2017 Mellon Mays Fellows. From left: Naajidah Correll, Bryan Guichardo and Nana Minder.
Naajidah Correll, Bryan Guichardo and Nana Minder, from the Black Studies Program at The City College of New York, are 2017 Mellon Mays Fellows. The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program is the centerpiece of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s initiatives to increase diversity in the faculty ranks of institutions of higher learning.
Fellows have demonstrated academic ability and an aspiration to pursue a doctoral degree in selected humanities, social sciences and physical sciences. The fellowship provides fellows with structured programming; faculty mentoring; support for research activities; and repayment of undergraduate loans up to $10,000.
“The MMUF program is preparing me for my life goal of becoming a professor within the humanities, “ said Correll, who is also a Colin Powell Fellow.
2017 Mellon Fellows and their research topics are:
- Naajidah Correll (junior, literature, Black Studies minor) will be at the University of California, Los Angeles this summer for a six-week program to conduct research on the plights of popular Black artists in America starting from the Harlem Renaissance to the Black Lives Matter era.
- Bryan Guichardo (junior, anthropology and Black Studies) is researching racial and ethnic identity through hair, within Afro-Latinx communities, with a focus on Dominican Studies.
- Nana Minder (junior, sociology and Black Studies, Women's Studies minor) is researching Black girls in schools, particularly girls in the school-to-prison pipeline with high expulsion rates. She is doing research alongside Dr. Terri Watson at A. Phillip Randolph Campus High School and will be writing a book chapter with her on their work.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. Today more than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight professional schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. Now celebrating its 170th anniversary, CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.