TaketheFight (TTF) positions itself as a radical intervention in healthcare—not by building another awareness campaign, but by putting highly capable students directly into the day-to-day reality of cancer care.
The program trains and deploys Cancer Strategists who fight alongside patients at their local cancer center, helping patients become more supported, more engaged, and more efficient in their fight.
At its core, TaketheFight’s mission is direct: enable the world’s most promising future leaders to lead today. Instead of waiting for graduates to become decision-makers years later, TTF builds a two-year pathway where students gain frontline exposure to the healthcare system in Year One.
And then spend Year Two executing solutions designed to address the exact barriers they witnessed firsthand.
What makes it stand out is the model’s sequence: patient-level support first, then system-level change—all built into one structured fellowship.
What Is TaketheFight and Why Is It Called “Radical”?
TaketheFight describes itself as a radical intervention in healthcare because it embeds trained student Strategists inside the real cancer experience—appointments, treatments, logistics, emotional strain, and system complexity.
Rather than observing from the outside, Strategists are expected to actively help patients handle:
- navigating appointments and treatments
- staying organized and proactive
- keeping care efficient and coordinated
- remaining engaged with the healthcare process
This is not framed as “volunteering when convenient.” TTF emphasizes intensity and accountability because—by its own philosophy—they’re fighting for people’s lives.
The Role: What Exactly Does a “Cancer Strategist” Do?
A Cancer Strategist is paired one-on-one with a cancer patient at the patient’s local cancer center during the strategist’s final year of university.
The focus is to help the patient fight more efficiently—meaning the Strategist becomes an additional layer of support that can reduce friction, confusion, and missed steps.
A key idea in the TTF model is that many outcomes are shaped by whether a patient is merely “average” in terms of organization, follow-up, and engagement—or whether they become “above average” in how they manage care.
That difference is central to the Strategist mindset: helping patients avoid becoming lost in the system.
The “Above Average Patient” Concept
One Strategist spotlight describes the goal plainly: Strategists aim to help patients become above average cancer patients—because prognosis statistics often reflect outcomes for the “average” patient.
The program’s underlying belief is that better support and engagement can improve how effectively patients move through treatment.
The Fellowship Structure: Two Years, Two Missions
TaketheFight’s Radical Two-Year Fellowship is intentionally split into two distinct phases:
- Year One: patient-level impact (support + barrier identification)
- Year Two: systemic impact (solution-building + execution)
This design makes the program feel less like an internship and more like a leadership pipeline built around real-world problem solving.
Year One: Training + One-on-One Pairing With a Cancer Patient
Who Year One Is For
Year One is designed for top students in their final year of university, trained and paired with a patient. Students participate either:
- individually, or
- in teams of two from the same university
The Core Objective of Year One
The primary goal of Year One is not only to support a patient but also to identify and isolate specific barriers to better care.
Those barriers can come from three directions:
- The Patient (logistics, overwhelm, organization, support gaps)
- The Provider (communication issues, time constraints, coordination limits)
- The Health System (scheduling delays, complexity, paperwork, fragmentation)
Strategists are expected to witness these challenges firsthand—and treat them as data for future solutions.
Time Commitment: The Program Is Designed to Be Demanding
TaketheFight sets clear expectations about intensity.
During the final year of university, students must be willing and able to dedicate:
- a minimum of 10 hours per week to their patient
- with the understanding that some weeks may be even more intensive
Time management is positioned as a non-negotiable skill. TTF describes Strategists as exceptionally organized and high-functioning, because the role demands consistency and reliability when the stakes are high.
Year One Deliverable: The Executive Proposal
Throughout Year One, Strategists work with TTF Nationals (the organizational support team) to develop an Executive Proposal.
This proposal includes:
- the specific barrier/problem the Strategist observed
- why it matters in real patient care
- a potential solution to execute during Year Two
In other words, Year One is both service and research-by-experience. The Strategist is expected to translate frontline exposure into a structured proposal for change.
Pitch Moment: Fight Week Preparation
Strategists develop the proposal with the understanding that they will later pitch it during Fight Week, a major milestone at the start of Year Two.
Year Two: Full-Time Work at Headquarters in NYC to Drive Systemic Change
The Transition From Support to Solutions
Year Two begins after graduation, when Strategists join TaketheFight full-time at TTF Headquarters in NYC.
