About the Next System Fellows program

The Next System Fellows are GMU undergraduate and graduate students participating in Mason's selective Arlington Fellows program. Their fellowships involve:

• Internships with a partner organization, union, or research group, or with one of our projects at Next System Studies at Mason (Democratizing NOVA, Digital Commonwealth, Next Constitutions).
• Preparation for a career in social and public service, organizing, research, technology development, cooperative and social entrepreneurship, teaching, and more.
• Learning about and engaging directly with real world next system projects such as worker cooperatives and solidarity economy initiatives, community owned enterprises and services, campaigns for abolition and political democracy, transition and resilient communities, democratic and sustainable technologies, non-violent conflict resolution and restorative justice projects, and more.
• Joining a cohort of students taking multiple courses together. For graduate student Next System Fellows, there are two required courses. For undergraduate student Fellows, there are two required courses and two electives:  

• • Social Change and the Next System Seminar (required)
  • Internship Practicum (required)
  • Big Data, Technology, and Society (elective)
  • Power, Politics, and Society (elective)
  • Social Movements and Political Protest (elective (Fall of 2025 or 2024 course will count))
  • Sociology of Human Rights (elective (Fall of 2025 course will count)
  • Cooperatives and Social Enterprise (elective (Spring of 2025 course will count))

We provide a $1000 honorarium to each Next System Fellow to support their participation in extra-curricular research and community engagement.