A New Fellowship For International Students

Essay

A New Fellowship For International Students

Rotunda Students walking
UVA Lawn in the spring

A new fellowship launched by International Students and Scholars Program and Contemplative Sciences Center hopes to encourage and enable international students to play a leading role in making UVA a place where international students can thrive.

“The fellowship proceeds from the basic premise that international students themselves know what will enhance and deepen their own sense of belonging,” said Caren Freeman who is working to launch and implement the fellowship and is an advisor at International Student and Scholars Program.

The fellowship is open to both undergraduate and graduate students and up to 10 students will be selected for the first year. As part of the fellowship, the students will take a one-credit short course anchored in the International Residential College (INST 2550 International Citizen Leaders Design and Launch) and work on a project over the course of one year.

The course weaves together two curricular components. One curricular thread centers around ethical leadership where students will learn concepts and participate in exercises to help them learn to lead “from the inside out.” The other centers around design skills, program management, communication skills, and qualitative research methods.

“The fellowship relates to the larger CSC goals of promoting student flourishing which is defined as students reaching their full potential and accessing deep states of wellbeing that span across their physical, emotional, social, mental, academic, and professional lives,” said Leslie Hubbard, Program Director of Student Engagement and Contemplative Instruction at CSC.

At the end of the year, students will share their experiences in a public forum. Those interested in continuing to work on their projects will have continued access to “coaching calls” with faculty mentors for the duration of their time at UVA.

The deadline for applying to the fellowship is November 15.

More information:

International Student Citizen Leaders Fellowship