UMass Amherst Graduate School to Launch STEM Fellowship Program Geared to Historically Underrepresented Students

The University of Massachusetts Amherst Graduate School will begin a fellowship program starting Fall 2019, geared towards increasing the percent of historically underrepresented students majoring in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

The program, named the Spaulding-Smith Fellowship Program, after UMass Amherst alums Major Franklin Spaulding and Elizabeth Hight Smith, will assist 20 graduate students with financial support and access to extra-curricula’s over the course of two years.

Students in the program will also partake in a mentorship and work at academic conferences and attend academic workshops.

Spaulding was the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and complete an agronomy doctorate degree in 1935, and Smith was the first woman to receive an advanced degree from the University of Massachusetts, earning a master’s of science degree in 1905, according to The Massachusetts Daily Collegian.

Students will be nominated for the fellowship by graduate program directors in STEM departments of UMass Amherst: Colleges of Natural Sciences, Engineering, and Information and Computer Sciences in addition to the School of Publish Health and Health Sciences.

Fellowship nominees will be discussed and voted on in a faculty committee meeting with representation from each of the previously named schools and colleges/

The fellowship program will be led by Dr. Funmi Adebayo, assistant dean for inclusion and engagement at the Graduate School.

“I am thrilled to join the academic community at the University of Massachusetts Amherst,” said Adebayo. “Together we will work to better position our highly talented students for professional and academic success while further elevating the university’s stature as a leading force for diversity, inclusion and public engagement within academia.”

To find out more information on the fellowship, click here.

Monica Levitan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @monlevy_.