Release date: Dec. 2, 2003

Emory Receives Mellon Foundation Grant to Expand Graduate Teaching Program in Atlanta and New Orleans

Emory University has received a $247,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to partner in a new fellowship program that will place some of the university's top graduate students in the classrooms of six colleges and universities in Atlanta and New Orleans.

The program expands and enhances an existing partnership funded by the Mellon Foundation that began in 2000 between Emory and Dillard University, a historically black institution in New Orleans. Atlanta's Agnes Scott College, Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College and Spelman College have now joined the consortium of schools that will take part in the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Atlanta/New Orleans Graduate Fellowship Program.

"We are honored to be a partner in this important and promising initiative. The Mellon Fellowship will play a vital role in strengthening Emory's ties, both personal and professional, with the participating institutions, and reinforce the academic community among us all," says Robert Paul, dean of Emory College.

The fellowship developed in large part due to the numerous personal connections between Paul and administrators at the host institutions. Several of those involved in expanding the program received degrees from Emory's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences or Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, including Dillard University President Michael Lomax, the former chairman of the Fulton County Commission, who earned his doctorate from Emory in 1984. In many cases Paul taught, advised and worked with leaders at the host schools.

"To work with former students and colleagues on this fellowship program has been profoundly gratifying," Paul says. "Through these personal connections, and with the support of the Mellon Foundation, we are able to help foster the professional development of Emory's graduate students while enhancing the undergraduate education of all the schools involved."

The innovative fellowship program aims to foster the professional teaching skills of graduate students and increase the recruitment of undergraduates for academic careers. Another main goal of the program is to further strengthen ties in the Southeast among liberal arts colleges, research universities and historically black colleges and universities.

Starting in fall 2004, the competitive fellowships will be open to Emory graduate students who have achieved Ph.D. candidacy and completed their coursework and teacher training. The fellowships will be centered on teaching at the host schools and mentoring undergraduates, as well as participating in teaching seminars with other Mellon fellows.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a private foundation, with assets of approximately $4 billion, which makes grants on a selective basis to institutions in higher education; museums and art conservation; performing arts; population; conservation and the environment; and public affairs.

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