This semester, 15 students were awarded the Sustainability Fellowship to start their own project or collaborate on an existing one with the Office for Sustainability.
The fellowship awards students with a $15,000 scholarship that will cover the student’s tuition and fees as well as their living expenses for a year.
“We describe sustainability as the use of planet resources in a way to support the current human generation and the future generations,” said Parwinder Grewal, UTRGV executive vice president for Research, Graduate Studies and New Program Development. “We don’t restrict it to any particular area or discipline background matter. What makes the student special is their passion about [sustainability], the interest in the sustainability topic.”
To apply for the fellowship, students had to be accepted unconditionally to a graduate program, provide a one- to two-page statement about their sustainability interests and be a full-time student for the awarded year.
“[Students who received the fellowship were] students who were passionate about their work in sustainability,” Grewal said. “That is, looking at sustainability development, looking at recycling, looking at addressing hunger. So, they passionately describe that they care for the society in the longer term. It can also be part of the sustainability projects that are coordinated by the Office of Sustainability.”
Asked how the idea for this fellowship started, Grewal replied it was because he has a strong interest in sustainability.
“We have an office of sustainability that tries to engage students in sustainability-type projects,” he said. “I wanted to enhance their activities by engaging students and providing funding to the students to dedicate their time to engage in sustainability projects.”
Perla Melendez, a graduate student in English, was awarded the fellowship for her recycling project.
“It was a great opportunity to start doing something for the university and use our skills in order to improve the university,” Melendez said. “I am mostly focusing on recycling, reducing and reusing. … I will create posters and other type of [advertisements] to get the university engaged in [recycling].”
She said this fellowship allows students to help each other in their research.
“It gives us the opportunity to work in collaboration with other people from different majors,” she said. “We help each other [in our research]. We all have some type of skill that is important that we share with the community to improve it. Each one of us is good at something and if we use that, we can create a better community.”
Diana Lara, a translation and interpreting graduate student, said she is excited about the fellowship because it allows her to use her own skills without being limited.
“I [am] really excited,” Lara said. “I [did not] know how my degree applies to sustainability because, at least before I got the scholarship, I thought it was about the environment and science. They want us to implement our own skills. They don’t want to limit us, which I think is excellent about this fellowship.
“They did not specifically just choose people that are science majors or math majors; they wanted to choose a variety of different people so that we could contribute.”
Lara will focus her project on helping translate surveys and data to both English and Spanish.
“At least here in the Valley, we need to have both English and Spanish and I would be able to contribute with that,” she said. “Breaking the language barrier and breaking the cultural barrier.”
Asked how the fellowship will improve her academic career, she replied, “It will open my eyes to how I can contribute to the world and how I can improve my community.”
