HILL Fellowship

Developed in partnership with the Griffiss Institute, a nationally recognized hub for technology and defense innovation in the Mohawk Valley, the Hamilton Integrated Learning Lab (HILL) Fellowship places a cohort of Hamilton students into a 10-week immersive summer experience that combines:

• rigorous coursework in leadership and professional development;
• substantive project-based work with real partner organizations; and
• experiential learning opportunities throughout the innovation landscape found across central New York.

Why It Matters

The best preparation for an uncertain technological future is not a narrow credential. It is the capacity to lead, think, and act in unfamiliar terrain. The students who will shape the next generation of AI policy, defense innovation, and technology governance will not be those who only know how to build systems; they will be those who can ask the right questions, navigate competing interests, and make decisions under genuine uncertainty. A Hamilton education develops these skills, and the HILL Fellowship provides the opportunity for students to put these skills to work in our rapidly changing world.

What Fellows Do

• Contribute meaningful work on a partner-designed project with actual stakes and deliverables that matter to the organization they serve.
• Engage in structured seminars on leadership, decision-making, and professional identity, building the reflective capacity that turns experience into growth.
• Travel across the Mohawk Valley region throughout the summer, meeting the executives, entrepreneurs, researchers, and civic leaders shaping the future of AI, defense technology, and innovation in upstate New York.

A Week as a 2026 HILL Fellow

• Monday: Leadership development with the help of Daneli Partners, led by David Casullo '84
• Tuesday-Thursday: Fellows are at their respective internships
• Friday: Regional field trips as a cohort

Capstone Week

During the final three days of the 10-week program, HILL Fellows:

• Take time to reflect on their individual experience and prepare for their team presentations to host partners.
• Attend a workshop led by the Career Center that focuses on building networks, how to talk about the fellowship with future employers, and mapping next steps. 
• Present the project their team worked on for their assigned host organization. Each Fellow also shares their individual reflections on the experience during the presentation. Host partners and program staff attend.
• Attend a design charrette to help the College assess the HILL Fellowship program and shape what the next version will look like.

Recent Host Partners

• Oneida Innovations
• Masonic Medical Research Institute (MMRI)
• GI Ventures

Application Process

Informational meetings are held during the fall semester. Applications open in the late fall or early spring semester, and Fellows are announced in the middle of the spring semester.