Moore Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program
Announcement of Summer Student Fellowships
May 23-July 29, 2010
The Moore Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (MURAP) is a paid summer fellowship designed to foster the entrance of talented students from diverse backgrounds within the humanities, social sciences, and fine arts into graduate school and faculty positions in U.S. colleges and universities. More broadly, the program seeks to increase the presence of minorities and others who demonstrate a commitment to eradicating racial disparities in graduate school and eventually in academic ranks. The program serves the related goals of providing role models for all youth and structuring campus environments so that they will be more conducive to improved racial and ethnic relations. MURAP aims to achieve its mission by identifying and supporting students of great promise and helping them to become scholars of the highest distinction.
Each summer, the program brings a cohort of 18-22 undergraduates (rising juniors and seniors) from colleges and universities in the U.S. to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus for an intensive, ten-week research experience. Students are expected to develop a 20-page research project under the guidance of a faculty mentor with whom they are paired according to areas of study and research interests. In addition to meeting at least three times a week with faculty mentors, students will attend weekly 3-hour seminars where they will present their research and discuss it with faculty and other students in the program, receive required biweekly instruction in preparation for the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), attend biweekly writing and presentation skills workshops, and participate in a variety of informative workshops, social events and conferences designed to expose them to the graduate experience. Participants will submit their final research paper based on their project and must receive approval through the signature of their faculty mentor. For a student to complete the program successfully and receive the entire stipend, participation in all of these activities and completion of the research paper are required. A sample calendar of required activities and deadlines is available on our website.
For their participation in the program, student fellows will receive a generous stipend of $3500 (in the case of students holding Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowships, they receive the difference between their summer stipend and MURAP’s), an allowance for meals of $1450 and travel allowance up to $500 to cover the cost of transportation to and from Chapel Hill. Additionally, students will be provided on-campus housing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Applying to MURAP
APPLICATION DEADLINE: February 5, 2010
Program applicants should be mindful that MURAP offers an intensive research experience which requires a substantial commitment of time, intellectual resources and effort. Therefore, students may not be employed or take classes while enrolled in the program. Student fellows are selected based on a variety of factors that may include their academic promise, clarity and quality of their statement of research interests, availability of an appropriate mentor match, their demonstrated commitment to increasing opportunities for underrepresented minorities in academic settings in the fields designated above, serious intent to pursue graduate (as opposed to professional) studies, and willingness and ability to participate in all aspects of the MURAP program. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents, must have completed at least four semesters of undergraduate study, and must have at least one semester of undergraduate work remaining when they enter MURAP.
In completing the statement included in the application, students must demonstrate clearly their fit with and suitability for the program given MURAP's mission and selection criteria. For more information about the program and to learn how to apply please visit the MURAP website http://www.unc.edu/depts/murap/index.html.
Rising seniors applying to MURAP should consider applying simultaneously to the Associate Program of the Institute for Recruitment of Teachers (IRT), as it would be of great help during the graduate school application process. For more information consult http://www.andover.edu/irt