Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship

The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) works to increase diversity in higher education by providing promising undergraduates from underrepresented backgrounds two years of mentoring and preparation for a PhD program. It supports students committed to pursuing doctoral studies and a teaching career in higher education.

• 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.  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.