Brief: Program helps devoted students find education through travel

Program helps devoted students find education through travel

According to a UNM press release, the University sends students nationwide in a program designed around the interrelated ideas of scholarly research, faculty mentoring and community support networks.

The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program requires every Mellon Fellow to study outside of New Mexico for at least one summer, according to the release.

During the spring semester, the program selects up to five full-time undergraduate students in MMUF-eligible fields who are determined to pursue a doctorate in their academic career, according to the release.

The release states that this past summer, six UNM Mellon Fellows traveled to various universities across the U.S.

These trips provide the students an opportunity to meet like-minded people and enrich their individual passions, while also helping students realize their own passion in relation to academia, according to the release.

“My freshman year, choosing to study literature was a clear choice considering my lifelong interest in reading, but the practice of this skill as a profession was never a goal,” English literature and French major and Mellon Mays Fellow Kalila Bohsali is quoted as saying in the release. “As a sophomore, acceptance to the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship helped solidify my decision to pursue a Ph.D. and eventually teach at the college level.”

Back in 2014 the University was invited by the Mellon Foundation to join the consortium of undergraduate institutions, in addition to the United Negro College Fund and Claremont Consortia, according to the release.

According to the release, a total of 46 institutions participate in the MMUF program, including Duke, Harvard, Stanford and Yale.

The program is the centerpiece of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s initiatives to increase diversity in the faculty ranks of institutions of higher learning, according to the release.

Visit the UNM Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program website for more information.