Our flagship career accelerator is a 5-6 week leadership development program for ambitious, early-career East and Southeast Asian American professionals in New York and encompasses the following 4 components:

1. Speaker Series: Learn from industry-changing Asian American leaders, from corporate c-suite executives to consumer brand entrepreneurs. Past speakers include founders and executives from Glow Recipe, the NBA, Sanzo, Lunar Hard Seltzer, Makku, Union Square Hospitality Group, Michelin-starred Cote Korean Steakhouse, and many more.

2. Executive Coaching: Hone key leadership skills through professional coaching focused on culturally relevant issues based on academic research, such as developing an executive presence.

3. Mentorship: We match each fellow to a mid-career mentor who can provide tailored advice across personal and professional topics such as navigating career pivots, moving to a new city, getting promoted, finding purpose and fulfillment.

4. Community: We’re bringing together a lifelong community of like-minded, ambitious AAPI peers and mentors to forge friendships, meet potential coworkers, and even become future co-founders. Accelerator alumni get access to Lunar Accel events we host in the future!

• Learn from industry-changing Asian American leaders, from corporate executives of billion dollar companies to consumer brand entrepreneurs expanding the frontiers of Asian American culture.

• Build personalized mentor relationships with accomplished mid-career professionals, many of whom lead teams at industry-leading organizations or are starting their own companies.

• Expand professional network of like-minded, high-achieving peers who are future business partners, co-founders, investors, collaborators, and more—here to support you throughout your career

• Develop your leadership toolkit via executive coaching, and learn to anticipate and handle challenges Asian Americans face in the workplace

• Have fun attending cool events and meeting cool people in NYC!

• Must have 1-5 years of professional (non-internship) work experience, 2-5 years recommended. Highly motivated new grads are eligible.

• Be physically present in New York City (or within commuting distance) from Oct 22 to Nov 11 during the programmed events shown below

• Identify as coming from East/Southeast Asian background (due to cultural similarities and resulting discrepancies in professional outcomes)

• Ideally demonstrate a strong desire for continued self-improvement and collaborative learning. Candidates may come from any industry.

There are generally 4 groups that benefit the most from the program:

1. Individuals interested in pursuing a leadership role or a promotion within the next 1-3 years.

2. Individuals considering pivoting industries/roles and/or pursuing an unconventional or high-risk career path.

3. Individuals interested in or actively pursuing entrepreneurship.

4. Individuals interested in the Asian American experience, especially with regard to professional outcomes.

Our past fellows come from a diverse set of backgrounds, including top companies across various industries (see below), nonprofits like Committee of 100 and St. Louis Public Charter School, as well as founding engineers at seed-stage startups. We value and highly encourage candidates from any background, including unconventional backgrounds, to apply!

Full list of past fellow affiliations:

Bain & Company
BlackRock
Boston Consulting Group
C3 AI
Committee of 100
Confluent
Deloitte
Downstate Health Sciences University
Houlihan Lokey
IBM
JP Morgan
Jefferies Group
KKR & Co.
Kairos Academies, St. Louis Public Charter Schools
LinkedIn
McKinsey
Meta
Pernod Ricard
PwC
S&P Global

All fellows will be matched to 1 mid-career mentor (and are encouraged to reach out to others). Our past mentors include senior managers at companies like Google, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, PepsiCo, Goldman Sachs, Gopuff, and Putnam Associates, as well as founders of pre-seed/seed companies and individual freelancers. Our 2023 mentor roster will be announced at a later date.

While we would love to accept all applicants, we have historically received many more applications than people we can accommodate. In spirit of fairness and transparency, all applicants will be reviewed via the following process:

• All applications are first passed through a double-blind review (i.e., applicant names are redacted) and fit is evaluated according to a standardized rubric

• Shortlisted applicants will be invited to a short 20-min chat with one of our team members to learn more about your background and help answer any questions. Applicants may also be invited to one or more coffee chats or social happy hours during this time.

• Acceptances will be sent out no later than 2 weeks of the application deadline (Friday, March 22, 2024, 11:59pm ET). Upon acceptance, completion of the commitment deposit is required to reserve a seat in the program, except in cases where financial aid has been requested.

The program will conclude with a celebratory closing banquet headlined by Eric Chan (CFO of the LA Clippers) and potentially additional guests. All Fellows, mentors, guest speakers, and volunteers are invited to commemorate the occasion.

Though the formal program concludes in November, Accelerator alumni will continue to have access to exclusive speaker sessions and networking events year-round. Past year-round events have included small-group dinner series with Sean Ro (Co-Founder, Lunar Hard Seltzer) and Daniel Chang (VP of M&A, AmEx Global Business Travel), as well as happy hours with corporate AAPI employee resource groups (ERGs) from companies like LinkedIn, Disney, DoorDash, and more.

Those especially interested in taking an active leadership role in Lunar Accel are encouraged to speak to a current member of the leadership team about potential 2024 open roles!

Thanks to the generosity of our donors, our Winter 2023 Career Accelerator program is 100%* free of charge! To ensure that all accepted fellows are committed to the program, a $125 deposit is required upon acceptance, which is 100% refunded to all fellows upon successful completion of the program. Of course, if this presents any financial difficulty, please let us know and we are happy to reduce or waive the deposit.

Yes! We (and researchers) believe that grit and perseverance are some of the strongest predictors of success.

No, we welcome candidates from any nationality to apply — non-US citizenship does not negatively impact applications. Our only requirement is being physically present in New York City for the duration of the program

Yes! Mentors have access to all programming events. Fill out this quick 15-min Mentor Interest form and someone from our team will be in touch shortly.

At Lunar Accel, we strongly believe in supporting and giving back to the Asian American community with no strings attached and no profit incentives. From a tactical perspective, we also believe the developing the best possible program experience with the greatest impact is best done without the obligation to deliver a financial return. That's also why our speakers come in pro-bono and our team, board of director members, and mentors contribute their time on an entirely volunteer-basis.

Applications for our 2024 spring cohort will close Friday, March 22, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST.