ACLS Director of Public Programs John Paul Christy and three former and current fellows from University of California schools each answer five questions about the ACLS Public Fellows program: how the program developed, how successful fellows prepared, and what advice these experts have for interested applicants. An important listen before 2016 fellowship applications are due on March 24!

In this episode, we speak with Rob Schoenbeck, ACLS Public Fellow and Partnerships Evaluations Manager at Kiva, a nonprofit lending organization. Schoenbeck earned a PhD in English from UC Irvine in 2012 and began his fellowship at Kiva in September 2014. In his role at Kiva, Schoenbeck analyzes the effectiveness of Kiva’s partnerships by benchmarking partner activities against evidence-based practices. He advises potential applicants to be mindful of the “two audiences” for the fellowship application: ACLS and the host organization. According to Schoenbeck, “My main piece of advice really is to know your two audiences for the fellowship and to understand what your strengths are as a candidate with respect to each audience because they might be very different.” He explains that while ACLS looks to see how graduate training connects directly to career preparedness, employers may be more focused on how relevant skills earned in graduate school and beyond are suited for the position they wish to fill.