Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship

Established in 1988, the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) is committed to supporting demographic transformation in higher education and to promoting the value of multivocality in the humanities and related disciplines. Its name honors Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, the noted African American educator, statesman, minister, and former president of Morehouse College.

Founded with an initial cohort of eight member institutions, the program has grown to include forty-seven member schools and three consortia, including the UNCF consortium of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Thus far the program has produced more than 1,100 PhDs, almost 800 of whom are currently college professors and 300 of whom have taken their humanities training into venues ranging from museums and nonprofit organizations to publishing houses and government positions.

At any given time, about 800 MMUF fellows are enrolled in PhD programs, while the fellowship supports approximately 500 undergraduate students each year.

Through a pipeline process that emphasizes mentoring, research support, programming, and student cohort building, Mellon partners with member colleges and universities to identify and support students of great promise and to help them become scholars and professionals of the highest distinction.

MMUF is proud of its legacy of field-transforming scholars whose perspectives greatly enrich the experiences of their students.

These are the core components of the MMUF program:

• Research: The MMUF program is designed to give undergraduate fellows intensive and ongoing research experience, beginning at an earlier point in their careers than is typical for most college undergraduates. Each MMUF fellow will develop an individual research project under the guidance of a faculty mentor, culminating in an honors project or presentation during the senior year.
• Engagement in an academic culture: Fellows meet regularly with other fellows, graduate students, and faculty for forums, colloquia, and other activities.
• Mentoring: Each Bowdoin Mellon fellow is paired with a faculty mentor, whom s/he is expected to meet with on a regular basis. Fellows work with their mentors to develop their scholarly interests into research directions and projects. Mentors help to demystify the formal and informal aspects of conducting research, applying to graduate school, competing effectively once in a graduate program, earning the doctorate and pursuing faculty careers. 
• Financial support: Fellows receive a summer research stipend for each of the two summers of their fellowship and an academic year stipend for their junior and senior years ($2000 per semester).  Additionally, fellows who enroll in an eligible Ph.D. program within three years of graduating from Bowdoin may receive up to $10,000 in undergraduate or graduate loan repayment from the Mellon Foundation.