ESIP Community Report: 2025 Community Fellows Program

The 2025 ESIP Community Fellows Program evaluation found strong overall satisfaction and clear value for participants, particularly in fostering a welcoming environment, expanding professional networks, and building confidence across key skills. All respondents reported that the Program met their expectations and helped them achieve their personal goals. Fellows demonstrated measurable growth in skills such as facilitating collaboration, networking, and contributing to Earth science initiatives, alongside increased engagement with the ESIP community. A high Net Promoter Score (71.4) indicated strong enthusiasm and likelihood to recommend the program.

At the same time, the evaluation highlights opportunities to strengthen the Program’s impact. Fellows reported more limited benefits related to career advancement and community-wide engagement, with relatively few new professional connections and mixed experiences across Collaboration Areas. Key recommendations include establishing a formal program evaluation framework, expanding structured networking and mentorship opportunities, aligning expectations between Fellows and Collaboration Area leaders, and creating more intentional cross-Cluster and professional development activities. Addressing these areas will help ensure more consistent experiences and deepen the program’s contributions to participants’ career trajectories but also to the broader ESIP community.