As part of the Bezos Scholars Program, every Scholar launches a project to raise awareness and mobilize action in their hometowns. These projects, known as Community Change Projects, are designed to address a unique community need. Scholars build a committed team to support the project, with a vision of making a meaningful impact on their peers, school, and the broader community for years to come.

Scholars gain significant personal and team-based leadership skills through this project-based learning experience. They receive ongoing coaching and support from their educator, school, and community, as well as $1,000 in funding from the Bezos Family Foundation which can be re-applied for annually. Because the projects are designed to be sustainable, many have been successfully running for over five years!

At the beginning, Scholars are guided through big questions to find the idea for their Community Change Projects: What am I passionate about? Who am I in relation to the place I come from? What needs do I see there? What would lasting change look like? We support Scholars in engaging their communities to gain perspective on the people they’re serving and uncover the most feasible projects addressing their community’s most urgent needs.

From there, Scholars formally select the community need they want to focus their project on and develop an approach for making a meaningful impact on that need. They build a team of students and community members to help. They develop a project management plan and apply for funding to carry out their vision and mission. We provide key milestones, support and resources along the way, but Scholars are largely self-directed in their work. As they develop and launch their projects, Scholars document outcomes and the lessons they learn to enable future student leaders to sustain the project for years to come.

Learn more about the issues Scholars have mobilized change around and how their efforts have rippled out to make a positive difference in the community.