The Micah Fellows Program for Christian Service and Community Engagement

• rewarding internship placements with Birmingham service organizations
• an exclusive Micah Fellows spring break service trip
• a $3,000 service abroad scholarship
• priority registration
• innovative coursework and discussion cadres
• grant development work for Birmingham service organizations

Year One: The Call to Justice

Micah Fellows will take innovative courses and small discussion cadres that explore classical and Christian concepts of justice. During an alternative spring break trip, you will put your learning into action through serving with specific organizations like Heifer International, Compassion International, and Habitat for Humanity. The Call to Justice is an opportunity to think deeply about what it means to live the good life through the active practice of virtue.

Year Two: The Call to Mercy

The cornerstone of the Micah experience is service to Birmingham neighborhoods. While your discussion cadres focus on what it means to be merciful, you will also learn about and form a partnership with a service organization that matches your personality and goals for service with the needs of a specific Birmingham community. This will give you the chance to develop significant relationships with the people who live and work in the community you share.

Year Three: The Call to Humility

To prepare you for the international service abroad experience, you will take two advanced electives such as Christian Ethics, Human Rights, Social Entrepreneurship, and the Sociology of Poverty. At the end of junior year, all Micah Fellows will receive a $3,000 service abroad scholarship to spend two weeks working in a community of need. You will continue serving Birmingham throughout the year, but the service abroad experience will give you a more expansive view of what it means to live with humility.

Year Four: The Micah Foundation

As a senior, you will have the opportunity to work toward lasting positive change for your service partner in Birmingham. Your class of Micah Fellows will act as a community foundation, working with Birmingham service organizations to award $25,000 in grant funding. When you graduate,  you'll also leave Samford with a lasting education in Christian service and community engagement with the knowledge that you have made Birmingham a better place.

Micah Fellows is a four-year honors college experience grounded in the wisdom of Micah 6:8: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” As part of an inspired community called to serve others, Micah Fellows devote their minds and talents to making Birmingham, and the world beyond, a better place. Through innovative course work, high-impact community development and service abroad, the Micah Fellows program will provide an intentional university experience connected to the world around you.

Micah Fellows has made a commitment to Birmingham, Samford's home for over a century. Birmingham has a distinctive role in the progress of human and civil rights. The city provides unique opportunities in a vibrant culture of service and an educational commitment through numerous organizations and city-wide initiatives. Micah Fellows work with service partners in high-need neighborhoods to enact positive change, while also learning effective methods of service and community leadership. To see where some of our current students are serving, look at our Current Micah Fellows bios.

Click on the "Apply Today" icon to the right of this page. You will be asked to complete an application form, upload a comprehensive resume, answer an essay prompt and upload a recommendation letter. To apply, prospective students must have a minimum ACT score of 26 or corresponding SAT score.

Our application deadline is December 1, 2017. Selected students will be invited to interview for the Micah Fellows program. Micah Interview Day will take place on February 17, 2018. After the Micah Fellows Interview Day, 12-15 students will be selected as the Micah Fellows Class of 2022.

If you have any questions about Micah Fellows, the application process or scheduling a visit please contact Caroline Janeway at (205) 726-2841 or cmwilli3@samford.edu.

How Can My Organization Become a Community Partner?+

List of Samford's Community Partners+

The Micah 6:8 Summer Institute is a weeklong academic and service experience for rising high school juniors and seniors. Hosted by the Micah Fellows Program for Christian Service and Community Engagement on Samford’s campus, Micah Summer Fellows will explore Birmingham’s civil rights legacy and, through service to high-need communities, respond to the call for change.

This unique summer program combines the value of study and discussion with the experience of service and community engagement. Students will create a foundation for service by first studying classical, Christian, and contemporary ideas of justice, mercy, and humility, the virtues of Micah 6:8. With top Samford faculty and honors students, Micah Summer Fellows will explore the history of these ideas in the context of the Civil Rights movement in Birmingham. At the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Micah Summer Fellows will learn alongside Civil Rights experts and community leaders who experienced firsthand the pivotal events of Birmingham’s Civil Rights struggles. Micah Summer Fellows will then have the opportunity to live out their new understanding of justice, mercy, and humility through two days of service in high-need communities of Birmingham.

By exploring ideas, engaging history, and enacting service, Micah Summer Fellows will receive a holistic experience of what it means to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly”.

The Micah 6:8 Summer Institute will not be offered during the summer of 2017. It may be offered in future summers.