When the author ran into other recent graduates at the American Library Association (ALA) annual conference in New Orleans in 2006, several told her they were not happy with their jobs. After months of searching, they settled for positions in isolated rural libraries, have jobs with little responsibility, or are expected to manage their staff without training and support. After talking to them, the author realized how lucky she was, as the first Louise Parker Berry Fellow, to have a job where she gets to propose and implement projects and observe firsthand how library management makes decisions. The fellowship combines training in each department with shadowing management so she can see how all the pieces fit together, from customer service to policy creation, budgeting, and human relations. The Darien Library's Board of Trustees created the fellowship in 2004 in honor of Louise Berry's 25-year anniversary as library director. The fellowship is a two-year, full-time position at the Darien Library in Darien, CT, an affluent town outside New York City. The fellowship is designed to give new graduates the chance to carry out various high-stakes projects while also participating in daily activities. The author suggests that other public libraries would do well to establish similar fellowships. The profession would benefit from having a cadre of librarians with a holistic view of how libraries work. NextGen librarians would have the chance to apply library science training more broadly than most entry-level positions afford, while observing how management makes and implements decisions. Fellowships are an opportunity to close the gap between what is learned in library science programs and what happens in the real world.