rigorous. restorative. radical.
That’s how Fellows sum up their Mosaic experience.
Here we’ll try to cover all the details about the Mosaic Fellowship — purpose, pedagogy, program dates and mo’!
If you have MO’questions, please drop us a line!
In the words of Fellows, the Mosaic Fellowship fosters deep personal and professional growth and “examinations of self, community and society.”
The Mosaic Fellowship is a cohort-based leadership program that brings together changemakers of color through immersive retreats over the course of a year. Mosaic employs a mixed pedagogy of text-based Socratic dialogue, leadership case studies, and practical “toolbox” building workshops.
The goal?
The Mosaic Fellowship seeks to strengthen the individual and collective power of Black|Brown|Gold leaders to lead transformative change in a multiracial, multicultural democracy. We also seek to support and sustain one another in the arduous work of changemaking.
“The Mosaic Fellowship changed my life and my leadership forever.”
MOSAIC FELLOW
Rigorous.
PRESENCE At its core, Mosaic is a peer learning community. Fellows must commit to attend every seminar, no exceptions. Before you apply, you will know the exact program dates for the entire year and assess if you can fully commit if selected.
PREPARATION Before each seminar, you will receive a package with assigned texts, which often include fiction and nonfiction book chapters, poems, films and podcasts. You commit to read, watch and listen to all assigned materials prior to each seminar.
PARTICIPATION Mosaic employs a text-based Socratic dialogue method. Fellows commit to show up to each seminar eager to contribute to the individual and collective learning.
Restorative.
“I felt so cared for, seen, heard and valued.” The Mosaic Fellowship strives to offer a space where every Fellow feels that way.
We know the work of social change is arduous. We know you are overworked and undervalued. We know the world can feel perennially heavy. We know isolation, self-doubt and burnout are real.
We mean it when we say ‘fellowship’ and invite you to be part of a community that will help restore your own sense of hope, health and healing. We invite to you stop doing to start reflecting.
Radical.
Radical imagination. In order to achieve radical change, leaders are required to critically examine our own long-held values, beliefs and ways of seeing the world and our place in it. Mosaic Fellows are invited to learn —and unlearn— in order to imagine new potential futures for ourselves and our communities.
In the shared quest to build a just world, Mosaic Fellows confront what binds us together and what sets us apart. In the words of Audre Lorde, “Without community, there is no liberation … but community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist.” Mosaic Fellows create a collective that is radical precisely because it embraces these differences as both tensions and sources of new possibilities.
How will other Mosaic Changemakers change me?
Over the course of a year, Mosaic Fellows come together to:
Stop doing and start reflecting.
Learn about each other’s histories, discover shared struggles and values, and foster deep bonds.
Examine historical racial disparities and deepen our critical analysis of social movements and their leaders.
Reflect on our own leadership values, journeys, aspirations.
Affirm our multiple identities as sources of unique power to lead transformative change.
Build up our individual and collective strength to fight racism, anti-Blackness and injustice.
Restore and recharge our own sense of hope, health and healing.
Join a Black|Brown|Gold lifelong network to lean on for community and collaboration.
What’s the profile of a
Mosaic Fellow?
Each cohort of Mosaic Fellows represents an intergenerational, intersectional and interdisciplinary group of outstanding Black, Brown and Gold leaders. Our goal is to bring together a group of up to 20 Fellows as diverse as the mosaic of our communities:
Changemakers who self-identify as Black, Indigenous, Latiné, Asian Pacific Islander, or other person of color
Changemakers of color who live and work in the U.S. South (for the Mosaic Fellowship South) or specifically in Tennessee (for the Mosaic Fellowship Tennessee)
Changemakers of color with a track record of advancing social, economic and racial justice for at least 10 years
Changemakers of color who come from the nonprofit, public and private sectors and who are leading change in spaces such as education, health, civil rights, arts, etc.
Changemakers of color who represent diverse backgrounds, including, but not limited to: geography, age, religion, socio-economic status, gender identity, sexual orientation, immigration status and ability
Established and emerging changemakers of color who have reached, or are nearing, a career inflection point and are seeking a space to reflect, deepen their impact, and broaden their network of support
Changemakers of color with a track record of high integrity, maturity, openness and dependability
What else makes a
Mosaic Fellow?
GROWTH TENSIONS & INTENSIONS. We look for leaders who bring an authentic intention to stretch, over the course of the year with us, in what we call growth tensions:
CONVICTION + CURIOSITY. Mosaic Fellows recognize that multicultural coalition-building is messy and meaningful, experimental and imperative, troubling and transformative. They believe change emerges from like hearts, not like minds. They come to Mosaic seeking to balance self-interests with curiosity, humility and the pursuit of solidarity.
INDEPENDENCE + INTERDEPENDENCE. Mosaic Fellows value self-determination and nurture the uniqueness of the piece of the mosaic they, and their communities or organizations, represent. They also value the larger “we” and come to Mosaic to strengthen the collaborative muscle to connect teams, organizations, sectors and communities.
ACTION + REFLECTION. Mosaic Fellows are doers and want to find new ideas to solve old, entrenched problems. They are animated and motivated to implement solutions. They also understand the importance in changemaking of reflection, of intellectual inquiry. They come to Mosaic to create that thinking space and practice.
What is the Mosaic
Fellowship tuition?
Let us be crystal clear: Ability to pay the tuition fee is not a consideration during the selection process and will not be a barrier to your participation should you be selected to join a cohort.
