The primary objective of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program is to increase diversity among professors, said Kate Krause, a professor of economics and the dean of the Honors College and University College at UNM.
“To do that, the program provides summer and school year stipends to students who are working with a faculty mentor to become better prepared to enter graduate school,” she said.
In addition to paying the students, there will be funding available for some student travel to conferences, workshops and GRE prep classes, Krause said.
“The director of MMUF visited Albuquerque last spring and met with a number of our colleagues who are involved in undergraduate research programs to see if UNM would be a viable MMUF site,” she said.
MMUF administrators liked the undergraduate programs at the UNM’s Honors College and invited UNM to submit a proposal to locate a MMUF program on the campus, Krause said.
“We worked on that over the summer and fall, and this December we were notified that our proposal was accepted. It will provide $420,000 over about four and half years,” she said.
MMUF makes it financially possible for students to pursue research while still an undergraduate and the mentorship element of the program introduces students to the culture of academia, she said
MMUF conferences are another way for students from backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in academia to learn more about how to prepare for and succeed in graduate school, she said.
“Many students who would be well qualified for graduate school might not think of it as a realistic career for themselves, particularly if they have not seen many faculty members like them,” she said.
Krause is going to form a faculty advisory board that will recruit and select five sophomores each year for the program, she said.
To be selected as a student fellow, the aspiring student must be majoring in one of the fields that Mellon funds go to, and must be demonstrably committed to, and have the academic potential for success in, a career in academia, she said.
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The aspirant students are also expected to demonstrate a commitment to diversity, Krause said.
“Once selected as a sophomore, the student fellow will be financially supported for the summers following his or her sophomore and junior years, and during the school year while he or she is a junior and senior,” she said. “The fellows will work with a faculty mentor, will develop a research project and present it at UNM and at national conferences.”
The largest component of the funding will be paid directly to student fellows, she said.
“The faculty who work with these students will gain great satisfaction from contributing to students’ future successes,” she said.
With this grant UNM joins the ranks of 18 colleges and 22 other MMUF member universities including Harvard, Stanford and Yale, all determined to reflect the diversity in the real world, according to a press release issued by UNM.
“The Mellon Mays program combines several ideas: engaging young students in scholarly research, creating a small group who go through the experience together and providing faculty mentoring and financial support,” said Chaouki Abdallah, UNM provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs.
Sayyed Shah is the assistant news editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at assistant-news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @mianfawadshah.
