The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a vital partner in education with Grinnell College.
Humanities in Action
Grinnell College has received a $1 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to highlight the vitality and importance of the humanities, the humanistic social sciences, and the arts in the public sphere. The grant will focus on curricular reform, community engagement, and career development.
Directing the grant activities will be Edward Cohn, associate professor of history, and Susan Leathem Sanning, associate dean and director of service and social innovation.
Mid-Career Presidential Leadership Grant
Through a generous grant, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will allow campus and community members to consider how the humanities can amplify different voices and bring people together. Monica Chavez-Silva and Sarah Smith of the Office of Community Engagement, and Timothy Arner, associate dean and professor of English, lead this grant originally made to former Grinnell College President Raynard Kington. President Anne F. Harris continues to steward this award on behalf of the College.
Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowships
Grinnell College is proud to be a Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Institution. The primary goal of this program is to increase the number of minorities in faculty positions in higher education. The program serves to mentor and support student-fellows during their undergraduate education, preparing them for success as they continue into graduate school. Professor Karla Erickson directs Grinnell’s MMUF program.
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships
The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows program is supported by an endowment from Grinnell College and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for fellowships in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Fellows are appointed for two years and teach two courses per year while receiving mentorship from a tenured faculty member and furthering their own research. Grinnell’s previous Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows have gone on to tenure-track positions in liberal arts colleges and research institutions across the country. Departments interested in applying to host a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow can find further information on the Academic Affairs webpage.
AmeriCorps
The Grinnell AmeriCorps Partnership is an extensive collaboration of local partners that will advance the community-wide Campaign for Grade Level Reading project and support for the Graduate Skills Gap initiative. Fourteen AmeriCorps members will be placed in local organizations to work on five key areas of the national Campaign for Grade Level Reading. These include preventing summer learning loss, prevention of chronic school absence, ensuring children are ready for school, healthy students, and encouraging greater parent engagement. Members will also provide infrastructure to community and volunteer engagement to advance early childhood literacy and assist with the community’s Graduate Skills Gap pilot programming to provide the “soft skills” of job readiness that employers seek in high school graduates. This project is led by Monica Chavez-Silva, director, and Melissa Strovers, program and communication manager of Grinnell College’s Office of Community Enhancement and Engagement. For more information, go to the Grinnell AmeriCorps Partnership webpage.
