Hands-on experience is invaluable to a graduate student’s professional development. To better enable these critical opportunities, the College of Arts and Sciences and University Graduate School have joined together to sponsor the Graduate Pathways Fellowship.

For graduate students on non-academic career paths, unpaid and underpaid internships can be crucial for professional development. The Graduate Pathways Fellowship provides support to graduate students while they participate in these opportunities, allowing them to apply the theories and practical skills they have acquired in the College to gain relevant work experience. This fellowship opportunity includes up to $20,000 in stipend plus health insurance, in collaboration with the student’s internship employers.

Lydia Campbell-Maher and Micah Ling, Ph.D. students in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, have been named inaugural Graduate Pathways Fellows, in recognition of their academic success and professional aspirations.

“This role provides me with experiential learning opportunities to pave the way for a career in public arts and humanities,” she says. “This creative environment provides the opportunity to apply knowledge acquired in my Ph.D. program for immediate impact in my community. The opportunity to work in this role, while simultaneously completing my dissertation, provides an unparalleled opportunity for professional development. Working in a disability arts organization ensures that my research is culturally sensitive to contemporary discussions within disability communities.”

“I look forward to using my working knowledge of the materials to create connections that will strengthen the catalog records and archival metadata as a whole, while gaining new skills,” Micah says. “I hope to remain in Michigan for the foreseeable future, so deepening my knowledge of the state’s cultural heritage through engagement with this archive makes me a more competitive candidate when looking for future jobs in the public and folk arts sectors in Michigan. The skills gained would also transfer outside of my home state and serve me well when applying for jobs around the country.”

Learn more about College graduate fellowships + awards