New signature program under Capital Rising will bring up to 36 first-year students into direct work with the president, monthly immersions with Columbus leaders, and a residential leadership community beginning fall 2027.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Capital University today announced the Presidential Leadership Fellows, a four-year leadership and scholarship program for first-year students that will launch with the fall 2027 entering class. The program is a centerpiece of Capital Rising: Thriving into Our Third Century, the University’s strategic plan, and its call to create signature experiences that connect learning to vocation, leadership, and service, and to claim Columbus as Capital’s living-learning laboratory.
Each year, a cohort of up to 36 first-year students will be selected as Presidential Leadership Fellows. Fellows receive a renewable $4,000 annual scholarship in addition to the merit scholarship they earn at admission, and they commit to four years of leadership, professional, and career development that grows in responsibility each year.
In their first year, Fellows meet one-on-one with Capital University President Jared R. Tice, Ed.D., twice each semester, take part in a monthly leadership and professional development experiences that include immersions with Columbus industry, civic, and nonprofit leaders and Capital alumni, and live together in a Presidential Leadership Fellows community in Cotterman Hall with upper-class mentors.
Working with Capital’s Career Development office and a strengths assessment, each Fellow builds a personal professional growth plan. The year culminates in an extended-weekend capstone in Chicago with alumni and partner organizations, and a showcase in which Fellows present what they have learned to the president and the incoming cohort.
Fellows also attend Capital’s signature traditions together as a cohort, including the Gerhold Lecture Series in the Humanities, Christmas Festival, and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Learning.
“Leadership is learned in relationship, in community, and in a real place,” Tice said. “The Presidential Leadership Fellows gives our most promising first-year students four years with the president, with the leaders of this city, and with each other. I will know every Fellow by name, meet with each of them, and watch them grow from students learning to lead into mentors helping others do the same. There is no better expression of what Capital Rising means than that.”
In the years that follow, Fellows mentor the next entering cohort; take on a cohort project with a Columbus partner; complete a substantial professional experience such as an internship, research, or study away with a professional mentor; and, in their senior year, lead the program’s mentoring, help select the next class of Fellows, and present a capstone project to the president and senior leadership.
Fellows who complete the program are recognized at Commencement with a Presidential Leadership Fellows designation.
Capital is taking a distinct approach to a leadership fellows and scholars' program at colleges and universities nationwide with the only program that combines guaranteed one-on-one access to the president for first-year students, a monthly city-based immersion series, a residential cohort community, and a four-year mentoring ladder in a single program.
“Students and families are telling us they want an education that connects what happens in the classroom to what comes next, and they want to be known,” said Stephanie Sanders, vice president for Strategic Enrollment Management and Marketing. “The Presidential Leadership Fellows is both. It is a scholarship, a community, and a direct line to Capital’s president and to Columbus. And it gives high-achieving students one more compelling reason to choose Capital.”
“The Fellows community in Cotterman Hall is where this program will come to life day to day,” said Dr. Damon Brown, vice president for Student Experience. “First-year Fellows will live and learn with residential assistant mentors and an additional upper-class peer mentor who have walked the same path, and by their junior and senior years they will be leading that community themselves. That is how leadership takes root.”
Admission to the Presidential Leadership Fellows is open to first-year students entering Capital in fall 2027 who have a 3.5 high school grade point average, and who will live on campus. Applications for admission to Capital University for fall 2027 are currently open at capital.edu/apply. Admitted students will be notified through their admissions portal and invited to submit a brief Fellows application by the January 15, 2027, priority deadline. Finalists will interview at Capital’s spring scholarship competition in February, and the inaugural cohort will be named in March.
For nearly two centuries, Capital University has prepared students for lives of purpose, leadership, service, and impact. Rooted in the close-knit community of Bexley and connected to the opportunities of Columbus, Capital offers a signature learning experience in which students are known, challenged, supported, and prepared for what comes next. The Presidential Leadership Fellows extends that promise as the University approaches its bicentennial in 2030.
For more information about the Presidential Leadership Fellows, contact the Office of the President at presidentsoffice@capital.edu.
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About Capital University
Capital University transforms lives by empowering an inclusive community of learners through engaging academic, co-curricular, and professional experiences. Founded in Ohio in 1830, Capital is Columbus’s Original University™ and offers undergraduate, graduate, legal and theological education. Capital combines the close-knit community of its Bexley campus with the professional and cultural opportunities of Columbus to provide a personal, career-connected education where students are known and supported. Capital is included in The Princeton Review's Best 392 Colleges: 2027 Edition and has been named a 2026-27 Colleges of Distinction.