Fellowship Program
What is the Re:co Fellowship Program?
Over the past 15 years, we’ve watched Re:co repeatedly create a vibrant network of emerging and existing leadership within the specialty coffee industry during its brief emergence every year. This year’s Re:co Symposium Fellowship, evolved in keeping with changes made to the structure and intentionality of this year’s programming, is designed to highlight individuals working to address the challenges and opportunities of specialty coffee’s emerging future and who wish to develop their leadership capabilities in the sector in order to further this work. Those selected are expected to apply their experience to make a substantial contribution to the discourse at this year’s Symposium by co-leading a seminar and acting as stewards for the event’s sensory experiences.
Supported By:
Thanks in part to the generous support of the 2023 Re:co Fellowship sponsor, Toddy LLC, we intend to award eight fellowships to qualified applicants, which will cover the registration fee of Re:co Symposium and the Specialty Coffee Expo; three nights of accommodation in Portland, Oregon; and up to US$500 of a fellows’ travel expenses.
In addition to their on-site activities, selected fellows will receive up to two hours of virtual small-group coaching on the structure and delivery of their presentation as well as a dedicated session in one of the four seminar tracks. After this year’s Symposium has finished, fellows will integrate their time in Re:co’s environment of leadership, deeper understanding, and progress into a written version of their presentation in the fellows seminar for publication as a short (1200-1500 words) feature on SCA News.
Who Should Apply for a Re:co Fellowship?
Re:co Fellows may be recent members of the coffee community, bringing outside experience and expertise to the table, or they may be long-standing members of the coffee community who are working to build a thriving, equitable, and sustainable coffee industry from their position within coffee’s complex system.
Fellows may be a graduate student focused on coffee research, a producer or co-op leader who works to organize their community, a young entrepreneur building a company around a great idea, or someone applying their skills at an NGO. Most importantly, Re:co Fellows have already engaged with activities of the SCA in some way (as a volunteer, learner, or change agent), because they’re aligned with our mission and values, and they’re curious about how they may integrate these into their own activities.
Those selected for this year’s fellowship program will have the opportunity to develop an eight-minute presentation, delivered during a seminar session on Thursday, April 20, on their work and its relationship to the emerging future. While all workstreams and topics will be considered, we would encourage all applicants to review this year’s program before submitting their application–those applications which offer an additional perspective on plenary session presentations or which fill a “gap” in the perspectives offered across the entire program are most likely to be successful.
What Kind of Time Commitment Is a Re:co Fellowship?
Successful applicants will have five working days once notified to complete the Re:co Speaker Agreement form in order to secure their fellowship.
Before the event, Fellows will be expected to:
Submit a brief outline of their eight-minute presentation by no later than Friday, March 24.
Participate in a small-group coaching call (60-90 minutes) the week of Monday, March 27 (time and day TBD, pending successful application timezones).
Submit a draft of their presentation and script by Friday, April 7.
At Re:co Symposium in Portland, Fellows will be expected to:
Participate in a short learning session to learn about this year’s sensory experiences (30-60 minutes), at 5 pm PT on Tuesday, April 18 (just before the start of the new attendee program).
Engage in the full Re:co program, beginning with the attendee program at 6 pm PT on Tuesday, April 18 and ending with the close of the event on Thursday, April 20.
Act as “floating” sensory experience guides during the four sensory experiences on Wednesday, April 19.
Present their eight-minute prepared presentations in the Fellows seminar on Thursday, April 20.
After the event, Fellows will also submit a written version of their presentation (1200-1500 words), evolved after their time in the environment of leadership, deeper understanding, and progress that Re:co Symposium provides, for publication on SCA News. Fellows will be expected to:
Deliver a first draft of their written feature by no later than Monday, June 5.
Participate in a collaborative editing process (conducted via email) across June and July.
Final submission dates for each feature will be mutually agreed, pending the fellows’ availability.
About the Application and Selection Process
This year’s selection team will include members of the Re:co Symposium Team, representatives of Toddy LLC (the program’s sponsor), and the 2022 Re:co Fellows cohort.
Application Process Opens: Tuesday, February 28
Application Process Closes: Tuesday, March 7
Applicants are anticipated to receive notification of their status in mid-March, depending on the volume of applications received.
As this year’s entire fellowship cohort will deliver eight-minute presentations, the selection team will be looking to understand how each prospective fellow’s work or activities either complement or supplement this year’s theme of sensing specialty coffee’s emerging future. We hope that each fellow’s presentation will address broad questions through each fellow’s unique perspective:
How does specialty coffee deliver diverse experiences to a community that has diverse tastes?
What are you currently experiencing in your day-to-day interactions with specialty coffee that feels like it will become increasingly important for the broader community to be aware of in the coming months or years?
If you foresee many potential challenges in the future, how might these (instead) be viewed as opportunities?
While all workstreams and topics will be considered, we would encourage all applicants to review this year’s program before submitting their application—those applications which offer an additional perspective on plenary session presentations or which fill a “gap” in the perspectives offered across the entire program are most likely to be successful. We are also hopeful that, with so much of our sense of the future tinged by unknowing and many potential challenges, this year’s cohort of fellows will help us to see some of the opportunities the future may bring to help make specialty coffee a thriving, equitable, and sustainable activity for all actors.
Fluency in English is not required, but a working command of English will greatly enhance a fellow’s experience.