

No. Students from League member schools constitute over 80% of each cohort; however, at least 15% of the Fellowships are awarded through an “at-large” process that enables students from schools that are not League members to apply.

It depends. If your school is a member of the Reconciliation League, you apply through the internal selection process at your school. Contact your Campus Reconciliation League Liaison for details.

If you are a member of a Posse Foundation cohort, and you are not at a League member school, you apply through the Posse Foundation Reconciliation League Liaison.

If you are at a school that is not a League member, you apply directly to the Reconciliation League through the at-large process.

Applicants should generally be in their first, second, or third year of undergraduate study at the time they apply, allowing them to continue contributing to the Reconciliation League’s mission on their home campuses following the Fellowship. Students in their final year of study are also eligible and will be considered.

Yes, for both.

No, but they must be open to engaging across difference.

Extremely competitive.

The selection process for the summer program occurs during the Fall Semester. Fellows are announced at the beginning of February for the following summer.

The Reconciliation League is committed to making the Fellowship accessible to students with a wide range of individual needs. Fellows participate in an intensive residential program that includes classroom instruction, community activities, travel, and experiential learning, and we recognize that students may require accommodations to participate fully in different aspects of the program.

Students with accessibility, dietary, religious, medical, or other accommodation needs are encouraged to let us know as early as possible so that we can work with them individually to make appropriate arrangements. Questions about particular accommodations are welcome at any stage—before applying, during the application and selection process, or after a student has been named a Fellow.

African Leadership University, Asian University for Women, Brigham Young University, Fordham University, Lafayette College, London School of Economics, Morgan State University, New York University, Pomona College, San Carlos Apache College, University of Kentucky, University of North Carolina, and Yale University.

Lafayette College (Pennsylvania): May 26 to July 1, 2027 Wroxton College (United Kingdom): July 24 to August 20, 2027

Please see the Reconciliation League Curriculum page for a full description of the academic program.

Yes. Fellows receive academic credit for their coursework and Fellowship activities. The anchor Reconciliation course carries 6 semester credits, each Honors course carries 2 semester credits, and the fall project and January Summit together carry an additional 2 semester credits. Fellows will receive an official transcript from New York University granting credit for their Fellowship coursework.

How those credits are recognized and applied toward degree requirements is determined by each Fellow’s home institution in accordance with its transfer-credit policies. Depending on those policies, League coursework may count toward major, minor, general education, or elective requirements. Fellows should consult their home institution or Reconciliation League Liaison for guidance on how the credits will apply to their degree.

The faculty who teach the Anchor Course and Honors Courses, together with the Senior Fellows in residence, are leading scholars, educators, and practitioners with deep expertise in the subjects they teach. They are drawn to the Reconciliation League by a shared commitment to its mission and to working closely with Fellows. That engagement extends beyond the classroom: faculty and Senior Fellows will have substantial opportunities to interact with students throughout the residential program, and the League is designed to foster relationships and mentorship that can continue well beyond the summer session.

The Summer Fellowship Program is an intensive experience that will require your very best efforts. There are classes or other activities seven days a week during the session, and Fellows are expected to be present for all classes and most activities. The League is looking for students who are committed to making the most of this intensive experience through active engagement in the many academic, experiential, and community activities planned throughout the program.

The Reconciliation League Retreat programs are an integral component of the Fellowship curriculum. They provide immersive experiences that bring the program’s central themes of self-reflection, cosmopolitan conversation, and engagement with the unfamiliar into practice.

For Summer 2027, planned Retreat experiences include an eight-day, 300-mile rafting journey through the Grand Canyon and a week-long immersive experience hosted by members of the San Carlos Apache community on the San Carlos Apache Reservation. Both experiences are designed to take Fellows outside their familiar surroundings and create opportunities for sustained reflection, conversation, and engagement with people, places, and perspectives they might not otherwise encounter.

As part of the summer program, Fellows will work with faculty, Senior Fellows, and their peers to develop a project designed to bring what they have learned through the Fellowship back to a community that matters to them. That might be their campus, neighborhood, religious community, or another community of their choosing.

During the fall, Fellows will work remotely with one or more Senior Fellows to put their projects into practice. The January Summit provides an opportunity to reconvene with other Fellows, share what they have learned from the experience, reflect on what worked and what did not, and consider how their projects or other efforts might continue to develop.

Fellows should expect this work to require an additional commitment during the fall alongside their regular academic responsibilities, typically on the order of one or two hours per week. The fall project and January Summit together carry 2 semester credits.

