The Schell Center’s Kirby Simon Summer Fellowships provide funding for Yale students who wish to undertake at least six weeks of human rights work during the summer. The fellowships are supported by a generous grant from the Diamondston Foundation to honor Kirby Simon, the son of Professor John Simon, who was a foreign service officer and died in 1995 while serving in Taiwan.

Kirby Simon Fellowships cover travel costs; they supplement Student Public Interest Fellowship (SPIF) funds, which cover living expenses. Students submit a single application to the Schell Center for both fellowships. Although any Yale University student may apply for Kirby Simon Summer Fellowship travel support, applications from non-graduating Yale Law School students receive priority, and only law students are eligible for the SPIF component.
 
Applying for the Kirby Simon Summer Fellowship
Applications are due in April and require a proposal, résumé, letter from a sponsoring organization confirming the student’s summer work assignment, and list of references. Before applying, students must meet with either Jim Silk or Liz Brundige. Contact the Schell Center for application information and to sign up for meetings. Download an application.

During the summer of 2007, the Schell Center funded thirty-seven Kirby Simon Summer Fellows. In recent years, as many as twenty percent of all first-year students have received summer funding from the Schell Center for international human rights work.

The Schell Center sponsors several panels, workshops, and meetings during the school year to assist students in finding summer projects and to explain the application process.