Giving Opportunities
There are a variety of ways you can support the work of the Graduate School at the University of Maryland. This list of both general and restricted funds provides alumni and friends with many opportunities to match giving preferences with the needs of our students and programs:
Annual Support Funds
Alumni and friends can make a gift at any level to the following funds. These enable the dean of the Graduate School to provide ongoing support throughout the year for students and programs:
Graduate School Fund for Excellence – This fund provides the most immediate source of support for graduate students and faculty. It gives the dean of the Graduate School the flexibility to respond quickly to emerging opportunities and needs. Gifts enable and advance cutting-edge research, international collaborations, and dissertation and degree completion.
Graduate School Fellowship Fund - All students enrolled in UMD graduate programs are eligible for fellowships and awards, though doctoral students are the main recipients. Fellowships and awards can be used to support a student’s progress throughout the graduate program; can be applied to a specific stage of that progress, such as completion of the dissertation; or can be used to honor exceptional research or other accomplishments, such as the Graduate School’s annual Distinguished Dissertation Award. Relieving students of assistantship duties, fellowships allow for highly focused study. Gifts to this fund are pooled for maximum effectiveness and efficiency.
Graduate School Diversity Fund – This fund advances the recruitment, retention, and graduation of students from underserved and underrepresented populations by providing academic programs, support initiatives, and co-curricular activities. By helping individual students to succeed, gifts to this Fund also enhance campus diversity, promote inclusion, and help build a vital and vibrant graduate learning and research community.
Graduate School International Fund – This fund provides graduate students with meaningful learning, research, and professional experiences in international settings. These experiences broaden a student’s knowledge and perspective; leverage university resources, such as ongoing collaborations between faculty and international colleagues; and increase the university’s international profile, influence, and ability to change the world.
To make an online gift to one of these funds, please visit http://ter.ps/givetothegs.
Fellowship and Award Funds
Alumni and friends can create their own fellowship funds with a one-time gift, or with a gift to the endowment. A one-time gift provides support for a limited time period (usually within the current fiscal year), while a gift to the endowment provides support in perpetuity.
Innovation Fellowships – Awarded to students pursuing bold, cutting-edge interdisciplinary research. They provide outstanding students full financial support in their first year of graduate study.
Flagship Fellowships – “Super fellowships” designed to attract truly exceptional doctoral students and enable the University of Maryland to compete successfully with other top private and public universities.
Dissertation Fellowships – Designed to shorten time to degree and to increase degree completion rates. They provide doctoral candidates full financial support during the critical dissertation phase.
Summer Research Fellowships – Awarded to doctoral students at mid-career. They fund an uninterrupted summer of focused work on qualifying exam preparation or preliminary dissertation research.
Research and Travel Awards – Enhance opportunities for students to conduct and present their research. These award support fieldwork, participation in international research projects, or travel to national or international conferences.
To provide support to a fellowship or award fund, please contact our Alumni Officer, Anna De Cheke Qualls (adechek1@umd.edu).