Credit: Hertz Foundation
Sustaining and Enhancing the Impact of the Summer Workshop¶
The 2025 Hertz Summer Workshop exemplifies what scientific community-building can and should be: a space where scientific minds come together not just to share their latest findings, but to reconnect with the fundamental purpose of their work—solving society’s most pressing challenges. Through our evaluation, we have witnessed a remarkable phenomenon in the scientific community: an event that successfully balances technical rigor with genuine human connection, prestigious achievement with humble playfulness, and individual autonomy with collaborative spirit.
A Model Worth Sustaining (and Expanding)¶
The Hertz Foundation has developed a community-building approach that stands apart from typical scientific conferences and workshops. Where other meetings prioritize presentations of polished research products, the Hertz Summer Workshop creates space for sharing the realities of doing science. Where other events leave networking to chance encounters in hallways, this workshop intentionally designs for connection at every level—from observational “parallel play” to deep collaborative engagement. Where other organizations struggle to maintain multi-generational engagement, the Hertz community thrives on cross-cohort mentorship and the visible career trajectories of its members.
This model works because it is built on values that resonate throughout the community: the “awesome responsibility” of scientific work, the freedom to innovate across disciplines, the prestige of belonging to a community of exceptional scientists, and the power of interdisciplinary collaboration. The workshop serves as the manifestation of these values, bringing them to life through carefully designed talks, activities, and social opportunities.
The Foundation’s commitment to ensuring the workshop remains “For the Fellows, By the Fellows” is evident with the enthusiastic volunteer engagement and distributed staff model . While challenges remain in clarifying decision-making authority and managing workload, the core strength of engaging the entire organization in this signature event ensures that the workshop remains aligned with the Foundation’s broader mission and values.
Opportunities for Enhancement¶
As successful as the 2025 workshop was, our evaluation has identified concrete opportunities to enhance its impact:
Expanding Temporal Reach: The workshop’s influence need not be confined to a single weekend each year. Fellows consistently expressed desire for more opportunities to connect throughout the year, whether through regional meetups, online forums focused on specific challenges, or virtual mentorship programs. The Foundation already has some of these experiences, but it is clear that Fellows do not know the extent of the additional activities that are offered. The Foundation should leverage the momentum and connections generated at the summer workshop to create sustained engagement opportunities that keep the community energized and connected between annual gatherings.
Deepening Inclusivity: While the workshop already does much to welcome diverse participants such as including families, spouses, and attendees with various backgrounds, there remain opportunities to ensure all fellows feel fully included. Creating dedicated spaces for underrepresented groups, improving accessibility for attendees with disabilities, providing financial support for family participation, and carefully considering location implications for marginalized community members would strengthen the Foundation’s commitment to inclusion. These efforts would not only improve individual experiences but would also enrich the entire community by ensuring all voices and perspectives can fully participate as well as making the event more enticing for Fellows who have not attended in years.
Amplifying Impact Beyond the Community: The workshop’s distinctive approach to scientific communication and community-building holds value far beyond the Hertz Fellowship program. The attributes of a Hertz Summer Workshop talk: accessibility across disciplines, candor about challenges and ethical implications, and connection to societal impact, could serve as a model for scientific communication more broadly. The Foundation should consider ways to share this expertise, whether through workshops on scientific communication for fellows, public documentation of the approach, or partnerships with other organizations seeking to improve their scientific meetings.
Leveraging the Refreshed Identity: The new tagline “Name a Challenge. There’s a Hertz Fellow Working On It.” resonated powerfully with attendees because it authentically captures what the community represents. The Foundation should build on this momentum by:
Creating searchable databases or interactive displays of challenges and the fellows addressing them
Encouraging fellows to articulate their own work in terms of the challenges they’re tackling
Using this framing to demonstrate the fellowship’s value to potential donors and partners
Helping fellows develop the scientific communication skills to effectively articulate their societal impact
Refining Partnership Strategy: As the Foundation cultivates new partnerships to support its fundraising goals and expand opportunities for fellows, it must do so with careful attention to community values and norms. Partners should be prepared to engage with the Hertz community in ways that respect its culture of rigorous yet collegial scientific discourse. The community itself should have a voice in partnership decisions, ensuring that new relationships enhance rather than compromise the Foundation’s mission and the workshop’s unique character.
Sustaining Excellence Through Community Engagement¶
Perhaps the most important finding of this evaluation is that the workshop’s success stems from the community’s active participation in its design, execution, and continuous improvement. Volunteers who dress as pirates for the engineering challenge, senior fellows who mentor newcomers during coffee breaks, and staff members who step outside their job descriptions to ensure smooth operations all contribute to an event that feels fundamentally different from other scientific gatherings.
This spirit of collective ownership and shared responsibility should be preserved and celebrated. As the Foundation considers ways to enhance the workshop—whether through new technologies like the matching program, new formats like partnership breakouts, or new messaging through the refreshed brand—it should do so in consultation with the community and with attention to how innovations align with core values.
The workshop succeeds because it treats fellows as active co-creators of a beloved scientific community gathering. This approach should guide all future decisions about the workshop’s evolution.
Looking Forward¶
The Hertz Summer Workshop occupies a critical position in the scientific ecosystem. At a time when science faces challenges from declining federal funding, increasing political polarization, and public skepticism, the workshop provides a space where scientists can reconnect with their sense of purpose, build resilience through community support, and remember why they chose their difficult but essential work.
For early-career fellows navigating uncertain job markets and contemplating career pivots, the workshop offers visibility into possible futures and connections to peers who can provide guidance. For mid-career fellows facing the challenges of building research groups or companies, it provides access to mentors, funding opportunities and potential collaborators. For senior fellows looking to give back and shape the next generation of scientific leaders, it creates opportunities for meaningful mentorship and a sense of purpose. And for all attendees, it reinforces that they are part of something larger than themselves: a community of scientists committed to addressing society’s most important challenges.
The Hertz Foundation has built something remarkable in the Hertz Summer Workshop. Our evaluation indicates that this model should not only be sustained but expanded in its reach and influence. By implementing the recommendations in this report—refining logistics, enhancing inclusion, formalizing mentorship, and amplifying the parallel play model—the Foundation can ensure that the workshop continues to serve as the vital heartbeat of the Hertz community for generations to come.
The scientists who gather each year in locations across the country do so because they find something at this workshop they cannot find elsewhere: a rare combination of intellectual stimulation, professional development, genuine human connection, and joyful play. In preserving and enhancing these elements, the Hertz Foundation will continue to fulfill its mission of supporting the scientists who will solve the world’s most pressing challenges.