This year is built around a simple idea:
After witnessing how challenging life is for a patient battling a serious disease, Strategists are expected to problem-solve the issues they encountered—not hypothetically, but through real execution.
Fight Week: The Most Intensive Week Yet
Year Two launches with Fight Week, described as the Strategist’s most intensive week so far.
During Fight Week, Strategists:
- present their Plan for Systemic Change (PFSC) to fellow Strategists
- collectively select the strongest ideas
- form teams around priority projects
- begin planning execution for a focused, targeted one-year project
This creates a high-pressure, high-collaboration environment where proposals are tested, refined, and chosen.
Execution With Full Organizational Support
Throughout Year Two, Strategists execute solutions in a structured environment designed to be:
- impact-driven
- fast-moving (“There’s no sitting around”)
- team-based and supported
Strategists receive backing from:
- all Strategists
- TTF Nationals
- the wider organization
The program frames Year Two as your time to “change the world”—meaning the expectation is output, not busywork.
Post-Fellowship Employment: What Happens After Graduation From the Fellowship?
A defining feature of TaketheFight’s model is what happens upon completing the fellowship:
Upon graduation, Cancer Strategists are employed full-time with TaketheFight to continue problem-solving issues they encountered while fighting alongside their patient.
That continuation matters because it keeps experienced Strategists working on the system problems they already understand deeply—rather than sending them back into unrelated roles.
Eligibility: Who Can Apply and What Background Do You Need?
TaketheFight’s raw fellowship description emphasizes accessibility for high-potential students, even outside medicine.
Application Window and Graduation Timing
The eligibility text provided states:
- applications accepted through November 25
- for students with an expected graduation date of Spring 2017
(That reflects the specific cohort details in the raw information you provided.)
Background Requirements
A key point: a science/healthcare background or interest is not required.
TTF explicitly encourages applicants from all fields, emphasizing that diverse backgrounds and skill sets can produce more progressive innovations and solutions.
This implies the fellowship values:
- leadership
- organization
- initiative
- problem-solving
- execution ability
- empathy and reliability
Strategist Spotlight: Jason’s Example of the Fellowship in Real Life
One highlighted Strategist story illustrates how the model works in practice:
- Jason was a senior, pre-med, and a Division 1 football player at a top-tier university when he joined TTF.
- He fought alongside a brain cancer patient and her family, attending:
- doctors’ appointments
- radiation treatments
especially when family members needed to be at work.
His quote captures the fellowship’s philosophy: Strategists exist to help patients become above average in how they navigate cancer.
The spotlight also notes Jason later became a Fulbright Scholar at Duke Medical School, presented as an example of leadership trajectory after the fellowship experience.
Why This Fellowship Model Can Change Cancer Care
TaketheFight’s structure tackles cancer care at two levels that rarely connect cleanly:
1) Patient-Level Improvements (Immediate Impact)
By adding a Strategist, a patient gains:
- more consistent support
- better organization and follow-through
- a partner in navigating complex steps
- help staying engaged when stress is high
2) System-Level Improvements (Long-Term Impact)
Year Two forces the organization to convert lived patient-system friction into:
- targeted projects
- tested solutions
- operational execution
That “frontlines to headquarters” loop is what makes the approach radical. It treats patient experience as the starting dataset for reform.
A Fellowship That Trains Leaders by Putting Them on the Front Lines
Inside TaketheFight’s Radical Two-Year Fellowship, the central idea is simple but intense: leadership is not a title you earn later—it’s a responsibility you practice now.
Year One places students directly beside patients in local cancer centers, demanding a serious time commitment and real accountability. Strategists don’t just witness barriers to care—they document them, analyze them, and build proposals to solve them.
Year Two takes that frontline insight and turns it into action through full-time, NYC-based work—launched with Fight Week and driven by one-year execution projects with organizational support.
For students who want real-world impact while still in school—and who can handle an intensive workload—TaketheFight offers an uncommon model: support a patient today, then build systemic change tomorrow.
FAQs
What is TaketheFight’s Two-Year Fellowship?
It’s a two-year program where students train and work as Cancer Strategists: Year One pairs them one-on-one with a cancer patient; Year Two is full-time work executing solutions to system barriers they observed.
How much time does Year One require?
Students must commit at least 10 hours per week to their patient during their final year of university, with some weeks requiring more time.
Do you need a healthcare or science background to apply?
No. A science/healthcare background or interest is not required, and applicants from diverse fields are encouraged to apply.