The Fellowship is intended to be the beginning of a continuing engagement with the Reconciliation League rather than a one-time summer experience. Fellows who complete the program become permanent members of the Reconciliation Corps, a growing community of Fellows committed to productive dialogue across difference.

Through the Reconciliation Corps, former Fellows will have opportunities to remain connected with one another, participate in continuing conversations and League activities, collaborate on projects and initiatives, and support future cohorts of Fellows. The goal is to sustain both the relationships formed during the Fellowship and Fellows’ continuing efforts to foster productive dialogue in the institutions and communities they inhabit and lead.

Yes. The program is designed to prepare students to approach difficult and controversial conversations with an attitude that makes them productive for the participants and society.

Yes. One of the first tasks of each cohort of fellows will be to develop a code and processes for making it a reality.

The Reconciliation League Fellowship includes elements of both a leadership program and a study-away experience, but neither fully captures its purpose. The Fellowship is specifically designed to bring together talented students from very different institutions, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives and help them develop the habits of mind and skills needed to engage productively across difference.

The residential academic program, experiential activities, and sustained community of Fellows are all designed around that goal. Rather than treating leadership as a set of general professional skills or study away primarily as exposure to another place, the Fellowship uses both as opportunities for Fellows to question their assumptions, encounter unfamiliar perspectives, and learn to engage seriously and constructively with disagreement.

Those who formed the League believe that higher education is particularly well positioned to help emerging leaders develop the habits of mind and skills needed to bridge divides and engage productively with people whose backgrounds, experiences, views, or beliefs differ from their own. The League therefore brings together universities and colleges that are very different from one another in important ways, but share a commitment to academic excellence and to the League’s mission.

In service of this goal, the League brings together cohorts of Reconciliation Fellows from member institutions for several weeks of rigorous academic study and sustained engagement with both familiar and unfamiliar ideas and perspectives. Drawn from the generation that will inherit the challenge of addressing increasing polarization, Fellows will develop the skills needed to foster productive dialogue, together with the intellectual humility, curiosity, and confidence to engage seriously with disagreement and difference.

The League recognizes that other organizations and institutions are doing important work in this area. It is intended to complement these worthwhile efforts, not replace them.

Among the distinctive features setting the League apart are:

• The League brings together students from a diverse group of member institutions, each excellent in what it does but collectively representing a broad cross section of higher education. Bringing students from such different institutions into sustained community creates unusual opportunities for dialogue across different backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints.
• The League brings these students together as a focused community, apart from their campuses and everyday distractions, for an intensive program of instruction and complementary activities over several weeks. Some of the approaches used in the program draw on methods of dialogue originally developed through efforts at religious ecumenism and subsequently adapted to foster constructive engagement across the many kinds of differences that divide contemporary societies. The League applies these approaches in a nonsectarian setting, preparing Fellows to return to their campuses both committed to bridging divides and better equipped to do so.
• The initial Fellowship experience is intensive, but it represents only the beginning of a Fellow’s engagement with the League. Following the summer program, Fellows become permanent members of the Reconciliation Corps, a continuing community of Fellows committed to productive dialogue across difference. The League will provide opportunities for Fellows to remain connected, collaborate on initiatives, and continue developing their capacity to foster productive discourse in the institutions and communities they inhabit and lead.
• The League is governed by an independent, mission-driven Board rather than by any individual member institution. This structure allows the League to maintain a consistent focus on its mission while drawing on the perspectives and contributions of its diverse member institutions. The Board is also committed to regular external review of the League’s fidelity to its mission of fostering genuine dialogue across difference.

No. The Reconciliation League is not affiliated with or intended to advance any particular political, religious, or ideological perspective. The League and its supporters share a commitment to fostering meaningful dialogue among people whose backgrounds, experiences, beliefs, and viewpoints differ. The diversity of the colleges and universities that have chosen to join the League reflects that commitment.

The League’s bylaws also require an independent external review every two years to assess the League’s continuing fidelity to its mission of open dialogue across difference.

The Reconciliation League is an independent, non-profit organization with a distinct mission: producing leaders who will devote themselves to creating and engaging in dialogue across difference. The colleges and universities that are the members of the League embrace this goal and provide sets of student leaders who embrace it; however, the League is independent of them.

The Reconciliation League has a distinguished Board of Trustees and a Leadership Team of leading educators.