UA Graduate School Awards Fellowships

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama Graduate School has named 12 graduate students as new fellowship recipients in programs designed to increase and retain the number of minorities in college or university faculty positions, with a special emphasis on graduate students who plan to become faculty members at colleges and universities in Alabama.

With the 12 new fellowship recipients, UA currently has 33 graduate students on campus who are participants in the minority fellowship programs listed below; more than 100 graduate students have participated in the programs in the last 15 years.

Three UA doctoral students received Future Faculty Fellowships. Based on departmental nominations, the fellowships provide stipends and tuition scholarships for minority graduate students who plan to become college or university professors. They are:

• April Davenport of Decatur, Ga., in the doctoral program in English
• Dontaire Stallings of Atlanta in the doctoral program in chemistry
• Demondrae Thurman of Montgomery in the doctoral program in musical arts

Two UA doctoral students were awarded the Joint Faculty Development Fellowship, a program for active college teachers in historically black institutions in Alabama who do not hold a terminal degree in their field of instruction; faculty members receiving this fellowship receive support from both their home college and a stipend and scholarship from the UA Graduate School. They are:

• Leola Harden-Lester of Montgomery, a faculty member at Alabama State University who is in the doctoral program in secondary education-English
• Jerolyn Faye Mosely Hughes of Normal, a faculty member at Alabama A&M University who is the doctoral program in human performance.

Seven UA doctoral students were awarded Southern Regional Education Board (SREB)-Alabama Commission on Higher Education Doctoral Fellowships that
encourage ethnic minority students to pursue doctoral degrees and become college professors. Students are supported for up to five years of doctoral study and also participate in the annual Compact for Faculty Diversity Conference. They are:

• Pablo Arriaza of Miami in the doctoral program in social work
• Gregory Austin of Tuscaloosa in the doctoral program in political science
• Shawanda R. Boykin of Catherine in the doctoral program in applied mathematics
• Rosianna Gray of Tuscaloosa in the doctoral program in molecular biology
• Dana K. Harmon of Tuscaloosa in the doctoral program in social work
• Debbie Jenkins of Detroit in the doctoral program in electrical engineering
• O’Neil Wright of Tuscaloosa in the doctoral program in molecular biology