The Weiser Diplomacy Center is pleased to offer several Weiser Diplomacy Fellowships that will provide financial awards to admitted MPP students with demonstrated academic and professional achievement and deep interest in diplomacy and related aspects of international affairs.
Overview
The Weiser Diplomacy Center is pleased to offer several Weiser Diplomacy Fellowships that will fund admitted MPP students with demonstrated academic achievement who express deep interest in pursuing knowledge and practical policy skills related to diplomacy and foreign affairs in areas including international security, development, and/or human rights.
Fellowships are awarded to several incoming master’s students each year. Students receive up to $30,000 per year from 2023-24, which is up to $15,000 in tuition support each semester for a maximum of two years of graduate study in international policy or international economic development.
All newly admitted MPP students are eligible to apply for Weiser Diplomacy Fellowships. We will review applications for merit while considering applicants’ other sources of financial support received from UM and from outside fellowships when issuing awards.
Fellows with at least $15,000 in tuition may wish to accept the full amount as tuition support. Fellows who do not require the full $15,000 in tuition support, either because they obtain a GSI position or for other reasons, may draw up to $3,000 as stipend (please note this is deemed taxable income) and devote some or all of the remaining $12,000 to any tuition shortfall they may have.
Eligibility
Demographics funded
Newly admitted MPP students
Citizenship funded
Any
Programs funded
Graduate
Timeline
Call for applications is sent out to all admitted graduate students in March. Selected students are notified by mid April.
To apply
Complete the application form
Submit a current resume
Submit a 1-page single-spaced statement of interest
What elements of my Ford MPP application, if any, would be viewed in conjunction with my application for the fellowship?
The reviewing committee does not view your Ford MPP application.
What classes are Weiser fellows required to take and what opportunities are fellows involved in at the Weiser Diplomacy Center?
There are no specific course requirements, but we hope and expect that our fellows will strive to deepen their knowledge and interest in international policy issues by participation in courses offered in the international policy and international economic development concentrations and through their participation in our large offering of extracurricular activities.
Do fellows have any special programs, courses, events, or special projects they are to attend or work on to advance and enhance their studies?
Our fellows are part of a close-knit Ford School community of students with international policy interests. They regularly contribute to our events and participate in activities (symposia, conferences, seminars, policy simulation exercises, workshops and career talks among others). Additionally, they often benefit from our many other funding and research opportunities and partnership contacts. They meet with many of the top policy practitioners and Ford School alumni we invite, and they represent Ford School on and off campus in a variety of student groups and competitions that we bring to their attention. We often engage our fellows for their leadership and knowledge in international policy, such as asking them to lead Q&A at public events and join small-group seminars with visiting experts. WDC fellows are expected to participate at a fall event with WDC donors, a roundtable with all IPC/WDC awardees, and more.
Is there anything you would highlight as particularly helpful in making a Weiser Fellowship applicant stand out, apart from the information requested in the application form?
We seek applicants with deep interest in the study of international policy (including international relations, national security, development, and human rights). We also seek applicants with relevant experience and knowledge who are keen to share expertise with others, take advantage of the research and policy engagement opportunities we provide, exercise leadership in classes and student groups, and participate regularly at our international policy events.
Is the Weiser Fellowship purely a funding opportunity, or are Weiser fellows part of an educational community and/or accountable for contributing to the Weiser Diplomacy Center?
Prospective fellows who do not require the full $12,500 in tuition support, either because they receive other sources of tuition funding or obtain a GSI position, should still consider becoming part of the WDC fellowship community. Their experience, knowledge, and interest are all crucial to our vibrant international policy community.
Questions?
If you have any questions regarding this fellowship, please contact Nayab Ali, WDC's Assistant Program Manager ([email protected]).
The Weiser Diplomacy Fellowship has had such an incredible impact on my career, opening dozens of new doors and opportunities for me in a new country. One such example would be how off the back of the knowledge gained and connections made at the Ford School I have expanded the scope of much of my work, helping me build on my previous experience and start my own consultancy looking at the intersection of sports and diplomacy in the United States."
Joanna Bascom received her BA in Economics from Calvin University. A Princeton in Africa fellowship at a public health NGO confirmed her interest in health policy. Joanna has worked in social research and Monitoring & Evaluation in Michigan, Zambia, and Mexico. Her interests include global health policy and public participation in policymaking.
Elizaveta Dorofeeva grew up in Saint Petersburg, Russia and received her BA from the Higher School of Economics majoring in political science and world politics and minoring in Data Science. Driven by democratic principles, she helped in advocating for a project centered on organizing the United Nations model. She also had an opportunity to embark on exchange programs in Germany and the U.S. that have helped to shape her interest in international security. As a Weiser Diplomacy Fellow, she looks forward to further exploring her interests in international security and U.S. foreign affairs in a time of crisis.
Zakaria Bulus joins the University of Michigan with over ten years of development and humanitarian experience, providing technical support and capacity building to officials of government institutions and local partners in northeast Nigeria. He graduated with a BSc from Manchester University, Indiana, and a master's degree from Ohio University. He was featured in the Center for Strategic and International Studies Country Insights Series on Localization. He has worked with Family Health International (FHI360) and was the African Continental Assembly youth coordinator, a partner of Mission 21 in Basel, Switzerland. Zakaria has volunteered with Brethren Disaster Ministries (Ohio and Tennessee) and Islamic Relief USA (Houston, Texas). He is working to finalize his publication "The Politics of Local and International Actors in Development and Humanitarian Assistance."
Jacob Gillis received his BA from the University of Chicago, where he studied public policy with specializations in economics and international affairs. He served as the US State Department’s Foreign Affairs Campus Coordinator at the University of Chicago, previously interning for the State Department and a member of Congress. He also worked as a research assistant on a diverse set of projects, including those addressing global terrorism and domestic public health challenges. As a Weiser Fellow, he looks forward to further exploring his interests in international policy issues and learning from experts in the field.
