UNCF/MELLON PROGRAMS PARTNERS
Mellon Foundation
We believe that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and we believe that everyone deserves the beauty and empowerment that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and guided by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive.
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship
Established in the 1988/1989 academic year, the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) is committed to broadening the range of scholarly perspectives in the US academy, with a focus on the humanities and the humanistic social sciences. Its name honors Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, the noted African American educator, statesman, minister, former president of Morehouse College, and mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Founded with an initial cohort of eight member institutions, the program has grown to include 47 programs, including three consortia.
To date, the program has produced more than 1,200 PhDs, more than 800 of whom are currently college professors. Numerous others have taken their valuable 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 activities that emphasize mentoring, research support, and student-cohort building, MMUF programs identify and support students of great promise and help them become scholars and professionals of the highest distinction.
MMUF is proud of its legacy of leading scholars whose perspectives greatly enrich research and teaching in their fields.
United Negro College Fund
UNCF envisions a nation where all Americans have equal access to a college education that prepares them for rich intellectual lives, competitive and fulfilling careers, engaged citizenship and service to our nation UNCF's mission is to build a robust and nationally-recognized pipeline of under-represented students who, because of UNCF support, become highly-qualified college graduates and to ensure that our network of member institutions is a respected model of best practice in moving students to and through college.
Institute for Recruitment of Teachers
The Institute for Recruitment of Teachers (IRT) supports talented prospective educators preparing to join the nation’s teaching faculties by recruiting outstanding scholars committed to student success and transformative education, counseling them through the graduate school application process, and advocating for sufficient funding for advanced study. IRT graduates have enjoyed remarkable success securing jobs as K-12 teachers, counselors, and principals, as well as professors, university administrators, and leaders.
American Council of Learned Societies
James Weldon Johnson Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies
Established in 2007 to honor the memory and achievements of James Weldon Johnson, the mission of the James Weldon Johnson Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies is to foster new scholarship, teaching, and public dialogue that focuses upon the origins, evolution, and legacy of the modern civil rights movement from 1905 to the present. The Johnson Institute is also committed to the investigation of the impact of the modern civil rights movement upon other social movements in the United States and abroad.