The MMUF Chronicle Volume 1, Issue 1

The MMUF Chronicle

April 24, 2006

"Once A Mellon Fellow, Always A Mellon Fellow"

Volume 1, Issue 1

MMUF at Glance

174 PhDs
500 fellows enrolled in graduate school
150 fellows at the ABD level
31 PhDs are teaching at MMUF schools
13 Tenured faculty

The MMUF Survey is new and improved! Mellon Fellows,
please log on to www.mmuf.org/survey to fill out your Annual Update for 2006!

This spring City College will host the New York City Regional MMUF Conference. Other participating institutions include: Barnard College, Columbia University, Hunter College, Brooklyn College, and Queens College.

Mellon Mays Undergraduate Journal

Call for Papers

The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Journal is an annual collection of scholarly works by participants in the program. Submissions are now being accepted for the next edition of the journal, which will be distributed nationally in 2008.

Questions? Contact

Meg Brooks Swift
8 Garden Street,
Byerly Hall
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-496-3190

Suggestions?
The second issue of the MMUF Chronicle is scheduled for release in the spring of 2007. Please contact
with suggestions for next
issue.

Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship
140 East 62^nd Street
New York, NY 10021
Phone: 212-838-8400
Fax: 212-223-2778

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http://www.mmuf.org

In January 2006, the MMUF Coordinators' Conference was held in Cape Town, South Africa. Conference attendees heard speeches from distinguished presenters including the Most Reverend Desmond M. Tutu, Mamaphela Ramphele, Stuart Saunders, and Martin Hall. The conference theme as taken from William G. Bowen's book Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education. The opening reception was held at the Two Oceans Aquarium, where conference arrendess were welcomed with a banner submerged in the Aquarium's famed predator tank. The conference included many interesting panel discussions that dealt with topics like equity and development programs, and challenges facing higher education in both South Africa compared the U.S. Over the course of the conference, attendees visited many of Cape Town's most intresting sites including Langa Township. The University of Cape Town welcomed the U.S. MMUF contingency and provided the group with opportunity to expiereince a wonderful week of learning , intellectual exchange, and discovery. The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu, the conference's keynote speaker, honored the participants with a moving speech on the state of post-apartheid South Africa. The Conference proved to be a truly memorable experience for all involved.

Mellon Fellows Awarded the Rhodes and Mandela-Rhodes Scholarships. Noorain Khan of Rice Univesity and Sasha-Mae Eccleston of Brown University were awarded the presigious Rhodes scholarship last fall. In addition, Rachael Adams and Sirika Pillay, both of the University of Cape Town, recived Mandela-Rhodes scholarships, which are awarded to exceptional South African students who work for social change in South African. These four fellows represnt the highly motivated and intellectually gifted body of students whose academic development the MMUF porgram supports. Each recipient expressed her appreciation to the program from the various forms of support it has provided. Sirika Pillay is currently pursing a degree in virology, focusing on HIV vaccine research. "Without the experiences MMUF exposed me to," she says, "I would have continued to be unsure of my uture; but now I can see where my future path is leading.' Noorain Khan, who hopes to increase awareness of broader societal issues that pertain to Muslims, credits MMUF for helping her achieve the award, since her application for the Rhodes Scholarship included an extended version of a project she had submitted as a particvipant in the MMUF program. Rachael Adams soke of the invaluable guidance that her mentor provided, both professionally and personally, including information on grants ans acholarships. Her mentor also helped her to visualize and actualize herself as an academic. The MMUF staff wishes to congratulate each of these remarkable students on their incredible success.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Cally Waite has joined the Social Science Research Council Mellon Mays Fellowship as the new Program Director. Prior to accepting the directorship at thte SSRC, Dr. Waite was a program coordinator and associate professor of history and education at Teacher's College, COlumbia University. In addition to leading the SSRC-Mellon Programs, Dr. Waite is working a a book project with Maragret Smith Crocco entitled THe Journey Thus Far: Black Southern Scholars and Northern Institutions, 1896-1954. "As historians of higher education, I'm especially pleased to be a part of an organixation that has, and will continue to have, a significant role in tranforming the academy,' says Dr. Waite. "I look forward to emeting more of the MElon community." Please join us in welcoming Dr. Waite to the Mellon family.

attended had an opportunity to present his or her latest research and respond to questions, but conference activities also moved beyond the purely academic into the larger world—from a tour of Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Lab, where cutting-edge research is done for NASA’s missions, to a discussion by authors Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor of their recent book Einstein on Race and Racism, to a visit to San Marino’s Huntington Library, a world-renowned research facility that includes extensive archives, a major art gallery, and beautiful gardens.

The conference provided a vivid sense of the wealth of resources our West Coast institutions have to offer—the most important of which is their people, from fellows to campus coordinators to librarians and archivists. MMUF thanks all of those who attended, and congratulates Caltech on marking its 10th anniversary as a member of the MMUF program. We hope to see you all again at next year’s conference!

Mellon Fellow of the Semester

For anyone familiar with the outstanding academic work of Chika Okoye, now a senior at Hunter College, it is difficult to imagine that she ever struggled in school. “I was born in Brockport, New York,” she says, “a small university town. The small suburb and its school system were a poor fit for me, and I didn’t manage to complete high school.” Instead, Chika received her GED and made her way to New York City where she has excelled as a student at Hunter College ever since.

This fall Chika Okoye was selected as The Mellon Fellow of the Semester for exemplifying academic excellence. She is studying classics, a subject that she developed a passion for after her first course in Greek and Roman tragedy.

In addition to traveling extensively through study abroad programs and overseas internships, Chika has recently concluded a research project on slavery in ancient Egypt as part of her fellowship requirement, which she describes as eye-opening and intellectually rewarding. “I could not have completed the work without my mentor, Professor Tamara Green,” she says. “Talking with her has given me a sense that I can contribute to the world of scholarship.”

Most importantly, Chika demonstrates a sincere passion for learning, which she hopes to share with her own students one day. “I want to keep an open mind and develop my intellect, but I also want to share with others the meaningful truths embedded within ancient texts.”