Early Career Fellowship
A two-year professional learning community that keeps new teachers inspired—through master classes with world-class experts, personalized mentoring, and the kind of peer community that makes you want to stay in the profession.
4× more likely to remain in the classroom
150+ early career teachers mentored since 2021
2 Years of sustained support, community, and growth
50,000+ NYC teachers surveyed on professional vitality
Inspiration brought them to teaching. Something else is pushing them out.
Research consistently shows that people enter teaching driven by purpose and passion, not salary or schedule. But the conditions they encounter inside schools can erode that original spark faster than anyone anticipates. This is especially true for early career teachers.
By the Numbers
Nationally, 77% of public school teachers describe their work as frequently stressful, with more than half saying they would not recommend the career to a young person.
Nearly 50% of new teachers in the U.S. leave the profession within five years. Those without structured support (mentoring, collaboration, and resources) leave at twice the rate. New teachers of color leave at even faster rates, disproportionately concentrated in under-resourced schools.
40%+ of newly hired NYC teachers leave the system within five years, at a cost approaching $250 million annually in recruitment, onboarding, and lost development investment.
~34,000 of NYC teachers surveyed did not strongly agree that they look forward to each working day on the 2025 NYC Schools Survey, a proxy for the kind of professional vitality that students deserve from their teachers.
The Missing Variable
The conditions driving teachers out are well documented. What’s missing from the conversation is the force that brought them in: inspiration itself.
Psychologists Todd Thrash and Andrew Elliot have established that inspiration is not a vague feeling—it is a measurable psychological state. Their research describes a three-phase process: something awakens you (evocation), shifts how you see what’s possible (insight or transcendence), and moves you to act on that new vision (action or approach motivation). Follow-up research has shown that inspired individuals produce work capable of inspiring others.
Yet no major study of teacher well-being or retention has treated inspiration as a distinct variable. The Early Career Fellowship is built to address that gap by deliberately cultivating inspiration at every stage of a new teacher’s development.
“To pause, to breathe, to break bread, to connect with other people who are passionate about education… to expand, enrich, and strengthen my pedagogy in ways that ignite my creativity, open my mind, and cradle my heart. I hope you will continue this program for many generations of new teachers.”
— Kaitlyn Huczko, Early Career Fellow 2021–2024
A Program Built on What Inspiration Actually Is
The Fellowship’s design draws on research in inspiration science, high-quality professional development, and culturally responsive education. Every element of the program is engineered to move teachers through three phases of professional inspiration.
Phase 1: Evocation — Something Awakens You
Master classes with Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and MacArthur Fellows create encounters that surprise teachers intellectually. Sessions like “Improv for Teachers,” “Looking Better with Shakespeare,” and “A History of NYC Public Schools” are designed to reignite the sense of wonder that brought teachers into the profession. The Academy’s research shows that this kind of evocative experience is the essential first step in the inspiration process, and it is almost entirely absent from conventional professional development.
Phase 2: Insight — Your Perspective Shifts
Once awakened, teachers begin to see their practice, their students, and their professional possibilities differently. Through active learning, structured reflection, collaborative community, and the Academy’s deliberate attention to culturally responsive and sustaining education, Fellows develop a vivid awareness of new possibilities for their classrooms and their careers. This isn’t aspirational language. It’s a documented psychological shift that research ties to creativity, mastery motivation, and sense of purpose.
Phase 3: Action — You’re Moved to Act
The inspired teacher does not just feel differently; they act differently. They try new approaches, create original lessons, share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and—critically—stay. Personalized mentoring and sustained duration (the Fellowship spans two full years) convert the initial spark into lasting professional action. The Academy’s own data shows that participants are four times more likely to remain in the classroom than peers without this kind of support.
A Two-Year Developmental Arc
Year 1: Building the Foundation
In their first year, Fellows move beyond survival mode to build a rock-solid foundation through collaborative inquiry and a healthy dose of play. Content-focused master classes inspire teaching through active learning while treating Fellows as the intellectuals they are. Structured protocols help flip tough classroom challenges into collaborative breakthroughs. Mentor-led workshops offer pedagogical tools tested in the field, and personalized mentorship gives each Fellow a veteran co-pilot to help them pursue their goals and navigate the hidden curriculum of teaching.
Every session wraps with a shared meal and conversation, ensuring that authentic connection sustains their growing professional network.
Research grounding: Year 1 prioritizes sustained duration, content focus, modeling of effective practice, active learning, collaboration, and coaching, principles drawn from the Learning Policy Institute’s synthesis of effective professional development.
Year 2: Mastering the Craft
With the rookie jitters behind them, second-year Fellows refine their unique voice and purpose. Master classes like “Why I Teach: A Storytelling Workshop” and “King’s Call to Young Americans” move into the soul of the work, helping ensure their practice remains personal and culturally responsive. The Best Lesson Exchange, where Fellows showcase their greatest hits to be lovingly interrogated by peers, combines active learning with feedback and reflection. Mentors keep Fellows on track with their goals, and every session closes by breaking bread together.