We welcome all applicants, regardless of your (or your employer’s) means or financial need. Having the best and brightest Mosaic Fellows in our program is part of what makes the Mosaic experience special. That’s why we strive to make the fellowship accessible to all participants through generous philanthropic support.
That said, as a matter of principle, we do expect employers to value this leadership development opportunity. Investing professional development resources in this highly customized, immersive program is one simple way in which employers can walk the talk —demonstrate they value their Black, Brown and Gold employees and are committed to their growth.
The Mosaic Fellowship tuition fee corresponds to the employer’s annual operating budget:
$5,000 tuition for organizations with budgets of $5M+
$2,500 tuition for organizations with budgets of $2.5M-$5M
$1,000 tuition for organizations with budgets of less than $2.5M
In addition, Fellows are expected to cover the cost of their own transportation to and from the seminar retreats.
Please don't hesitate to contact us with questions about affordability. Don’t let concerns about the tuition fee be the reason why you don’t apply.
“The process of writing the Mosaic application led to deep self-reflection. What does my leadership look like in my 40s and beyond?”
MOSAIC APPLICANT
What’s the Fellowship
time commitment?
At its core, Mosaic is a peer learning community. Mosaic Fellows commit to themselves, and to their cohort members, to attend every seminar, without exceptions.
KEEP IT REAL! The Mosaic Fellowship requires a significant time commitment, totaling nearly 19 seminar days —plus time for homework— over the course of the year.
In addition to assessing the time commitment, you should also ask yourself about headspace. What else is going on in your personal and professional life? Will you be able to make Mosaic a priority? Is this your year to benefit and contribute the most?
Before applying, please carefully review the 2025 program dates and confirm you do not have any conflicts. If you decide to apply, please tentatively save all program dates on your 2025 calendar in order to avoid conflicts should you be selected to join a cohort. You will know final selection decisions by early December 2024.
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Seminar I (in person):
February 4-7, 2025Seminar II (virtual):
April 11, 2025Seminar III (in person):
June 29-July 3, 2025Seminar IV (virtual):
August 22, 2025Seminar V (in person):
September 23-26, 2025Seminar VI (virtual):
November 7, 2025Seminar VII (in person):
December 15-18, 2025
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Seminar I (in person):
January 27-30, 2025Seminar II (virtual):
March 7, 2025Seminar III (in person):
April 28-May 2, 2025Seminar IV (virtual):
July 25, 2025Seminar V (in person):
September 23-26, 2025Seminar VI (virtual):
November 7, 2025Seminar VII (in person):
December 8-11, 2025
How are Mosaic Fellows selected?
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It all begins with the online application, which opens every year in early August for both Mosaic Fellowship Tennessee and Mosaic Fellowship South. The application is organized in six parts. It may sound long, but please don't be discouraged. Most parts are easy to complete:
PART I Basic Eligibility Quiz
Yes/No questions
PART II Contact Information
Basic contact information
PART III Professional References
Basic contact information
PART IV Demographics & Identity
Check-a-box questions
PART V Changemaking Experience
Narrative questions + Resume
PART VI Personal Insights
Check-a-box questions and short video -
Your application is thoroughly reviewed by the Mosaic Selection Committee, which is comprised of our staff team and Mosaic Alumni.
When we review your application, we seek to understand your individual story and simultaneously assess how you might distinctly contribute to the cohort we are forming.
"Why now?" is another important question that guides our selection process. We want to understand the inflection point in your leadership journey you are facing at this moment. And, equally important, we want to know how the Mosaic Fellowship might support you at this juncture. Hint: Those are two key questions we ask you to answer!
We review your application using a rubric that focuses on the following areas:
— Program Fit and Readiness
— Leadership Tipping Point
— Potential to Benefit
— Potential to Contribute
— Changemaking PotentialThe rubric follows this scale for each assessment area: Disqualifying (1), Marginal (2), Satisfactory (3), Strong (4), Exemplary (5)
We don’t use the scores rigidly. The rubric is simply a tool that gives the selection committee consistency and a way to focus our assessment and deliberations. The scores are secondary to the rich discussion they elicit about each applicant through the course of several committee meetings.
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After reviewing and assessing all applications, should you be selected to move forward in the process, the Mosaic Selection Committee will extend an invitation for a 25-minute interview via video conference.
You will be interviewed by at least one member of the Mosaic staff team plus one of the Mosaic Alumni serving in the selection committee.
The purpose of the interview is to get to know you better and to expand on your answers in the application. We reserve a few minutes at the end to give you the opportunity to ask us questions.
For consistency and fairness, we ask all finalists the same questions.
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After we conduct all the interviews, the Selection Committee meets once again to share results of the interviews and to select the top finalists for whom references will be checked before being invited to join the Mosaic Fellows cohort.
This is why we request two professional references in the application. We recommend you confirm your references before applying. They should be able to speak concretely about your track record of high integrity, dependability, openness and maturity to participate and contribute in a program like the Mosaic Fellowship.
The Mosaic team will schedule a call with at least one of your references.
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Congratulations! After checking your references and if no concerns were identified, you will receive an invitation to join the next Mosaic Fellowship cohort. You will have a few days to accept and confirm your participation.
As official affirmation of your commitment, we will ask you to submit:
Personal commitment fee of $100
Fellow Commitment Form
Organization Commitment Form
