HJF Fellowships Support Future Science Leaders

In an effort to remain competitive with the best graduate schools in the U.S., the Uniformed Services University has long recognized the value of stipends for its students.

As costs have risen, however, the ability to offer stipends has diminished. To help ameliorate that situation, the Foundation in 1998 instituted a fellowship program to assist outstanding USU graduate students. To date, HJF has awarded nearly 30 fellowships.

Currently, fellowships are awarded annually to three outstanding graduate students. They provide stipend and travel support during later years of studies. The program includes two Henry M. Jackson Fellowships in the Medical Sciences and one Val G. Hemming Fellowship.

One of the first HJF fellowship recipients was Dr. Martha Faraday, now the scientific review officer for the National Institutes of Health’s Center for Scientific Review, Psychosocial Risk and Disease Prevention Study Section.

In the 1999-2000 academic year, Faraday was completing her doctoral dissertation on individual differences, such as age and gender, and their effects on stress. Receiving a HJF fellowship for the last year of her work was extremely helpful in completing the research, Faraday said.

“To obtain a Ph.D. takes funded time—for intellectual growth, to become a well-rounded scientist,” she said. “That’s where the fellowship provided support, especially in that last year; you didn’t have to worry about working two jobs to make ends meet. You could focus on the science.”

HJF selected three promising USU doctoral students to receive fellowships for the 2008-09 academic year.

Beth Carpenter, a fifth-year graduate student in the Emerging Infectious Diseases program, won the Val G. Hemming Fellowship. Her project focuses on understanding the function of a regulatory protein made by the human pathogen Helicobacter pylori.

Cherise Harrington and Sari Holmes, both students in the Medical and Clinical Psychology program, won Henry M. Jackson Fellowships. Harrington, a fifth-year student, is studying how individuals with different working styles manage workplace stress. Holmes, a seventh-year student, is examining behavioral and psychosocial aspects of cardiovascular disease.