As a current participant in an intercollegiate fellowship at the University of New Mexico, I would like to see UNM more involved in similar programs for undergraduate students — either at neighboring institutions or beyond.
I am participating in the Emerging Security Studies Fellowship, hosted by Emory University, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and involving students from Georgia State University and UNM. The fellowship is a paid learning experience that involves six weeks of classes and a remote internship.
The fellowship was conceptualized based on the observed lack of diversity in the security studies field, according to Emily Gade, a former Emory assistant professor and a co-author of the grant for the program.
“Students from underrepresented communities often aren’t able to do unpaid internships. We thought that this could be addressed by paid learning,” Gade said.
While still in its pilot phase, the benefits of programs like these are apparent.
Intercollegiate fellowships offer students the unique opportunity to form connections outside of peers and faculty at their home institutions, according to Emory visiting assistant professor Rachel Harmon, who is involved in the fellowship.
“I think we get a more varied or diverse perspective on things if we have students coming from different institutional backgrounds,” Harmon said. ”Getting to know the students and their research interests has been the highlight of my experience.”
Increased intercollegiate fellowship programs would give UNM students the opportunity to visit other campuses – offering new opportunities. It could also provide opportunities after graduation due to an expanded network.
Many federally-funded fellowship programs are limited to United States citizens. UNM should be involved in or host more intercollegiate fellowship programs that are accessible to international students.
In addition to UNM students getting to visit other campuses, I would love to see students from other universities visiting ours. UNM has a lot to offer as an R1 institution, a flagship university and a Hispanic-Serving Institution.
After living on the Emory campus and visiting friends on the GSU campus, I developed an appreciation for how college life can look in different places. More students visiting UNM’s campus through intercollegiate fellowships would help others develop the same appreciation for Albuquerque that I’ve developed for Atlanta.
The fellowship gave me skills I could use for future on-campus jobs, such as research assistantships. It helped me get more comfortable using the programming language R, and introduced me to new digital tools for producing research papers and designing surveys for research, such as Overleaf and Qualtrics.
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Beyond the similar benefits to exchange programs, the added benefit of intercollegiate fellowships is the ability to work more closely and intentionally with UNM students and faculty on research — especially given UNM’s R1 status.
My intercollegiate fellowship has been a rewarding experience overall, including for instructors. Emory doctoral candidate Jiwon Kim, who was involved in the fellowship, said she would be open to participating in more similar programs in the future.
UNM professors should seek out grants for programs that involve collaboration with other colleges, perhaps inspired by the Emerging Security Studies Fellowship. But UNM could also take inspiration from fellowships that already exist at the University, such as the El Puente Research Fellowship hosted by El Centro de la Raza.
“If we can smooth out some coordination issues, it’ll make things run even better. But it’s already building on a wonderful foundation of what these students are interested in and passionate about,” Harmon said.
Shin Thant Hlaing is a freelance reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com
