New Student Fellowships for Graduate Students

We’re excited to announce that we awarded the inaugural recipients of two new Graduate Fellowships this year. We are grateful for the thoughtfulness of these donors and their commitment to supporting our students. Fellowship opportunities like these enable our students to take a break from teaching assistantships and pursue additional research and training opportunities to enhance their graduate studies. You can join others in supporting graduate fellowships: Click here to make an investment in our students.

Barbara Sarason Endowed Fellowship for Graduate Students

Emeritus Professor of Psychology Irwin Sarason established the Barbara Sarason Endowed Fellowship in honor of his late wife, Emeritus Research Professor Barbara Sarason who passed away in September 2017. Barbara’s research focused on interpersonal relationships and the social support they provide for people.  As a leader in this area of study, Barbara wrote many articles and books, served as editor for several journals, and mentored many graduate and undergraduate students during her career. She received the Lifetime Contribution Award of the Washington State Psychological Association. Irwin hopes that this fund will help to support students who are “on the way up” as Barbara would have wanted. With this new fellowship, we are able to expand our graduate support opportunities to honor Barbara and her legacy of mentoring and training students. The UW Psychology Department thanks Irwin for this thoughtful gift and looks forward to awarding future Sarason Fellows in the years to come.

Pigott Diversity & Equity Fellowship for Graduate Students
This fall we awarded our first recipient of the Pigott Diversity & Equity Fellowship, honoring graduate students with a demonstrated interest and active role in advancing diversity and equity in their science. We are proud to have students prioritizing these efforts through their research, outreach, departmental leadership and other activities. A longtime supporter of Kristina Olson and the TransYouth Project, recognized how barriers such as access to an affordable education can create challenges in equity and advancement. Thanks to the support of a generous donor and their commitment to supporting our graduate students, we were able to offer this additional fellowship opportunity to attract top students to the department.