The Graduate School of Public Policy will continue its Woodrow Wilson fellowship program for students of color thanks to a $1 million grant.
The program includes a seven-week summer institute for minority students, for which applications are now being accepted. Candidates will be chosen by March for the institute, which prepares undergraduates for careers in public policy or international affairs.
A second component of the program provides fellowships for students who complete the institute and then enter formal graduate programs in public policy or international affairs.
"The Woodrow Wilson program has been a critical means for diversifying the field," said Joe Castro, assistant dean. "We feel fortunate to be continuing the program."
Berkeley is one of five campuses that provide the fellowship program and summer institute for 150 students chosen nationally each year. Other summer institutes are at Princeton University and at the universities of Maryland, Michigan and Washington.
Now in its 16th year, Berkeley's program provides a kind of "dry run" at the master's program in public policy.
It does not offer academic credit, but it allows students of color to compete better as applicants for graduate school.
Students between their junior and senior years are eligible for the program and if successful they receive grants for the summer institute, as well as fellowship support later in graduate school.
About 10 percent of Berkeley's graduates in public policy are Woodrow Wilson Fellows, many of them former Berkeley undergraduates.
The outreach program is open to students from Latino/Hispanic, Asian-American, African-American and Native American backgrounds and is fully consistent with the Board of Regents' decision on affirmative action, said Castro.