The Lafayette Fellowship Welcomes Its Inaugural 2026–2027 Class
Meet the 30 American students who have been awarded the Lafayette Fellowship. This exceptional cohort will pursue one year of fully funded master’s study at one of 15 leading French universities, while participating in an immersive leadership and cultural program designed to cultivate the next generation of French-American leaders.
Explore the new Fellows’ profiles here.
Established in September 2025 under the high patronage of the President of the French Republic to mark the 250th anniversary of French-American friendship, the Fellowship is offered by Villa Albertine, in partnership with France Science, with support from Albertine Foundation.
Each year, 30 outstanding American post-graduate students are selected to pursue one fully funded year of master’s study at a leading French university or grande école across STEM, the humanities, social sciences, and the arts. Beyond their academic studies, Fellows participate in a comprehensive French-American Leadership Program featuring mentorship opportunities, access to leading thinkers and institutions, and immersive cultural and civic experiences across France.
This year’s Fellows were selected following a rigorous national selection process chaired by Nobel Prize–winning economist Dr. Esther Duflo, with a distinguished jury that included Dr. Allan Goodman, President Emeritus of the International Institute of Education (IIE); Ms. Deborah Bial, President of The Posse Foundation; Dr. Catherine Dulac, Samuel W. Morris Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University; Dr. Patrick Weil, Political Scientist at CNRS and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University; and Mr. Mohamed Bouabdallah, Cultural Counselor of France and Director of Villa Albertine.
Chosen from a competitive pool of 3,400 applications, the incoming class represents a diverse range of profiles and academic interests. Geographically, students are distributed across four U.S. regions (East (36%), Midwest (17%), West (20%), and South (27%)), reflecting broad national representation. More than 57% are women, 23% percent of students are recipients of federal scholarships. The Fellows hold an impressive average GPA of 3.8. As they commence their graduate studies in France, 50% of Fellows will study in Paris, while the other half will be distributed across universities throughout the rest of France.
The Fellows will be welcomed in Paris on July 4, 2026, before embarking on a transformative summer leadership program across Paris, Avignon, Arles, and Marseille. The Leadership Program will continue in Strasbourg in December and in the Paris region in spring 2027. Through masterclasses on global challenges, meetings with leading institutions, cultural immersions, and engagements with France’s innovation ecosystem, the students will build lifelong connections with one another and with France while shaping the next chapter of transatlantic collaboration.
Applications for the 2027 program will open on September 4, 2026, and close on December 1, 2026. Please reach out to lafayettefellowship@villa-albertine.org with any questions. You may also refer to the Lafayette Fellowship website for more information.
The Lafayette Fellowship is made possible thanks to the support of its founding patrons: Andrew Carnegie Foundation, formerly Carnegie Corporation of New York; Eric and Wendy Schmidt; The Richard Lounsbery Foundation; Hubert and Mireille Goldschmidt; Stephan Haimo and Veronica Bulgari; Reid Hoffman; Hubert Joly and Hortense le Gentil-Joly; David Sadroff; Fidji Simo; France and Christofer Descours; Maggie Lyon; Véronique and Jean-Hugues Monier; Gildo Pastor; Claire Simier and Gregg Galardi; American Friends of Blérancourt; Fondation de Chambrun-Lafayette; Ariane and Lionel Sauvage; Marc and Sally Onetto; and Allan Goodman; as well as our valued partners: Air France as the exclusive airline partner of the inaugural Lafayette Fellowship cohort; Campus France; the Franco-American Fulbright Commission (Fulbright France); Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris – Fondation des États-Unis; and CNOUS.