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��ɫ�ֿ� is proud to announce that multiple students have been awarded the Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois (DFI) fellowship and the Chicago Area Schweitzer Fellowship. In total, 16 ��ɫ�ֿ� students have earned over $250,000 in awards to complete their higher education from a variety of programs.

is awarded by the Illinois Board of Higher Education with the goal of increasing “the number of minority full-time tenure track faculty and staff at Illinois’ two- and four-year, public and private colleges and universities.” ��ɫ�ֿ� students comprised 14 DFI fellows, with seven students being new applicants, and eight students renewing their applications. This year, the DFI fellowship will give ��ɫ�ֿ� students the following amounts:

• New Master’s Fellows - $16,000
• Renewal Master’s Fellows - $17,500
• New/Renewal Doctoral Fellows - $18,000

Here are the 14 recipients of the DFI fellowship:

• Brenda Rodriguez, PsyD, Psychology
• Maricarmen Carreto, MA, Biology
• Angie Delgado, MA, Clinical Psychology
• Rita Boateng, MA Computer Science
• Victoria Medrano, EdD, Interdisciplinary Leadership
• Judy McDowell, MA, Human Resource Management
• Corties Draper, MA, Business Analytics
• Alfredo Guzman, MA, Biomedical Science
• Amiracle Williams, MA, Clinical Mental Health Counseling
• Franziska Miles, MBA, Business Administration
• Jasmine Gillis, MA, Mathematics
• Jesus Ruan, PsyD, Clinical Psychology
• Juan Sosa, MA, Computer Science
• Keyla Nelson, PsyD, Clinical Psychology
• Vanessa Ayala, PsyD, Clinical Psychology

This year’s DFI fellows include students pursuing EdD, PsyD, MA and MBA graduate students, representing programs such as Psychology, Biology, Interdisciplinary Leadership, Business Administration and others. ��ɫ�ֿ�’s DFI Fellowship representative Dr. Alejandra Prieto-Mendoza had this to say of the accomplishment:

“I want to remark on the hard work and dedication each of these students put into their applications and the tremendous job their mentors did in writing their letters of recommendation.”

“provides 26 exceptional students with opportunities to design and implement projects to improve the health and well-being of underserved Chicago communities.” The 2024-2025 Schweitzer Fellows include two ��ɫ�ֿ� students, Axel Garcia and Erika Meraz. Garcia is a Pharmacy major with aspirations to partner with RUSH in “executing a community outreach effort that will provide the Latino immigrant population of the South/Southwest side of Chicago with education in Spanish on affordable healthcare.” Meraz is a Biomedical Science student who plans to “deliver health insurance literacy workshops for the Latinx community,” earned her place amongst the 2024-2025 Schweitzer Fellows.