Research grounding: Year 2 deepens the arc with feedback and reflection, active learning, collaboration, and continued coaching, sustaining the inspiration cycle across the full two-year duration.
Mentorship: The Heart of the Fellowship
Coaching and expert support are the core of the program. Our mentors are veteran Academy Fellows and some of the city’s most distinguished teachers, with eight or more years of classroom experience. They have been selected for their creativity, their devotion to students, and their commitment to their own professional growth.
Modeling Practice: Mentors provide a clear vision of what excellent teaching looks like by modeling instruction and sharing evidence-based practices. Research on inspiration shows that encountering an expert practitioner, someone doing the work at its highest level, is one of the most reliable triggers for the evocative experience that begins the inspiration process.
Personalized Growth: This is not top-down mandated development. Fellows set the trajectory for their own growth, using private sessions with their mentors for deep reflection and non-evaluative feedback. The coaching relationship is designed to sustain and deepen approach motivation over time, converting that initial spark into a lasting professional identity.
“During my Fellowship, I gained confidence, improved as a teacher, and didn’t feel so alone. I was finally learning how to give my students the education they deserve. Long story short, I didn’t quit. Now in my eighth year of teaching, I recently became a mentor myself.”
— Kevin Cruz, Early Career Fellow, 2021–2024
What the Fellowship Includes
2 Master Classes with world-class experts—Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, MacArthur Fellows, and other eminent thinkers who bring their disciplines alive.
6 Pedagogical Workshops including mentor-led sessions and structured “Problems of Practice” protocols that turn classroom challenges into collaborative breakthroughs.
6 Personalized Mentoring Sessions with a veteran Academy Fellow who serves as a non-evaluative thought partner, helping each Fellow set and pursue their own professional goals.
3 Social Events to expand Fellows’ professional networks and nurture the friendships that sustain a long-term career.
Shared Meals at Every Session because authentic connection and community are not add-ons; they are integral to the work.
What School Leaders Are Saying
“We’ve mentored and supported over 100 of our district’s new teachers through the Early Career Fellowship. Building the pipeline matters. Sustaining it matters just as much.”
— Dr. Alan Y. Cheng, Senior Supervising Superintendent of NYC High Schools and District 79
“The Early Career Fellowship facilitates engaging and supportive spaces for my teachers to collaborate meaningfully with colleagues across grade levels and disciplines. To know there is a group of motivated and caring individuals facing the same challenges can make all the difference in keeping a promising teacher in education.”
— Yeou-Jey Vasconcelos, Former Head of School, School in the Square
K-12 Humanities or Special Education teachers with zero to five years of experience in the NYC metro area. Teachers of color are especially encouraged to apply.
In-person at partner sites in Manhattan, including NYU, Friends Seminary, and Grace Church School.
Most partner schools typically pay between $1,750 and $3,600 per teacher, despite the full program value of $6,600. To ensure accessibility for every school, we provide tailored financial aid, flexible package tiers starting in 2026-2027, and collaborative planning to find creative solutions for your district’s unique budget.
Our goal is to ensure your new teachers have the foundation they need to thrive. We look forward to working together to make this professional support a reality for your school.
Because it works. Decades of research show that inspiration is a measurable psychological state, one that predicts creativity, mastery motivation, sense of purpose, and the drive to bring new ideas into the world. The Academy’s programming is designed around these findings, using a framework that maps the science of inspiration to the established features of high-quality professional development and the Danielson Framework for Effective Teaching. We don’t just believe inspiration matters. We measure it.
The Academy has developed a proprietary measurement framework grounded in Thrash and Elliot’s validated Inspiration Scale, adapted for the professional teaching context and aligned with 18 questions from the NYC Public Schools annual teacher survey. This allows us to track inspiration longitudinally, compare Academy teachers’ experiences with citywide data, and identify where in the program inspiration strengthens or needs additional support. It’s not just a retention statistic; it’s a window into the pathway from inspiration to professional action.
Every great teacher had a teacher who inspired them.
The Early Career Fellowship exists to make sure that cycle doesn’t break. Nominate a teacher. Send your newest colleagues our way. Or apply yourself. The profession needs teachers who are still inspired. And we need partners who believe that matters.
“As a teacher, I often feel alone, like I’m operating on my own little island. The Early Career Fellowship has offered us all an invaluable community, care, and support. As teachers we give and pour into others every day—the Early Career Fellowship pours into us.”
— Kathe Morick, Early Career Fellow, 2024–2026
“The Fellowship keeps me engaged as a teacher. It reminds me that I love learning and love teaching. It inspires me to keep showing up every day and making myself better.”
— Eric Dittmore, Early Career Fellow, 2021–2024
“The master classes have provided opportunities to engage in meaningful discussions with professionals and colleagues. I find them highly applicable, and most importantly, rejuvenating at a point in my career where I need it most.”
— John Lalena, Early Career Fellow, 2022-2023
“Our master class with Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz was phenomenal. I loved the opportunity we received to listen to experienced teachers share some of their lessons and how they integrate racial literacy into their work. As a second-year teacher, receiving this kind of support and knowledge was so very helpful.”
— Cherisse Cruz, Early Career Fellow, 2021-2023