The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program at Penn

MMUF Alumni Reunion, June 2006

It is with enormous joy and pride that we welcomed many of our Penn Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows back home to the first Penn MMUF Alumni Reunion on June 16-18, 2006! It was great seeing all of our fellows and to hear of some of the exciting things they are doing. In addition to the opening reception and working sessions held on Saturday, Fellows had the opportunity to spend time with each other and to develop ties that reach across the decades and disparate disciplines that the program embodies. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend (as you can see from some of the photos!) and we received very positive feedback from the attendees! Special thanks go to MMUF Alumna, Tanji Gilliam, Bridina Holloway, VPUL staff, and Pat Ravenell for their hard work in making our MMUF Reunion so special!!

Penn MMUF Fellows have gone on to continued, extraordinary, accomplishments! All are scholars, in diverse fields, with one mission: to change the tone, tenure and tempo of a global cannon! Our Penn cohorts combined have one of the highest graduate and professional school admissions and completion rates in the Mellon program, not to mention a 100% graduation rate from Penn. Our program now has eight Ph.D. recipients, two of whom are already tenured faculty!!

Our program has also had extraordinary Faculty, Faculty Fellows and Graduate Fellows. Our Faculty Coordinator, Dr. Herman Beavers has spent decades nurturing the academic excellence of our MMUF Fellows. We can not thank him enough for his dedication and commitment to the Penn MMUF Program! In addition, Penn MMUF Alumni - like Dr. Erica Armstrong-Dunbar - have served the Penn MMUF program in all three categories - and some, like Maddy Lopez, served as a Graduate Fellow while completing her doctoral work.

Penn MMUF Fellows - keep up the good work!!