The Friday Fellowship Call

With human relations at the core of the fellowship’s mission and design, fellows step into relationship with one another while evaluating their power, place, and purpose in a changing world. Today’s leaders face mounting challenges, many of which are rooted in inequities sewn into the fabric of a fraying democratic society. The Friday Fellowship prepares leaders to navigate the differences that divide communities by embracing adaptability and accountability. Following Bill Friday’s example, the fellowship inspires conversations and collaborations that allow fellows to imagine and create a more inclusive and innovative future. A celebration of relationship and an invitation to dialogue, the purpose of the Friday Fellowship is to seek and serve a new generation of courageous leaders ready to model civility and collaboration with one another and with communities across the state.  

This fellowship cycle will seat a cohort of approximately 15 North Carolinians who come together across lines of difference to participate in a two-year program. The program is structured in six weekend seminars hosted at retreat centers across the state. Each cohort begins its journey at Wildacres Retreat in McDowell County. Established by the Blumenthal family as a gathering place for the betterment of human relations, Wildacres anchors the fellowship in both place and practice. Traveling to the mountaintop together, fellows are invited to balance relationship building with personal reflection.

Friday Fellows model humility and continuous learning, and are courageous risk-takers seeking to create innovation through their work in the world. For more than 25 years, the fellowship has invited cross-sector leaders into a process of relationship building that asks fellows to examine their own - and others’ - lives and leadership practices. As a statewide fellowship invested in the flourishing of all North Carolinians, the Friday Fellowship promotes the transformation made possible when we are present to one another and committed to engaging across difference. Since its founding in 1995, the fellowship program has graduated over 200 cross-sector leaders whose relationships model the value of interdependence in an increasingly polarized North Carolina.