Applications for the 2023 Tribe 12 Fellowship will open in October of 2022. The Fellowship begins in January of each year and concludes at a closing event in May. The program is designed to run concurrently with school or work obligations and is based in Philadelphia. 

Entering its thirteenth year in Philadelphia, the Tribe 12 Fellowship is a leadership and entrepreneurial program which takes place from January through May 2023 and is designed to run concurrently with school or work commitments. Each Fellow is paired with a personal mentor and has access to a pool of subject matter experts, mentors, trainers, and Tribe 12 staff to guide them through the program. Through a curriculum built on the themes of self-discovery, emotional intelligence, philanthropy, and entrepreneurship, Fellows will apply the tangible skills they learn to create a capstone project of their own design and launch their idea, small business, or nonprofit to the next level.

Anyone in their 20s and 30s who is in the Greater Philadelphia area and considers themselves part of the Jewish community is invited to apply. We are proud that our 120+ alumni represent a range of ethnicities, sexual identities, gender identities, nationalities, races, and religions.

The Fellowship takes place over the course of five months (January-May 2021) and is designed to run concurrently with work or school obligations. The program takes Fellows through a rich curriculum with a particular emphasis on entrepreneurial skills like prototyping, public speaking, financial management, goal setting, and environmental scanning. Throughout the program, each Fellow will work extensively with a personal coach to design a capstone project to execute and present at a closing event.

The commitment for the Fellowship is about 12 “classroom” hours a month (every Tuesday evening January - May), plus additional hours spent meeting with your personal coach and working towards project milestones. Fellows are expected to attend our March retreat and attend the vast majority scheduled workshops to ensure they are an active member of the cohort. 

From 2011 to 2016, the Tribe 12 Fellowship was primarily for entrepreneurs seeking to start a socially responsible business or non-profit. In 2016, Tribe 12 piloted a separate leadership program built on the best aspects of the Tribe 12 Fellowship. Through extensive surveying and interviewing, we determined that our community would benefit most from a comprehensive leadership program which focuses on the individual, not just their business, and uses entrepreneurship as a tool to learn lifelong skills. The current Fellowship curriculum is the result!

The three main differences (first implemented in 2017) are: (1) a renewed focus on individuals as opposed to business ventures, (2) a condensed schedule (4 months vs 6 months), and (3) the inclusion of a weekend leadership retreat to deepen the program experience.

Absolutely! Each Fellow executes a capstone project, and Fellows may choose to start a business or non-profit as their project. The Fellowship continues to teach all of the business skills that were taught in previous years — in fact, we’ve added more! Fellows will continue to be paired with a personal coach, many of whom are respected business people and educators, and will have access to a network of subject matter experts with expertise in law, finance, marketing, and beyond.