The Minority Graduate Fellowship Program: A Program for Initiating Minorities into the Professoriate

This paper provides a description of the Minority Graduate Fellowship Program created by the School of Education, Human Services and Humanities at the West Virginia Graduate College. The program's purpose is to increase the minority presence within its faculty, recruit minorities to this geographical area, and to assist young professionals with their socialization into the professorate. The intent of the program is that minorities should benefit from the experience and develop a support system to help them in the pursuit of their goals. The paper describes the strengths and weaknesses of the program which involved three minority fellows during the 1991-92 school year. Recommendations made to assist those who might be considering establishing similar programs include the following: (1) a specific orientation program should be part of the early experiences of the fellows and all new employees, (2) fellows should be provided with the necessary time and financial resources prior to beginning the program, and (3) choosing fellows should be done with care and should take into account their maturity level, personality, and prior professional experiences in order to enhance their successful completion of the program. (Contains 13 references). (GLR)