Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Grant Renewed

Grinnell College is celebrating the $116,000 renewal of a grant that supports the College’s Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program. This program is the central component of the Mellon Foundation’s efforts to increase diversity in the faculty ranks of institutions of higher learning nationwide by supporting students from groups historically excluded from the academy as they pursue Ph.D.s.

“The goal of the program is to change who is in front of the room in the academy and who the gatekeepers and knowledge makers are in the future,” says Karla Erickson, professor of sociology and director of the MMUF program at Grinnell. With Senior Lecturer Elias Saba (a full circle fellow himself) and staff member Lisa Mulholland, Erickson guides and supports the MMUF fellows, as well as their faculty mentors.

Students participate in a rigorous selection process, which helps prepare them for a career in higher education, Erickson explains. The process begins with a faculty nomination. The students then work with a mentor every week for two years to produce a project in their discipline of publishable quality. The fellows also present at conferences, receive support for their scholarly work, and interact with other fellows throughout their career.

It’s demanding and time-consuming as well as worthwhile, Erickson says. “Being a fellow is a little like having a fifth class every semester — it’s both demanding and rewarding.”

The fellows are among the best and most promising students nationwide, Erickson says. Grinnell’s cohort of fellows has included student leaders such as Sofi Carr ’22, who led the student union efforts last fall; and Loyal Terry ’23, who is the current SGA president.

“All of this is good practice for being in the academy later in life,” Erickson says. 

The grant renewal will allow Grinnell to continue to support two five-student MMUF cohorts each year with stipends, travel and research funding, faculty mentoring, and other assistance to help them pursue academic careers.

Erickson, who is in the final year of her role as director, says she has been honored to follow in the footsteps of her friend and former colleague Shanna Benjamin, the first director. “Being MMUF director has been the sweetest part of my job for the last five years,” Ericksons says. “I love witnessing them come into their own sense of being teachers and knowledge makers.”