Applications for the Fall 2023 Effective Altruism Fellowship are now closed. Subscribe to our mailing list to hear when applications open for the next cohort.
INTRODUCTION
Some efforts to improve the world are much more impactful than others. Smallpox eradication, the abolitionist movement, the development of germ theory, and the Green Revolution are just a few examples that illustrate what’s possible when people come together to solve pressing problems. But those high-impact projects are few and far between while many well-intended initiatives are ineffective or even counterproductive. Discerning between the good, the “good enough” and the bad is the perennial challenge every generation faces, and yet the coming century is poised to be the most consequential in history; how we maneuver such challenges over the next hundred years may drastically affect the trajectory of humankind.
Effective Altruism at UVA invites you to join the Effective Altruism Fellowship, a program that offers an accelerated introduction to Effective Altruism (EA) for students who are motivated to think explore about their potential to have an immensely positive impact on the world.
What is EA? EA is both a philosophy and a network of people, centered around the desire to find ways to do the most good possible given the world’s limited resources and our own limited time, energy, and talents. Making a significant impact on the world seems like a privilege reserved for wealthy philanthropists or tech oligarchs, when in reality, with careful deliberation, anyone can take advantage of extraordinary opportunities to do good.
We think something incredible is true: there are exceptional opportunities to change the world that most people don’t realize exist. We think that there are important insights that can enable rationally-minded people to boost their impact by many orders of magnitude.
To summarize, EA is about doing the most good possible with limited resources, and it has two distinct components:
- The EA philosophy uses reason and evidence to identify which areas have the potential to make the greatest impact.
- The EA network is the group of people who share this mission, many of whom have organized their careers around doing good, among whom methods and practical wisdom (which now constitute a considerable literature, e.g. 80,000 hours) are shared.
WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
EA is multifaceted, so its principles have different consequences for different individuals; each of us has unique interests and skills to offer. EA at UVA is looking to invest significant time in individuals who are keen to learn how they can have a large impact on society with their lives and careers (which is paradoxically both rarer and easier than most people think!). This is not an introduction to the infrastructures of philanthropy, university policy or foreign aid, nor is this a course in activism. Our objective is to change the way you think about philanthropy and impact, and to help you leverage your own skills and interests—whether you’re a computer wizard, legal buff, biohacker or policy wonk—to solve problems that can improve, or even save hundreds of lives around the world (problems often neglected by traditional philanthropy). The Fellowship will plug you in to a network of people from diverse backgrounds and interests—both at UVA and beyond—who share the same ambition to do good better. Please join us!
FELLOWSHIP STRUCTURE
The Fellowship takes place over the course of 9 weeks. Each week consists of a set of readings/videos and a discussion scheduled for Sundays at 7:00-8:30 at New Cabell (exact room details to follow). The readings take approximately an hour to complete.
COMMUNITY BUILDING
One of the primary goals of the fellowship is to build a community between the fellows, so we will be holding several social events!
EXPECTATIONS
We expect fellows to embody these four traits:
- Enthusiasm to do good better
- Openness to novel ideas
- A scientific mindset
- Action orientation
A central part of the EA mindset is taking seriously ideas that may seem counterintuitive or even uncomfortable. Some of the most exciting opportunities to do good exist precisely because they are not mainstream and remain unexploited. As such, fellows should expect to have their beliefs challenged.
During the Fellowship we will cover a wide range of fields and methodologies. No subject knowledge is required — the program is designed to be self-contained, so fellows shouldn’t worry if they are not familiar with, say, philosophy, economics, synthetic biology, or artificial intelligence. EA is cerebral in some ways, but this Fellowship is not just a fun intellectual exercise — we hope that fellows will be eager to incorporate these ideas into their daily lives and long-term plans if they find them persuasive!
UPON COMPLETION OF THE FELLOWSHIP
Fellows are welcome to list the Fellowship on their résumé. Fellowship leaders are dedicated to helping alumni have the opportunities that will make them more effective altruists throughout their lives. If a Fellow is especially interested in Effective Altruism, they are welcome to help run the EA Fellowship in future semesters.
CURRICULUM
The Fellowship takes place over 9 weeks. Below is the tentative overview of topics covered.
Overview of Weeks (subject to small changes)
Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: The Effectiveness Mindset
Week 3: Differences in Impact
Week 4: Expanding Our Compassion
Week 5: Longtermism
Week 6: Existential Risk
Week 7: Emerging Technologies
Week 8: What Might We Be Missing?
Week 9: Putting it Into Practice
Effective Altruism at UVA 