Our Partners

We partner with organizations that advance socially minded, research-based leadership practices and that meaningfully serve our local community and the state of North Carolina.

Partners in Student Development

Since its founding in 1970, the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) has advanced the understanding, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide. Established by the Smith Richardson Foundation, which also provided the founding vision for the Caldwell Fellows program, CCL has trained every class of Caldwell Fellows for over four decades.

The ILA was created in 1999 and is the largest worldwide community committed to leadership scholarship, development, and practice. They accomplish their mission through the synergy that occurs by bringing together members and partners; collectively having a multiplier impact on leadership and change. Their work informs our leadership pedagogy.

Learn more

Partners in Service-Learning

When students are selected to join the Caldwell Fellows, they are immediately invited to contribute to the life of the campus, Raleigh, and the Triangle community as agents of change through the Sophomore Seminar in servant-leadership. This course connects small teams of Fellows with community service-learning partners in a variety of non-profit sectors. Learn more about some of our ongoing partnerships below.

Habitat for Humanity

Since 1985, Habitat for Humanity of Wake County has sought to bring people together to build homes, communities, and hope. Caldwell Fellows also take the lead in the annual Shack-A-Thon challenge.

Neighbor 2 Neighbor

Neighbor to Neighbor works to cultivate life-giving mentoring relationships that result in communities of hope, justice, and compassion.

Inter-Faith Food Shuttle

Inter-Faith Food Shuttle recovers and distributes over 9 million pounds of food per year and teaches skills for self-sufficiency including culinary job skills, shopping and cooking healthy on a budget, and how to grow food.

Open Door Clinic

The Open Door Clinic provides primary care and specialty care to adults without health insurance and also operates an on-site pharmacy that provides medication to patients at cost.

Dix Park Conservancy

The Dix Park Conservancy serves as the philanthropic and community engagement partner that ensures the creation and long-term success of Dorothea Dix Park as a place for everyone – a transformative public space for community, health, and celebration that will enrich our quality of life in North Carolina.

Sunlight

Caldwell Fellow alum Ryan O’Donnell (Class of 2015) created Sunlight in 2024, after his personal experience as a foster parent revealed to him the complexities of the foster care system. The mission of Sunlight is to strengthen America’s social safety net, starting with the challenges of our child welfare system.

Sunlight’s first product “Your Case Plan,” is built to reduce the number of days children are stuck in foster care by improving communication between everyone involved in child welfare cases.
The Sunlight service-learning team is supporting the formative work of Sunlight through data analysis of the foster care service metrics in targeted counties of North Carolina.

NC State’s Campus Conversations Project provides a framework for civic conversations on campus and across the state of North Carolina. It seeks to cultivate a campus culture built on mutuality, respect, and democratic engagement while equipping students with skills as citizens and leaders of systems into which they graduate.

For over 25 years, Caldwell Fellows have pitched in to plan, organize, and facilitate SATELLITE. It is a tremendous leadership development experience for our students and a unique opportunity for students from rural North Carolina high schools to experience science and technology-related educational and career paths on NC State’s campus.