Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program Application Process
To counter the serious shortage of faculty of color in higher education, the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program encourages minority students and others with a demonstrated commitment to racial diversity to pursue academic careers. It provides opportunities for talented undergraduates to engage in research and other facets of academic life under the guidance of faculty mentors. The program also fosters an intellectual fellowship aimed at training Mellon scholars for an academic career. This includes monthly meetings where students focus on topics related to the challenges faced by minority scholars in the academy.
ELIGIBILITY
Fellowships are awarded to Harvard sophomores and provide funding for academic projects in the junior and senior years. Participation in the program is limited to students who are considering graduate study toward the Ph.D. in fields where minorities have been most severely under-represented, primarily the humanities and natural sciences. These fields include English and American Literature, Foreign Languages and Literatures (including area studies), History, Philosophy, Classics, Religion, Art History, Musicology, Anthropology, Demography, Sociology, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Geology, Ecology, and Earth Science. Participation is not limited by undergraduate field of concentration, but the program focus is on encouraging graduate study in the arts and sciences. If you are considering an academic career in a field not listed here, please inquire at the SEO about the Harvard College Research Program.
DESCRIPTION
The program is designed to address two issues that may contribute to the small number of minority students who pursue the Ph.D.: lack of familiarity with the nature of academic careers and concern about the long-term cost of education.
Learning About Academic Life: Program participants gain insight into the life of a professor by working closely with a faculty mentor on the faculty member's or the student's research. Along with enriching the student's academic life, these research experiences also enhance graduate school applications.
One of the missions of the Mellon Program is to establish a community of young scholars who can share undergraduate research experiences and support one another throughout graduate school. As a first step in setting up that network, Harvard's Mellon Program holds required meetings once a month throughout the academic year.
Financial Assistance: Fellows receive a term-time fellowship of $1600 for each academic year and up to $3400 for the summers after their sophomore and junior years. The fellowship enables students to devote time to academic pursuits that they might otherwise have spent on part-time jobs. The term award is disbursed in four increments to students working with a faculty mentor on the faculty member's or his or her own research.
Funding for the program comes from two sources: the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Up to ten students will be funded, five of these by the Mellon Foundation.
The loan forgiveness feature helps students overcome any disincentive to pursue an academic career caused by undergraduate loan indebtedness. Fellows who enroll in a Ph.D. program in one of the designated fields within 39 months of receiving their undergraduate degrees are eligible for up to $10,000 in undergraduate loan payments. The program repays guaranteed student loans in two halves. The first half is disbursed in yearly increments of $1250. The second half is repaid upon receipt of the Ph.D., provided that occurs within 6 years of entering graduate school.
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Applications:
Applications are due in the SEO on March 19, 2008. To apply to the Mellon Program, please submit copies of the following:
- the attached application form
- two 2-4 page, double-spaced essays:
- a brief (2-4 page) paper you have written for a class at Harvard
- a statement of purpose describing your academic interests and possible career plans. Feel free to comment on the life of Dr. Benjamin E. Mays relating it to the contribution you might make in furthering the goals of the MMUFP.
- a transcript, including your grades for the Fall term. (Please download your web report to include with your application with your name clearly printed on it, and also submit an official report from the Registrar, which may arrive later.)
- a resume, indicating your extracurricular activities and any honors or awards you have received.
- two letters of recommendation, at least one from a professor who has taught you at Harvard. (Please give a copy of the attached letter to anyone writing a letter of support for you.)
Fellows may begin their participation in the Mellon/Mentored Scholars Program as rising juniors or in the fall of their junior year.
Address questions and applications to:
(Meg Brooks Swift) or (Lauren Valente)
Student Employment Office
86 Brattle St.
Phone: (617) 495-2585
