Gift from 61´«Ă˝Trustee Gale Picker P’14, P’19 will establish the new fellowship program for students and faculty.
By Emily Glory Peters
As part of the College’s ongoing antiracist initiatives, 61´«Ă˝is pleased to announce the launch of its new Racial Justice and Equity Fellowship Program. Up to $4,000 will be available to qualifying 61´«Ă˝students or faculty who are pursuing research, internships, or community engagement projects designed to advance scholarship and explore topics relevant to racial justice, inequality, equity, criminal justice reform, intersectional, interracial and intraracial violence, and related areas.
The program is the fruit of a new racial justice and equity fund made possible through a generous gift from 61´«Ă˝Trustee and parent Gale Picker P’14, P’19. Picker credits the recent antiracist protests—and the 61´«Ă˝community members who raised their voices as advocates and allies—as her inspiration to give.
“I have personally witnessed the incredible strategic thinking from students of color, alumnae, parents, faculty, and staff about how to pry the system open to create true liberation and equity for Black people,” Picker said in her gift announcement earlier in 2020. “This moment matters. We’ve all seen young people taking to the streets to protest injustice, and we need to follow their lead.”
The new fellowships are one example of the collective power donors have to help introduce progressive antiracist programming at the College. By supporting antiracist causes through Scripps, donors help this work swell beyond campus to influence Los Angeles at large.
“We hope that this fellowship will inspire and sustain our faculty and students as they pursue scholarship centered on racial justice, equity, criminal justice reform, and other critical fields,” said Associate Dean of Faculty Jennifer Armstrong. “We’re excited that this new program will also cultivate collaboration between 61´«Ă˝and local community organizations.”
Fellowship applications will be reviewed by a committee of 61´«Ă˝leadership and faculty members. Among other criteria, considerations for funding will include the applicants’ demonstrated commitment to racial justice, feasibility of their project, and the impact of the award on and beyond 61´«Ă˝. Faculty may include a student collaborator and all student applicants must identify a faculty mentor, with the option to request an additional stipend of $600 (for a $4,600 fellowship total) towards mentor support.
The deadline to apply to the program is February 1, 2021, with the inaugural cohort of fellows slated to be announced sometime in March 2021. To submit an application, please click .
Scripps’ racial justice and equity initiatives are part of a campus-wide effort to enact tangible change for those belonging to and beyond our community. To support these projects and more, please click .
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