The Atlas Fellowship

For thoughtful students who want to understand how the world works.
Applications are expected to open mid-March.

What we're all about

Each year we empower 100+ fellows with a $50,000 scholarship, a summer program, and funding and support for their projects.

Do you want to spend time building things that will shape the world? Great. So do we.

Not only do we want to support your efforts financially, Atlas will help you develop the thought frameworks and network you'll need to increase your impact.

What we're all about

We designed this fellowship to supercharge talented young people who want to alter the trajectory of humanity for the better.

Young people’s energy, imagination, and time are some of the world’s most under-utilized resources.

Do you want to spend time building things that will shape the world? We want to fund you and your projects.

We give 100+ high school students around the world a scholarship, a summer program, and funding + support for their projects.

The Application

For original thinkers of all backgrounds.

14–18 year-old high school students or students on a gap year before college from anywhere in the world are welcome to apply.

We want to ensure that students from nontraditional and underprivileged backgrounds can participate in our programs. That's why everything about the Atlas Fellowship (including travel, food, and accommodation) is free.

We designed our application to let talented students of all flavors shine. If you're exceptionally smart, thoughtful, or entrepreneurial—even if you don't have test scores or a conventionally impressive resume—then the Atlas Fellowship is for you.
Summer Program

Fellows are invited to an 11-day, fully-funded summer program in the San Francisco Bay Area.

An 11-day program to develop big-picture thinking about science, philosophy, and the future, held right next to the University of California Berkeley campus.

We offer four different dates: June 12–23, July 3–14, July 17–28, and August 14–25.

The goal is to understand the forces that shape the world and the ways people have come to understand how the world works. We don't just want you to memorize a collection of facts—we want you to have the ability to confront tangled data and draw your own conclusions from it.
Fellowship

The funding, mentorship, and community you need to excel.

One of the best ways to learn is by building things, breaking things, and poking the world to see what it does.

That's why Atlas Fellows get access to the million-dollar Atlas Fund to bring their startups, experiments, and ambitious ideas into reality.

The Atlas community is full of co-conspirators, mentors, and ideas to help you refine your understanding of the world and solve whatever problems you choose to tackle.

We can make a larger impact together than we can alone.

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Aspiring Geneticist
Drone Mapping Expert
Aspiring Geneticist
Award-winning Creative Writer
former program participant
Ocean Conservationist
Aspiring Geneticist
Healthcare advocate
Proud program participant
Aspiring Geneticist
Aspiring Geneticist
What we're all about

The Atlas Fellowship is a program for talented high school students to develop big-picture thinking about science, philosophy, and the future.

This isn’t just another summer program – this is a research project and global talent search for people who will help tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems and steer the future of our civilization.

We think bright students can build amazing things, but they rarely have the funding, mentorship, or teammates to do so. We want to make sure the only barrier to great ideas is the laws of physics.

Aspiring Geneticist
Drone Mapping Expert
Debate Champion
Aspiring Geneticist
Award-winning Creative Writer
former program participant
Ocean Conservationist
AI and ML Enthusiast
Award-winning Creative Writer
Healthcare advocate
Proud program participant
Youth Coordinator
Policy Researcher
Healthcare advocate

The Atlas Fellowship’s unique emphasis on casual discussion and individual thinking was at once invigorating, exhilarating, and inspiring. The fascinating concepts I learned and debated with my peers in this community led me on pathways to the impact that I’ve always wanted to make.

Jamie Kim (17)
Atlas Fellow 2022
High school student with nice things to say about the Atlas Fellowship

Atlas gave me a valuable community, novel ideas, and opportunities I never knew existed—and I think it's safe to say that those ten days changed my life's trajectory more than any other.

Samuel Cottrell
Summer Program Beta Tester
Our Ethos

The Atlas Approach

Understand how the world really works

When did you figure out that Covid-19 was going to be a pandemic that would impact us all? How do computers really work? Why is humanity able to build sophisticated devices like computers, but unable to fix scientific publishing? How might advanced AI systems shape our future? Through big-picture thinking about science, philosophy, and the future, our goal is to help you build models of what’s going on for humanity, and what that implies for you.

Find what you can do to shape it

Are you setting your own priorities for your life, or are you letting others set them for you?

We want to help you develop agency – the skill of taking actions towards your goals by strategically choosing what to work on, looking places where others don't, developing a hacker mindset to find unconventional solutions, and putting in the hard work to actually make them happen.

Access a community of collaborators

We want to empower you to take risks. But we don’t expect you to do it alone!

You’ll meet like-minded colleagues at summer programs, reunions, and in our online community. Beyond that, you’ll gain direct access to our global network of leaders, thinkers, and philanthropists to help you supercharge your projects.

Let's do this

Are you interested in examining the gears of the world?

Applications for 2022 have closed, so subscribe to our newsletter to hear when applications for 2023 open up!

If you know a student who would be a good fit for the Atlas Fellowship, nominate them for 2023.

Our Mission

The program is designed to support talented young people who want to alter the trajectory of humanity for the better.

Atlas Fellowship winners access a range of benefits that help accelerate their path towards impact. We aim to provide top-tier, personalized support to winners in college and beyond.

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