Graduate Fellows Program 2019

Stretch goal = $20,000!

We made our original goal and have set our sights higher! $20,000 would mean $2,000 for each Fellow.

A $60 donation will pay for one interview to be transcribed or one week of transportation!

Changing the world is hard work! The Graduate Fellows Program (GFP) prepares UCB graduate students to be social change scholars who do first-rate, relevant and impactful research on the most important issues in the U.S. today: immigration, education, gentrification, health, and more. The Graduate Fellows are a diverse group of social change scholar activists who need peer and financial support to finish their interdisciplinary dissertations. Every dollar donated is used to provide stipends to students, freeing them from other paid work so they can complete their degrees. All other costs of the training are provided in kind by the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues. Each year, 10 or more students participate in the program. With your support, the ’19-20 Fellows can complete their dissertations, share their knowledge with the world, and contribute to making change.

For more than four decades, the Graduate Fellows Program has trained and mentored Berkeley doctoral students engaged in research on social inequality and social change. The Graduate Fellows Program (GFP) has a proven track record of diversifying the academy, with over 150 alumni of color, most of whom have become faculty members. Drawing on life experiences that are not often represented among professors -- for example, as teen mothers, refugees, gang members, first generation college students -- our alums conduct cutting-edge research on topics that matter to their communities and the world. Due to budget cuts, your funding is essential to build on this legacy.

The GFP provides two years of funding, training, professional development, and hands-on mentorship. Fellows receive a monthly stipend and attend weekly training seminars designed to help them advance their research, complete their degrees, and successfully navigate the academic job market. Students from a range of social science disciplines and professional schools, including Education, Law, Public Health, Public Policy, and Social Welfare, have successfully participated in the program. We want to keep the training and peer support going this year and in years to come. Your gift will make this possible.

The GFP has four key features that make it unique and its contributions distinctive on the Berkeley campus and nationally:

1. The program offers a relatively long-term, sequenced and closely monitored form of training and mentorship that encourages the development of cross-disciplinary theoretical frameworks, research skills, and a broader perspective on the role of social science in the study of social change.
2. The program includes specific mechanisms and both group and one-on-one support designed to foster publications and prepare students for the academic job market.
3. The cohort model of the GFP nurtures a safe space and supportive community of scholars that serves to lessen the isolation felt by students from underrepresented groups.
4. The program is designed for students in the middle period of their graduate study, when they typically receive the least amount of support (financial and professional) and are most vulnerable to dropping out.  

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We are relying on the support of the community, and you are part of our community! Please give today to support the social change scholars of tomorrow.

https://issi.berkeley.edu/Graduate_Fellows_Program

issi@berkeley.edu

"Breaking Barriers, Building Community" was a conference held in 2014 to celebrate 35 years of our graduate student training. Video of the conference is available here.

Jere Takahishi, alum; Troy Duster, founder; Janice Tanigawa, retired office manager; Bob Yamashita, alum