The Graduate School seeks to recruit, enroll, and retain qualified students who will benefit from educational and social interactions with peers who come from different backgrounds and who have different life experiences, perspectives, and goals. The Graduate School also seeks to prepare its students with an array of educational experiences for dealing effectively in an increasingly diverse and global workforce. This graduate fellowship program is designed to achieve these goals. The wide-ranging attributes that will contribute to the educational mission of the Graduate School include but are not limited to ethnic and cultural backgrounds or life experiences, career goals, social or economic disadvantage, disability status, age, race, and sex.

In fall 2022, this program (formerly named the Access and Diversity Fellowships) has been renamed the Carolyn R. Hodges Graduate Fellowships. Hodges began her UT career in 1982, when she joined the faculty of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages. She has served in several administrative roles, including: head of the Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures, Associate Dean for Academic Personnel in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School. As the first African American to serve as Dean of the Graduate School, Hodges oversaw the Graduate School’s reinstatement and its rebuilding and restructuring to enhance the profile of graduate education. In 2019, after being inducted into the African American Hall of Fame at UT, Hodges retired after 37 years of service at the university.

Award

This award will provide a total of $15,000 for the 2024–2025 academic year. This amount will be paid in two equal awards of $7,500 each; one at the beginning of the fall semester, and the other when the spring semester begins (see Financial Aid and Graduate School Fellowships). Departments are encouraged to provide the nominee with a graduate assistantship including a tuition waiver. In the event that the department does not offer an assistantship, the Graduate School will provide tuition and health insurance. This is a non-renewable fellowship and no portion of the fellowship may be deferred.

Eligibility Criteria

The fellowship is open to first-time enrollees who have been admitted to a graduate degree program at UT for fall 2024 and who demonstrate significant potential to contribute to the Graduate School’s educational mission and its diversity-related goals. Competition is open to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and international applicants. Employees are not eligible. Applicants must be admitted to a degree program by the Office of Graduate Admissions by February 9, 2024.  Admission will be confirmed by the Graduate School. Recipients of this award must also be enrolled as full-time students for both fall 2024 and spring 2025 semesters.