Gerardo Alfonso Méndez Gutiérrez studied International Relations at El Colegio de México. He worked for Mexico's Secretariat of Public Education and the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs, where he specialized in North American issues. His interests include security and intelligence studies, as well as foreign policy analysis and the practice of diplomacy.
Gabriel Sylvan grew up in Geneva, Switzerland before attending Bowdoin College, where he has double majored in Government & Legal Studies and Mathematics. He has interned at the Borgen Project, a non-profit organization that emphasizes the importance of poverty reduction in U.S. foreign policy. Gabriel has also taken classes on international relations and development economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. He is currently working on a project analyzing Switzerland's recent referenda with a mathematical model plotting question preferences against a finite number of political dispositions. Gabriel's interests include European politics, development, and refugee policy, with a hope to be a policy analyst for one of the EU directorates or an international NGO working to craft solutions to combat issues of precarity among refugees and asylum seekers.
Oieshi is an Assistant Lecturer at Jindal Global Law School, and Research Associate at CJLS. Oieshi obtained her LL.M at the University of Cambridge, specializing in Public International Law, in 2019 and received her B.A. LL.B Hons. from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, in 2018. While at Cambridge, she worked as a research assistant at the Centre for Law, Medicine, and Life Sciences. Her primary areas of interest are Human Rights Law, Public Health and Ethics, Biopolitics and the Dialectics of Control, Gender and Sexuality, and the Jurisprudence of Decolonization, which she hopes to pursue through her research and teaching.
Hailing from Arizona, Radhika Arora’s upbringing in a diverse community and participation in cross-cultural exchange programs inspired a keen interest in public service and international affairs. After studying Business and Arabic at UNC-Chapel Hill, she joined Deloitte Consulting’s Government & Public Services practice to advise federal agencies and international NGOs on their strategic challenges. She then worked in the U.S. House of Representatives and advanced her member’s priorities in the Committee on Financial Services and Congressional Black Caucus. As a 2021 U.S. Department of State Rangel Fellow, Radhika will join the U.S. Foreign Service upon graduation from Ford. She looks forward to expanding her public policy know-how and the perspectives she will take abroad as a diplomat.
Hannah grew up for the first ten years of her life in the slums of Nouakchott, Mauritania. Neighbors on either side became like surrogate grandmothers and told stories of their childhood enslaved, internal displacement, and ethnic cleansing, which shape her passion for social justice and human rights to this day. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, where she also double minored in Near Eastern studies and Arabic. Her previous work includes investing in companies that create compelling value for the global common good at Eventide Asset Management; working as a legal representative for refugees and asylum seekers in Cairo, Egypt; management consulting at Bain & Company; and advising and pro bono work for social impact organizations. She speaks French and four dialects of Arabic fluently.
Alhan Fakhr has experience working in tech, economic research, non-profit, and human rights organizations in Pakistan, Cambodia, China, Malaysia, and the United States. In 2017, Alhan graduated with a degree in Social Science and Global China Studies as part of the inaugural class of New York University Shanghai. Between 2018-2019, Alhan served as a Princeton in Asia Fellow at the University of Science in Penang, Malaysia. Previously he has worked as a Research Assistant at the Women’s Mobility Program at the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan and as a Media and Communications Officer at Justice Project Pakistan. His interests center around understanding how technology and policy solutions can be leveraged to solve human rights crises plaguing South Asia.
Jonathan Garon was born in Paris, France and grew up in Falls Church, VA, just outside of Washington, DC. He attended the University of Rochester and earned a B.A. in Political Science and History, graduating with distinction. Jonathan spent the years after college living and working in San Francisco before relocating back to Washington. In 2016, he began working in the Economic section at the UAE Embassy in Washington, where he served for over five years in various roles, most recently as the Director of Commercial Affairs. Jonathan is passionate about history, trade, and international policy, and hopes to work for the U.S. federal government upon graduation from the Ford School. He speaks conversational Hebrew and beginner French.
Michael is a 2012 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. After more than 7 years of active duty Army service, a majority of which was spent leading soldiers both at home and overseas, he transitioned away from the military. Michael intends to pursue a career as a foreign service officer, eager to promote the best of liberal democratic values and human rights internationally. His fondest memories from military service include competing in the 2017 US Army Best Ranger Competition and building lasting relationships with the soldiers he was privileged to lead. His policy research interests include colonial legacies, human rights, and ethics. In his spare time, he enjoys art, music, theater, trail running, and experiencing new places with his South African husband, Dehan.
Margo Steinhaus holds a Bachelor of Arts from DePaul University in International Studies, Sociology, and German. She has been a Gilman and Fulbright Scholarship recipient to Turkey and taught English in Istanbul and in rural Thailand. Since 2019, Margo has been working in the monitoring and evaluation side of international development on USAID-funded projects. She is also the Co-Chair for the Young Professionals Network workgroup for the Society of International Development-Washington and was a Nonresident Fellow and Contributor with the Turkish Heritage Organization. Her interests have centered around comparative social policy, particularly the intersection of sustainable housing, refugee resettlement, and economic mobility, which she plans to continue researching at the Ford School.
Weiser Diplomacy Fellow & Elected Graduate Speaker
Maggie Barnard (MPP ’21) is a Weiser Diplomacy Fellow interning with the Department of State’s sub-Saharan Africa office. She also volunteers as Amnesty International USA's Country Specialist for Tanzania. After a Fulbright Fellowship to Arusha, Tanzania, her desire to work in the U.S.-East Africa international affairs field was affirmed.
