The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation was established as a nonprofit philanthropic organization in June of 1969 with a mission to “aid and promote such religious, charitable, scientific, literary, and educational purposes as may be in the furtherance of the public welfare or tend to promote the well-doing or well-being of mankind.”
In 1989, under this broad charter, the Foundation made a long-term commitment to help remedy the serious shortage of faculty of color in higher education through the Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) program.
In 2003, the Foundation reaffirmed its commitment and broadened the mission of MMUF. The name of the program was changed to the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program, to symbolically connect the mission to the stellar achievements of Dr. Benjamin E. Mays. (More information on Dr. Mays is linked: [1] [2] [3])
The University of Chicago is one of 50 institutions (47 private & public universities in the U.S. and 3 universities in South Africa) that the Mellon Foundation has funded to conduct this program.
The MMUF program at the University of Chicago aims to:
- train fellows in the work of professional scholarship by supporting a sustained research project
- introduce fellows to the professional culture of academia
- encourage the fellows to apply for graduate studies in a doctoral program
- assist them in the application process
To accomplish these objectives, the program provides fellows with faculty mentoring, financial support to conduct a research project, a supportive network of peers and professionals, and the opportunity to participate in activities aimed at deepening their understanding and commitment to professional academic work. The MMUF aims to achieve its mission by identifying and supporting students of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds who show great promise so that they may become scholars of the highest distinction.