Mellon Makes Its Mark

Roach, Ronald, Black Issues in Higher Education

Over the past 13 years, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has invested $50 million in doctoral programs. Their investment is now paying off as the program becomes one of the premier pipelines for producing minority doctorates.

DURHAM, N.C.

Sheldon Lyke had long harbored ambivalence about getting a doctorate to become a professor. His indecision was a result of his uncertainty about whether academic life suited his temperament. Though the Princeton University graduate got into graduate programs in sociology as well as law school, Lyke opted to earn a law degree at Northwestern University.

Nonetheless, the Chicago native credits the influence of the Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) program for bringing him around to graduate school. Having participated in the Mellon program at Princeton, Lyke realized that he felt far more fulfilled as a research scholar than in a law firm. Though admitting his first two years in a graduate program at the University of Chicago has been a rough ride for him, Lyke declares he has made the right choice and wants to teach law and sociology in the future.

"I'm glad I'm doing this," he says.

On a balmy, sunny weekend last month on the bucolic campus of Duke University, Lyke was among 160 young scholars assembled at a meeting known to its previous participants as equal parts family reunion and academic conference. The North Carolina campus provided a scenic backdrop for the annual conference …

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Publication information: Article title: Mellon Makes Its Mark. Contributors: Roach, Ronald - Author. Magazine title: Black Issues in Higher Education. Volume: 18. Issue: 11 Publication date: July 19, 2001. Page number: 38. © 1999 Cox, Matthews & Associates. COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group.

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