Do good. Build confidence. Reach your full potential.
The Social Impact Fellowship is a three-month program for rising low-income 11th and 12th graders to find mentors, grow their confidence, and give back.
Fellow applications for 2023 are now closed. Apply for 2024 above.
Social Impact Fellowship
Our students build lifelong confidence and network through structured mentorship and project-based learning. Our alums have gone on to win scholarships and attend top universities like Stanford.
🙋🏽♀️ Rising 11th-12th grade
🍎 Qualify for free or reduced school lunch
💻 Available over Zoom from June-September 2023
Important Dates
Jun 4, 2023 - Orientation Day
Sep 10, 2023 - Pitch Day
Sep 17, 2023 - Wrap-Up Celebration
How it works
Social Impact Scholarships
Present your Social Impact Project to a panel of Silicon Valley leaders. The most impactful project will receive the $1,000 Growth Mindset Scholarship. We have awarded over $5,000 in scholarships to date.
Project-Based Learning
Fellows tackle a social issue they care about and self-direct a social impact project. Our Fellows have used their social impact project as part of their college application and personal insight questions.
Structured Mentorship
Every Fellow is paired with a mentor who will meet with them weekly. Mentors are full-time professionals from top companies, startups, and graduate schools like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, to name a few.
The Social Impact Project
The Fellowship was conceived through a “pay it forward to move forward” model. As Fellows gain the toolkit to close their own gap, they will also give back to the very community that nurtured their growth and success (hint hint: it’s never too early to give back!).
The Social Impact Project introduces students to project-based learning and empowers them to tackle social issues that impact their local community. At the end of the program, the most creative, impactful project will be awarded the $1,000 Growth Mindset Scholarship.
30
Low-Income,
First-Gen Fellows
30
Student-Led Social Impact Projects
300
Community Members Impacted
3,000
Community Service Hours Logged
*Calculated based on data collected from Close the Gap’s 2020 Fellowship Social Impact Projects
Last Year’s Social Impact Projects
Fellow Janet Yu Tackled Financial Literacy
Fellow Brandon Morales Tackled Food Scarcity
Fellow Anjelika Khadka Tackled COVID-19 Resources
This Year’s Mentors
Testimonials
"Close the Gap is such an inspiring program. My family hit a rough patch when COVID-19 hit, and I went from having everything to having nothing. I began to realize that there were a lot of people in my community also struggling with food insecurity, and I wanted to give back to them through my project. This scholarship will ultimately help my chance of getting into college where I hope to study law and really make change in the POC community."
India Cathcart
Scholarship Recipient
2021 Fellow
"Without Close The Gap, I would have never thought that I would be able to land a summer job, let alone a marketing internship, at the age of 16. Close the Gap has empowered me to recognize the importance of networking and utilizing all the resources that are available to me."
Janet Yu
Fellow & Scholarship Recipient
2020 Fellow
"I appreciate the whole Close the Gap family for opening so many opportunities for me. This whole program gave me confidence and the ability to create something so amazing with mentorship and guidance. This experience made my whole summer, the people I met and what I learned will forever have a special place in my heart."
Amiya Marbles
Scholarship Recipient
2021 Fellow
"Growing up without a father, my mom had to play both roles which was pretty difficult for her. She still managed to raise my brother and me to become great men. Close the Gap didn’t just provide me with people who care about me, they truly opened my eyes to the potential that I have."
Brandon Morales
Scholarship Recipient
2020 Fellow
"As I was exploring project topics, my eyes were opened to the aid my community needed when it came to adolescent vaping. After months of hard work and dedication, the feeling of winning second place was unbelievable. Close the Gap has taught me so much over these past few months, and I have a new understanding of what it is to be a leader and have an impact on others"
Valerie Henriquez
Scholarship Recipient
2021 Fellow
"My parents are immigrants, so I don’t have a lot of role models to look up to for college prep. Close the Gap provided me with so many opportunities and even paired me up with a mentor from Amazon who has helped me with college applications. I now have so many role models I can always go to for help."
Anjelika Khadka
Scholarship Recipient
2020 Fellow
“[Close the Gap] has cracked the code in helping first-generation and low-income students self actualize during COVID-19.”
-Ceyhun Yakup Özkardes-Cheung, Thrive Global
100% All Virtual
The program is run entirely virtual to maximize the accessibility of our mentorship and workshops. Plus, all admitted students will receive a donated laptop to make it easier to join from a personal laptop that you get to keep at the end of the program.
Our workshops bring in industry leaders to give you the insider tips based on all of their experiences growing up first gen low income themselves, and as allies — all virtual.
The inaugural Spark Fellowship held at the Google Community Space in San Francisco, California (June 2019)
The second annual Spark Fellowship kicked off virtually despite the COVID-19 pandemic (June 2020)
Janet Yu, Fellow '20 and 1st place recipient, presents her Social Impact Project on teaching financial literacy to her Gen Z peers.
Jessica Garcia, Fellow '20 and scholarship recipient, presents her Social Impact Project on law injustice among marginalized communities.
Anjelika Khadka, Fellow '20 and 3rd place recipient, presents her Social Impact Project in providing COVID-19 supplies and translating resources for immigrant families in Contra Costa County
Brandon Morales, Fellow '20 and 2nd place recipient, presented his Social Impact Project on prepping and delivering over 300 meal kits to homeless populations in the Bay Area
Joceylnne Leon, Fellow '19 and 3rd place recipient, presented her Social Impact Project in providing social mentorship to first-gen college students
Alex Peng, Fellow '19 and 2nd place recipient, presented his Social Impact Project in tutoring low-income high school students with SAT prep, helping one student score a 92th percentile
Willian Nguyen, Fellow '19 and 1st place recipient, presented his Social Impact Project in distributing over $1,000 worth of school supplies to low-income elementary school students