UT graduate program wins top fellowship
by Patrick Badgley
Daily Texan
August 14, 2000
A UT program aimed at mixing graduate students with the world outside of academia was awarded $10,000 by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation last week.
The foundation encourages students with Ph.D.s to work outside of education.
The program, an anthropological study of women in history, is led by Martha Norkunas, a public historian who works within the College of Liberal Arts.
The program was awarded the highest gift of $10,000, because it fit the criteria of teaching students to work with their studies outside of a university atmosphere, said Richard Bennett, program officer for WWNFF.
Woodrow
Wilson Innovation Award
Criteria for choosing
recipients
*Newness of idea
Does the program
use innovative and creative approaches
to engage Ph.D. students in the
extra-academic world?
*Evidence of Need
Does the program
address specific needs within the
institution or larger community?
*Evidence of institutional
commitment and impact
What type of commitment
has the institution made to the
proposed project? Does the program
have the potential to effect change
in the culture of the institution?
Can it serve as a replicable model?
Source: Woodrow
Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
In
total, seven awards were distributed.
A George Washington University program
was awarded the only other $10,000
prize. The remaining five awards were
for $5,000 each.
The program gives
students a chance to learn about
Texas women and apply that knowledge
to working on improving certain
Texas museums.
Bennett said the
UT project was innovative and showed
that it had already gained institutional
support, thus making it attractive
to the selection committee.
"The entire
committee was very impressed with
the proposal," Bennett said.
"The program displayed an ability
for students to incorporate their
studies with the world outside."
Norkunas said the
money from WWNFF, along with that
from the University and Texas Parks
and Wildlife, will allow her to
distribute $21,000 in graduate student
scholarships. Six students will
receive fellowships of $3,500 each
for trailing the history of women.
"With this
grant we can expand this program
and continue to lay groundwork for
the Women's Trail and future projects,"
Norkunas said.
Norkunas said she hopes the program will be comprised of eight graduate students from six different disciplines.
Rick Cherwitz, associate dean of graduate studies, said the program is reflective of the graduate school's mission to combine people who are and will become experts because of their graduate studies to communicate with those outside of academia.
Cherwitz added the award will be used to expand on the graduate school's program that has already been successful in developing students' ability to learn and progress inside and outside the classroom.
"This program received the $10,000 both to reward and honor us for the graduate school professional development project and to expand it to include more people," he said.
Cherwitz added that WWNFF President Bob Weisbuch has come to the University to look into the graduate school professional development program and was very impressed by it. He said the visit was representative of the similarities between the UT development program and the mission of WWNFF.
"The biggest part of this award is that it shows the connection between the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and this project," Cherwitz said. "Both really try to display the services smart Ph.D.s can provide to the world at large."
In addition to this program, the graduate school will begin placing its students in government and nonprofit internships in the spring.
Cherwitz said this program will serve as one of the first that puts students into a working environment into which they may not normally be placed.
He said this experience will be attractive to potential employers and will show students there are opportunities for valuable employment outside of the University.
Teresa Sullivan, vice president and dean of graduate studies, Cherwitz and Norkunas were the three people who submitted the proposition for the award, which was given out for the second year. No UT programs received the award last year.