Shunya Fellowship, October 2026 to September 2027
The year has three movements: a weekly pod through October and November, a month in India in December, and nine months of building with a monthly call. Here's what each one holds, what it asks of you, and the questions people have asked us so far.
Each one builds on the last, and each links to its details below.
About ten hours a week from wherever you are, held together by one live call with the whole cohort every Sunday.
Read more ↓A week together in Ahmedabad and Surat, inside a month-long journey through western India that you can join as much of as you like.
Read more ↓The pod ends and your project carries on, with the cohort meeting once a month while everyone builds.
Read more ↓Part one · October and November
Through October and November we ask for about ten hours a week: reading, trying things, working on your own project, in your own time. The one fixed thing is a 90-minute call with the whole cohort each week.
| October | November | |
|---|---|---|
| Pacific | 6:30 AM | 6:30 AM |
| Eastern | 9:30 AM | 9:30 AM |
| UK | 2:30 PM | 2:30 PM |
| Central Europe | 3:30 PM | 3:30 PM |
| India | 7:00 PM | 8:00 PM |
| Japan | 10:30 PM | 11:30 PM |
The call is set in US time, so it shifts by an hour elsewhere when clocks change. In the UK and Europe, October 25 is an hour earlier than shown. The Google Calendar link below takes care of all of this and shows each call in your own time. Calendar invites for everyone follow once forms are in.
This is the best fit we've found across the time zones our cohort spans. We've left November 29 open, so anyone flying to India for December has room to travel.
Two threads run through these two months, side by side rather than one after the other. One is practical: building fluency with AI tools, hands-on and at your own pace, by using them on your own project. The other is the inner side of the work, a practice of turning it inward, toward each other, and out into the world, in circle with people from many countries who care about the same things. Expect October and November to blend into each other rather than hand off neatly.
Life happens. A heads-up to the cohort is enough. What matters is the rhythm across the two months, being there most weeks. If you already know of weeks you'll miss, mention them on the confirmation form.
No, and that isn't the aim. AI fluency is one part of the fellowship, alongside your own inner growth and the work of leading well, not the whole of it. Two months won't make anyone an expert. In our experience it can be a good start, and it goes much further when you're learning in circle with others than when you're learning alone.
None at all. The confirmation form asks what you'd like to learn, so we can shape the pod around the people in it.
Part two · December
December 7 to 14 is the week we spend together, in Ahmedabad and then Surat, and we highly recommend it for everyone. Before and after it, the community that hosts us is running a month-long journey through western India, and we encourage you to join as much of it as you can. India in sips, not in a flood. Once you land, they take care of where you stay, what you eat, and how you get from city to city.
In the city where Gandhi turned inner conviction into a nation's uprising: four days with sixty changemakers from across India, sitting with what it means to serve without seeking anything back. If you can add one thing to our week, add this.
Land by noon. We spend the afternoon at the ashram where Gandhi lived for thirteen years, and with a family of friends who have spent three decades serving the slum beside it. Next morning, the train to Surat.
Three days with just our cohort, the Shunya team, and the people who host us. After two months of Sunday calls, this is where we finally sit in one room and let the questions you've been carrying breathe.
Quieter days. A sit in the morning, long open stretches for your project, a circle in the evening, and time with a few people who've walked this road for decades. We close together on the evening of the 13th.
Ten days rooted in one place. Days might be spent alongside women artisans keeping old crafts alive, sitting with elders, working the land with a permaculture farmer, or on excursions into nearby villages to glean the kind of rural wisdom that rarely makes it into books. Evenings close in circle.
A retreat for founders and leaders in business and technology, on what wisdom might mean in an age of AI. Fellows join the volunteer crew, and also sit in the room.
We highly recommend the week of December 7 to 14 for everyone. It's the heart of December, the one time the whole cohort is in the same room. If it can't work for you, please still send the form and tell us, and we'll figure something out together. Around that week, here are a few ways people are thinking about the rest.
Arrive in Ahmedabad by December 2 and leave from Pune on the 28th. If you can do it, this is the one we'd hope for. You'll be looked after the whole way.
December 2 to 14 gets you the Spirit of Service retreat and then our week. December 7 to 23 gets you our week and then the local immersion in Ahmedabad.
