Michael Vazquez, a philosophy Ph.D. student, and Paul Wolff Mitchell, an anthropology Ph.D. student, both in the School of Arts and Sciences, have been awarded the inaugural Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellowships at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships for 2019-2021.
This two-year Fellowship is a new opportunity open to Ph.D. students across all schools and fields at Penn. Fellows are outstanding students whose scholarship significantly involves Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) and related activities, including locally based community problem-solving, engaged scholarship, service learning, and learning by teaching in public schools. The Fellowship involves participation in an interdisciplinary faculty-student seminar on community-engaged research and teaching, a research fund for each Fellow of $5,000 over the two years, support to attend and present at conferences, and a full fellowship in the students’ second year to continue studies and/or work on their dissertation.
As Provost Graduate Academic Engagement Fellows at the Netter Center, Vazquez and Mitchell will both build on existing work with local public schools and, through the fellowship, will design and teach new Academically Based Community Service seminars. Vazquez will develop an ABCS course that brings Penn students into partnership with a West Philadelphia high school centered around the concept of “public philosophy.” Mitchell will develop an ABCS course on the history of race, science, and the academy that will also bring together Penn students with local high school students in collaborative research projects.
This article originally appeared at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships.
