The AEA/DU Graduate Education Diversity Internship Program is a partnership between The American Evaluation Association and Duquesne University School of Education. We invite graduate students from groups traditionally under-represented in the field who are interested in evaluation to submit applications for the fourth cohort, beginning in September, 2008, and continuing through June, 2009.

The Internship program is a non-residential opportunity for pre-doctoral students to learn about evaluation through working with professional colleagues in their own region while coming together in person three to four times over the course of the year with a small cohort of students in the program to learn from each other and leaders in the field. The program builds upon a student's existing graduate study program and provides a stipend of $8,000 plus travel support.

The purposes of the Internship Program are:

• to expand the pipeline of graduate evaluation students from under-represented groups,
• to extend to evaluation student's existing basic research capacities and substantive knowledge about their area of concentration,
• to stimulate evaluation thinking concerning communities and persons of color and persons from other under-represented groups by providing professional development training opportunities for social and natural science graduate students, and
• to deepen the evaluation profession's capacity to work in racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse settings.

We seek graduate students of color, or from other under-represented groups in the field of evaluation, who are not already enrolled in an evaluation program, and who:

• Will be enrolled this fall in either year 2 of a Master's or year 2 or 3 of a doctoral or a combined masters/doctoral program,
• Have already been exposed to research methods and substantive issues in their field of expertise,
• Can demonstrate the relevance of evaluation training in their current work through a short essay, and
• Have support from his/her academic advisor.

Applications are due August 1, 2008.

Since we expect to identify interested graduate students by late August, your timely consideration of this material would be appreciated.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Rodney K. Hopson

Director, AEA/DU Graduate Education Diversity Internship Program