December 7 to 14. Land in Ahmedabad and leave from Surat, which has domestic flights, or from Mumbai, about four hours away by train.
Stays, meals and travel within India are covered by the local community, as a gift. Flights are the one cost we ask you to think about. If you can cover your own, that helps us stretch what we have. If not, check the box on the confirmation form and we'll cover an economy fare. Flights and any reimbursements are handled through our fiscal sponsor, The Pollination Project.
It changes through the month. December 8 to 13 is just our cohort, the team, and the people hosting us. At the two retreats you're part of a much bigger group. After December 14, it depends on who's staying on; once everyone's dates are in, we'll let you know who you'll be traveling with.
Mostly in people's homes, simple and clean. You'll share a room with another fellow of the same gender. It's part of what makes the month what it is.
Home-cooked and vegetarian. Vegan, gluten-free and other needs are fine if we know ahead. Tell us on the form.
We know long stretches away from family can be hard. We can't include family in the program itself, but if you'd like to bring them at your own cost we'll help you find a place to stay nearby. Our week of December 7 to 14 is for the cohort only.
Most fellows will need one, and how long it takes depends on your country, so start as soon as your dates are confirmed. We'll send an invitation letter and help with the paperwork. Once your dates are set, we'll also send a separate link to collect your flight details so someone can meet you.
Part three · January to September 2027
After December, the cohort keeps meeting once a month while everyone works on their projects. The calls are a place to share what moved, what stalled, and what your project is asking of you next. Between calls you're building, on your own or in twos and threes with fellows whose work is close to yours.
Almost everything else about the year is left open on purpose. These two aren't.
At the end of the year we sit down together, you and the hosts, and look back together at how it went: what you did, how it changed you, how it served others. We offer our own reflection back to you, too.
The year closes by connecting you and your project to a living community, a pod or a circle that can keep holding what the fellowship began once the year is over.
That's yours to decide. Fellows choose how much time to give their project, alongside a job, a degree, or whatever else is already part of their life.
That's fine, and it's common. Some projects grow and may become organizations of their own. Some change shape completely. Some fold, having still been an act of service. We've found all of these can be good endings.
By bringing your presence, without an agenda. Most of us spend our working lives in a transactional mind, always quietly asking what a person or a room can do for us. This year is a chance to set that down and see what happens when a small group does it together. We've found that something else starts to hold people then: trust, friendships, unexpected sources of support. We've written more about this in Held.
In practice, we ask that you don't frame your project as a pitch or solicitation, whether from other fellows or from anyone you meet along the way, including the hosts and volunteers in India. Sharing your work and asking for feedback, of course, is certainly encouraged and part of the process.
Individual emptiness creates collective fullness.
The fellowship is offered as a gift: the two-month online pod, and the month in India with stays, meals and travel within India covered, plus an economy flight if you need one.
When we first shared the fellowship, we were exploring a small honorarium for fellows who might need extra support during the building months. This first cohort is bootstrapped, though, so we won't be able to offer financial support directly. Separately, our fiscal sponsor, The Pollination Project, will offer fellows a way to apply for a one-time microgrant of $1,000–2,000 toward their project, reviewed through its own process. It's modest, and not everyone who applies will receive one, but if it would be meaningful for your work, you're welcome to apply. We'll share the details in the new year. Future cohorts may look different, depending on what emerges.
Most of what this fellowship offers isn't money: the time of many volunteers, a small circle walking together, and homes that open to you in India. If going without financial support makes taking part infeasible for you right now, we honor that completely, and we'd love to welcome you in a future cohort.
The fellowship is an offering of Shunya Labs, a small nonprofit AI lab housed at The Pollination Project, a US 501(c)(3). Its roots are in ServiceSpace, a volunteer-run community that has been practicing this kind of gift-based work for over twenty-five years, and many of the people you'll meet through the year come from it. But Shunya is its own initiative. The December journey is hosted by Moved By Love, a community of volunteers in India.
It takes about ten minutes: the weekly pod, your December window, and a few practical things. If you're unsure about something, just say so.
Open the formNot a fellow yet? Start here
December is hosted by Moved By Love, a community of volunteers in India who've been running gatherings like these for fifteen years. We're glad to be walking this year with you.