Graduate Student Opportunities for Community Engagement, Public Benefit, Social Impact
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
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
Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE)
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
Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS)
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
ChEM-H CBI Training Program
The primary mission of the Stanford ChEM-H CBI Training Program is to cultivate interactions and thinking across disciplinary lines to enable innovations that improve human health.
Contact: Asia Avelino, Gabby Gomez
Freeman Spogli Institute
Global Policy Internships
Pursue research and internships related to international policy and international affairs.
Contact: Patrick Laboon
Graduate School of Education
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.
Contact: Luci Parker
Graduate School of Education and John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities
Certificate Program in Partnership Research in Education
Multi-quarter
Graduate students may earn a certificate indicating that they have completed a set of training requirements in preparation for partnership research.
Contact: Amy Gerstein, Laura Wentworth
Haas Center for Public Service
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
Research as Praxis Workshop Series
This workshop is for graduate students interested in learning more about and developing competency in community-engaged and social impact scholarship.
Contact: Clayton Hurd
King Center on Global Development
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
McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society
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
Indigenous Communities Fellowship
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
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
Biodesign Innovation Fellowship
Multi-quarter, full time
The Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship is a launch pad for initiating, redirecting, or accelerating a career in health technology innovation.
Contact: contact-biox@stanford.edu
Stanford Engineering
Stanford Emergence Accelerator Program
Multi-quarter
The Emergence Accelerator Program supports a cohort of ten highly driven social and environmental student entrepreneurs and ventures each year from across campus.
Contact: Sooni Gillett
Stanford Housing Equity Project
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
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
Stanford Impact Labs
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
Stanford Medicine
Community Health and Prevention Research Master of Science
Minimum 45 units
This program is designed for students pursuing health-related careers focusing on chronic disease prevention, health and wellness promotion, and the pursuit of health equity.
Contact: Adrienne Lazaro
Stanford SEED
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
energyStartup Summer Internships
Actively contribute to the development and deployment of innovations to tackle the energy, food, water, and environmental challenges facing society.
Contact: Elizabeth Irino
Vice Provost for Graduate Education
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
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
Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance
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, Jacequeline Tran, Ryan Shiba