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Graduate Student Opportunities for Community Engagement, Public Benefit, Social Impact

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Over the past decade, the number and diversity of opportunities available to graduate students to ground their scholarship and academic training in community engagement and social impact has expanded alongside the university’s overarching commitment to public purpose. These programs exemplify the shift in commitment to a more integrated and broadly beneficial graduate education experience.

This collection of resources is intended to aid graduate students in navigating the expanding opportunities available to them, as well as to elevate the collective efforts that uphold Stanford’s commitment to public purpose.

Bill Lane Center for the American West

Fellowship

Thomas D. Dee II Graduate Fellowship

Multi-quarter; full-time

The Thomas D. Dee II Graduate Fellowship offers one year of support for a doctoral student from Stanford's School of Humanities & Sciences conducting dissertation research on the North American West.

Contact: Corinne Thomas

Fellowship

Shultz Energy Fellowship

The Shultz Fellowship creates an avenue for Stanford students interested in energy to participate in influential, paid internships with energy-related government organizations in the United States.

ContactKatie Taflan Cerneka

Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE)

Certificate/Degree

CSRE PhD Minor

The goal of the Ph.D. minor in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity is to bring together graduate students and faculty from different departments, programs, and schools  to learn about how to think about race and ethnicity in their research.

Contact: Annie Atura Bushnell

Fellowship

Teaching Race Graduate Fellowship

Graduate fellows will receive a modest stipend for participating in remote and in-person workshops exploring theory and praxis in anti-racist pedagogy, with a special emphasis on concrete strategies for supporting difficult conversations in the classroom.

Contact: Annie Atura Bushnell

Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS)

Fellowship

PhD Fellowship

Multi-quarter, part-time

This fellowship supports and nurtures scholars interested in topics broadly related to civil society through a year in residence participating in PACS signature research workshop.

ContactLisa Overbey

Grant/Funding

Small Grants Program

Funding up to $4,000

As a leading research center, Stanford PACS offers a number of small grants in the fall and spring quarters to support student research related to philanthropy and civil society in pursuit of positive social change. 

Contact: Lisa Overbey

ChEM-H

Freeman Spogli Institute

Graduate School of Education

Interest Group/Workshops

Public Scholarship Collaborative

This collaborative is for graduate students committed to mobilizing research findings for the advancement of educational opportunity and equity in K–20 education.

ContactLuci Parker

Graduate School of Education and John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities

Haas Center for Public Service

Fellowship

Graduate Public Service Fellowship

Multi-quarter, full-time; $3,000 stipend

This year-long program awards fellowships to graduate students who want to explore and prepare for professorial or other careers in which they will engage in scholar-activism, community-based research, or public scholarship.

Contact: Clayton Hurd

Fellowship

Partnerships for Climate Justice in the Bay Area (PCJ in the Bay)

9-week summer fellowship

PCJ in the Bay offers part-time and full-time fellowship opportunities for graduate students working with community organizations on climate justice initiatives, as well as support in making connections for community-engaged PhD or thesis projects.

Contact: Alex Wheeler

Fellowship

Schneider Sustainable Energy Fellowships

12-week summer fellowship; $10,000 stipend

Students work at a  U.S. nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the sustainable energy field tackling economic, environmental, social, and technical challenges associated with harnessing energy resources to deliver energy services.

Contact: Valerie Chow

King Center on Global Development

Grant/Funding

Graduate Student Research Funding

12-month timeline; multiple award tiers

This funding supports faculty-supervised doctoral student research activities, particularly field-based work on global poverty and economic development in middle- and low-income countries.

Contact: King Center

Journeys of Inquiry

The program provides opportunities to highly motivated students for experiential learning and conducting research in low- and middle-income countries.

Contact: Mara Violanti

McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society

Fellowship

McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society Graduate Fellowship

The fellowship creates a supportive community in which fellows will examine ethical questions specific to their research, and that more broadly relate to their roles as scholars and as citizens.

Contact: Collin Chen

Grant/Funding

Ethics, Society and Technology Rolling Grants

Funding amount: $1,000-$25,000

The newly established Ethics, Society and Technology Hub aims to implement a culture change in how Stanford prepares its students, faculty, researchers, administrators and staff to consider the ethical implications and societal consequences of technological and scientific advances.

Contact: Collin Chen

Native American Cultural Center

Fellowship

Indigenous Communities Fellowship

Nine-week summer fellowship; $9000 stipend

Partner with a nonprofit, government, or tribal organization to address issues of social change, equity, and inclusion in service to American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Indigenous Pacific Islander communities in the U.S.

Contact: Matt Yellowtail

Stanford Bio-X

Fellowship

Stanford Bio-X Graduate Fellowships

Full support (tuition and stipend) for 3 years of graduate study

Stanford Bio-X Fellows work on the cutting edge at the intersection of disciplines with a profound potential to generate transformative discoveries for the benefit of human health.

Contact: Lyn Denend

Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign

Stanford Engineering

Stanford Housing Equity Project

Fellowship

Student Research Fellowship (Public Health & Overdose Prevention)

5 hours/week for at least 2 quarters; $500 stipend

This fellowship supports the design, evaluation, and execution of a large-scale project providing care for LifeMoves' unhoused clients with substance use conditions.

Contact: Dr. Marcy Winget

Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence

Fellowship

HAI Graduate Fellowship Program

The goal of this program is to encourage interdisciplinary research conversations, facilitate new collaborations, and grow the HAI community of graduate scholars who are working in the area of AI, broadly defined.

Contact: HAI Fellowships

Interest Groups

HAI Student Affinity Groups

HAI Student Affinity Groups are small teams of interdisciplinary students who have a shared interest in a topic related to the development or study of human-centered AI.

Contact: Christine Raval

Stanford Impact Labs

Fellowship

PhD Fellowship

Summer fellowship; includes stipend

This summer program supports highly motivated PhD students to work on impact-focused research with faculty mentors and research teams across the university, as well as community and policy partners beyond the university.

Contact: Alex Carr

Fellowship

Postdoctoral Fellowship

2-year fellowship

Postdoctoral fellows work with a designated research team on a particular social problem while also continuing to develop their individual research agenda.

Contact: Alex Carr

Stanford Medicine

Stanford SEED

Internship

SEED Internship

By working directly with a Seed Transformation Program company, you’ll help implement new ideas designed to facilitate both the growth and the scaling of businesses in the developing and emerging world.

Contact: Daniel Zussman

TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy

Vice Provost for Graduate Education

Fellowship

Research for Action and Impact through Strategic Engagement (RAISE) Doctoral Fellowship

3-year fellowship; 1 quarter tuition and stipend funding per year

The RAISE fellowship provides students with funding to support experiential learning opportunities, coupled with cohort-based skills training and community building to better engage communities and create social change.

Contact: Joanne Tien

Woods Institute for the Environment

Fellowship

Rising Environmental Leaders Program (RELP)

This program is designed to provide graduate and postdoctoral students with the opportunity to better understand the connection between environmental science and policy-making to help maximize the impact of their research or focal area.

Contact: Roberta Tugendreich
 

Grant/Funding

Mel Lane Student Grants

Group project funding

The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment invites undergraduate and graduate students to submit proposals for student-driven-and-managed projects that focus on environmental sustainability in a wide range of areas.

Contact: Jen Chiu

Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance

Fellowship

Wu Tsai Human Performance Research Fellowship

1-year fellowship; option to renew 2nd year

The Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance Research Fellowship is an interdisciplinary, university-wide program that supports excellent doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows engaged in human performance research.

Contact: Johanna O’Day

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