Our Mission
We empower exceptional students to understand and change our future.
Like an atlas, we help you navigate the world: in our programs, fellows practice careful reasoning that enables them to make sense of confusing evidence, mitigate cognitive biases, and develop accurate beliefs that map onto reality.
Together, we then apply these analytical tools to global challenges that we think are important, such as global poverty, existential risks to humanity, risks from advanced AI, or the reform of economic institutions.
But most importantly, we hope that Atlas Fellows will discover important problems and solutions beyond our own understanding. We believe that thoughtful young people can fix the parts of our civilization that are broken—so we want to raise their ambitions and empower them with tools, resources, and a community.
Together, we then apply these analytical tools to global challenges that we think are important, such as global poverty, existential risks to humanity, risks from advanced AI, or the reform of economic institutions.
But most importantly, we hope that Atlas Fellows will discover important problems and solutions beyond our own understanding. We believe that thoughtful young people can fix the parts of our civilization that are broken—so we want to raise their ambitions and empower them with tools, resources, and a community.
Meet the team
Staff and previous instructors
Atlas Fellowship
Our Story
The Atlas Fellowship evolved out of a program called Uncommon Sense, which had a focus similar to the Atlas summer program and proved impactful for its participants. Sydney Von Arx, one of the co-founders of Uncommon Sense, partnered with Ashley Lin and Jonas Vollmer to found the Atlas Fellowship to vastly expand the scale and scope of that program—starting the Atlas Fellowship in 2022.
In 2022, the Atlas Fellowship ran five 11-day programs in Berkeley (California) and Oxford (United Kingdom) for 111 Fellows from 18 countries, selected from over 7,000 applications. We plan to continue and refine our programs, and potentially support a substantially larger number of students in future years.
The Atlas Fellowship is a 501(c)(3) public charity in the United States (EIN 88-1678673). It is funded by Open Philanthropy, a large philanthropic organization in the United States. Previously, it also received funding from the Future Fund. If you are interested in supporting us, or if you have any questions about your donation, please contact us at info@atlasfellowship.org.
In 2022, the Atlas Fellowship ran five 11-day programs in Berkeley (California) and Oxford (United Kingdom) for 111 Fellows from 18 countries, selected from over 7,000 applications. We plan to continue and refine our programs, and potentially support a substantially larger number of students in future years.
The Atlas Fellowship is a 501(c)(3) public charity in the United States (EIN 88-1678673). It is funded by Open Philanthropy, a large philanthropic organization in the United States. Previously, it also received funding from the Future Fund. If you are interested in supporting us, or if you have any questions about your donation, please contact us at info@atlasfellowship.org.
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