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Fellowships/Student Experience

Short Takes from the Grounds

U.Va. Microbiology Professor Martin Wu describes the potential benefits of research into the "Vampire Bacteria" and its unique method of attacking human pathogens.

Great universities, and great departments within great universities, make their mark on the world by training graduate students. Financial support for graduate students therefore represents a powerful pressure point for achieving excellence at the University of Virginia. By meeting this one need, donors will generate a multiplier effect that results in improved faculty hiring, better teaching, increased grant support, and higher productivity in our research activities. There are few more effective ways to transform the institution.

Giving Opportunities

Endowed fellowships provide a lasting source of support,producing a steady stream of funding for promising graduate students. A team of investment professionals at the University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO) carefully manages the funds to preserve and enhance the assets. Income from the assets is then used in the form of fellowship support for students seeking advanced degrees.

Selected Examples of Funding Opportunities in Schools and University Programs

The Board of Visitors has set a minimum funding level of $100,000 to create an endowed graduate fellowship. Almost every school at the University considers support for graduate fellowships as a priority in their campaign goals.

  • $100,000 — Endow a partial graduate fellowship in architecture, commerce, education, or nursing
  • $110,000 — Endow a summer research or international field work grant
  • $130,000 — Endow a summer dissertation fellowship
  • $160,000 — Endow a stipend enhancement for a President’s Fellowship in arts and sciences
  • $225,000 — Endow a Double Hoo research grant
  • $25,000 — Endow a partial medical scholarship (M.D.), graduate fellowship (Ph.D.) in medicine, or scholarship in the Darden School of Business
  • $500,000 — Endow a Jefferson Scholars Graduate Fellowship or a full graduate fellowship in architecture, commerce, education, or nursing
  • $600,000 — Endow a graduate fellowship or dissertation-year fellowship in arts and sciences
  • $1,000,000 — Endow a full graduate fellowship in engineering or the Darden School, a graduate fellowship for cross-disciplinary research, or a Jefferson Public Citizens graduate fellowship
In addition to endowed fellowship support, annual gifts are needed to support the University’s graduate programs in the following ways:
  • $1,000 — Fund a travel grant for national or international scholarly conferences
  • $5,000 — Fund a summer research grant or crossdisciplinary research award
  • $6,000 — Fund a summer dissertation fellowship
  • $10,000 — Fund a Double Hoo research grant
  • $30,000 — Fund a graduate fellowship dissertationyear fellowship in arts and sciences
  • $42,000 — Fund a Jefferson Public Citizens graduate fellowship
  • $50,000 — Fund a graduate fellowship in Engineering

Manoj Sinha: Fueling the Future

Thomas Wolfe was wrong: You can go home again.

Manoj Sinha left home in Bihar, India, about a decade ago to study electrical engineering at Banaras Hindu University. He earned a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and took a job at Intel Corporation in Austin, Texas.

For two years, he led a global team that was designing the company's smallest computer chip, the Intel Atom processor.

"At one point I learned that, because of hostilities [between Israel and Lebanon in the summer of 2006], the people in Israel were working on this product on their laptops in bunkers," he said. "That was extremely humbling." more >