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Looking for postgrad fellowships or master's programs for an aspiring diversity, equity, and inclusion practitioner

I am a current Junior at Villanova University studying Communication and Peace and Justice Studies. I have a real passion for creating inclusive environments and facilitating conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion. I am now looking at what my next steps should be after college, and I am trying to figure out what good postgrad options are out there in terms of fellowships and master's programs (particularly with graduate assistantships). #diversity #DEI #masters #inclusion #fellowships

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Nikki’s Answer

Hi Chloe,

First off, I absolutely love your dedication and passion to this arena of DEI! With such a strong vision for the impact you want to make, I'm sure you'll be in a great place to take advantage of these opportunities you seek.

I recommend visiting your University's Office of National Scholarship Advisement. For Villanova, it's called the Center for Research and Fellowships: https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/provost/crf/fellowship_opportunities.html. They recommend you make an appointment online and offer advisement on post-graduate fellowships. I would recommend making an appointment before the end of your junior year, as many post-graduate fellowship applications require a lot of work and you may need to begin working on them this summer.

I also recommend creating a free account on ProFellow, https://www.profellow.com/, where you can search their database of fellowship and graduate school opportunities.

Some of the programs I recommend include:

The Humanity in Action Fellowship: https://www.humanityinaction.org/fellowship/
AmeriCorps https://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps

While these aren't specific DEI fellowships, the Humanity in Action Fellowship allows you to design your own project that will address specific challenges in your community, so you could address DEI policies in an organization or institution within your area. It also comes with a year of professional and personal development opportunities that will only better prepare you to make an impact within your field. I have seen several AmeriCorps positions specifically looking for Diversity and Inclusion Advisors or Consultants that will help to improve these areas within a local nonprofit during a year-long position.

With regards to graduate assistantships, most programs that you apply for will award a select amount of students with Graduate Assistantships or Research Assistantships based on the quality of the application, and the award will be released with your funding decision. In many cases, you can also apply for specific positions once you begin the first year of your graduate program, during the summer before or the first few months of your program. There is not a guarantee you'll be paired with a professor working on a specific DEI project, but you can always include a statement about your specific research or teaching interests in your applications, and professors you'd like to work with, and schools will do their best to match your interests accordingly.

In addition, you can also research schools that specifically have opportunities for diversity, equity, and inclusion fellowships or have options to apply for such a program once admitted into your main course of study. For example:

Georgia Tech: https://diversity.gatech.edu/DIFellowsProgram
Harvard: https://osa.gse.harvard.edu/equity-and-inclusion-fellows-program.
Princeton: https://gradschool.princeton.edu/diversity/student-resources/diversity-fellows-program

I hope this helps! Good luck with your future plans!

Best,
Nikki
Thank you comment icon Nikki, thank you for providing such a thorough answer. I appreciate you taking the time to provide so many resources. Chloe
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Shirley’s Answer

Diversity & Inclusion is such an important topic in the work place currently. There's such a drive to change the tradition work place and create an environment where differences are celebrated and diversity is acknowledged a beneficial to organisations.

I would recommend a career path in Human Resources which would also align and be relevant to your interests.

Best of luck
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Elizabeth’s Answer

DEI is expanding and company are implementing within this space. I am in Supplier Diversity and it's about inclusion with the supply chain. This is another area of diversity you can explore.
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Danielle’s Answer

Hi Chloe!

I do not know if you are mathematically-inclined, enjoy statistics, or computer science. If you do, consider pursing topics that will allow you to learn more about algorithmic bias. This is an emerging area for D&I and will have huge implications in the future.

I do not have specifics on programs, but encourage you to learn more about this space.

Take care,

Danielle
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David’s Answer

Have you look or talk to your adviser or counselor at Villanova University to look into the advance path of getting your Master or fellowship, because I believes Villanova University is a very good school and they are very helpful in various ways, but another options away from Villanova University will be the other surround schools as well like Temple University, St. Joe U, Upenn, and etc. to see what they have and what you can do as well. I graduated from Temple University, long time ago so I am not sure if they still the help you help even though I know they are getting and expanding better and bigger, so you may try reaching out to them ad well as club or organization for some help.
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Philip’s Answer

Hi Chloe,

This is not an area of expertise for me since my role is as a technology leader but I would recommend you do seek out an expert for advice. One such expert you may want to connect with is Steve L. Robbins, Ph.D. He's a very well known inclusion practitioner and may answer your question directly if you reach out to him with this question. I hope this helps and I wish you all the best in the future.

Best Regards,
Philip

Philip recommends the following next steps:

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Thank you comment icon Thank you so much for the recommendation Philip! I will be connecting with him shortly! Chloe
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Caroline’s Answer

I am so glad you have a passion for DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion)! This space needs people who are passionate and committed to making change. As a relatively new field, I am less familiar with graduate programs - though would recommend higher education, social work, etc. if you are wanting to pursue a Master's. However, I think you a good portion of us in this space came from all sorts of academic and career backgrounds! I have Master in International Affairs with a focus in Defense. I started off consulting for the Department of Defense, doing strategy work. As a side to what I was doing, I was passionate about DEI and started developing small initiatives on the side for my firm. Our DoD clients heard about my work and started requesting it too! Over the course of two years, I dove further into DEI work before transitioning to an internal strategy role for my firm focused solely on DEI. This is all to say - where there's passion, there's a way!
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