The most important thing on a doctoral student’s mind beyond research is funding. And that is precisely what was going through Will French’s mind.
Though French, a UW–Madison School of Education doctoral student, had already secured funding through his doctoral program in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA), he wanted to secure further funding to ensure he was able to solely focus on his studies and research. That’s where the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Research Scholars fellowship came in.
The Health Policy Research Scholars (HPRS) fellowship, founded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is a four-year, national leadership development program designed to develop leadership skills among full-time doctoral students. These students originate from a range of research-driven fields outside of clinical settings, where policy is a key factor in effecting change. According to the program’s website, the HPRS fellowship was established by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) with the aim to build on RWJF’s vision of leadership as a dynamic, transformative, and relational process of change focused on addressing and healing the harm caused by historical and structural injustices and oppression. The fellowship is primarily designed for doctoral students from historically marginalized backgrounds who are strongly dedicated to research that promotes antiracism and structural change efforts in line with the health needs of the most affected communities.
“RWJF is certainly a leader in the field that champions and funds the work of all different sorts of researchers, scholars, and practitioners who want to create more impartial systems that promote health and healthier conditions, (including) living and working conditions, for all people,” French said.
Fellow ELPA doctoral students Mark Moralez and Brittney Pemberton echo French’s statement of the personal, professional, and financial benefits of the fellowship’s interdisciplinary approach. A recent study featured in AERA Open highlights that financial issues can be one of the most significant obstacles for students considering applying to a doctoral program. For Moralez, the HPRS fellowship has allowed him to attend academic conferences to present and disseminate his research, as well as pay for access to academic journals. This in turn has eased the stress of financial burden that exists within graduate school, a sentiment reiterated by Pemberton and French. Pemberton has used the funds allocated by the HPRS fellowship to invest in coding software and transcription software and to invest in more secure housing.
“I have a little bit more wiggle room to be able to plan and really think about how much money is coming in and how much money needs to go out to access those same feelings of ease, comfort, and security,” Pemberton said.
These feelings of ease also extended to the fellowship application process. The HPRS website outlines a straightforward, four-step application process that is simple and transparent. Along with the application form, applicants need to submit a curriculum vitae (CV), the name of a faculty mentor from their home institution, a faculty reference (can be different from the mentor), and all doctoral transcripts. After applicants clear the first round, the second round involves a panel interview, where the focus is less on research and more on the values of the applicant. This process has remained the same since 2016 and has made information transfer and application feedback easy for applicants.
“Once I began to share my intentions with other people, such as my peers, the EdGRS program advisor, my doctoral advisor, and Brittney (Pemberton), they were all so supportive and really pushed me. They said, you are ready, you have a story to tell, so go do it. I ended up showing them my (application) materials in their very rough stages, and I got a lot of incredible feedback from my cohort.” Moralez said.
For Regina Fuller-White, a fellow from the inaugural 2016 HPRS cohort and a UW–Madison doctoral alum, the application process was all about reflecting on what the principles of the HPRS fellowship meant to her.
“I remember there were a couple of essay questions talking about what I wanted to do for my dissertation, but thinking about what does the culture of health mean to me? And talking about my own story, because I thought it was important that they had people who brought with them experiences,” Fuller-White said.
French, Pemberton, Moralez, and Fuller-White have taken advantage of this primary focus on stories and values by HPRS to further their research. All of them emphasize the importance of understanding how beneficial cross-institutional and interdisciplinary research is.
“This fellowship was a way for me to think about education in a broader and interdisciplinary manner,” Fuller-White said.
The fellowship has also helped the fellows in understanding what kind of leaders they want to be.
“They want to help develop us as leaders so that our research can hopefully have wider impact and affect more community members,” French said.
Moralez and Pemberton also highlight how listing a fellowship like HPRS on your CV impacts your success in grant writing and future work, as well as the significance of being active contributors in a community.
“We see each other, as friends, colleagues, collaborators, all in one that group, which has been such a space of joy,” Pemberton said.
But it is time to press stop on the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Research Scholars fellowship. The HPRS team announced early in the 2024–25 academic year that the 2025 cohort would be the final cohort for the fellowship. While this news brought up a feeling of loss and sadness for potential applicants, current fellows, and HPRS alums, the news also bolstered the strength of the community this fellowship has created.
Fuller-White is excited to see where the alumni network moves, grows, and collaborates. Similarly, French is ready to continue building support for the alumni network. Pemberton is looking forward to exploring the next venture by the fellowship team. And Moralez encourages doctoral students to not lose hope and to “go for it” while applying to similar fellowships and scholarships. The UW–Madison Funding Forward webpage highlights that engaging in the process enhances your skills in identifying funding sources, expressing the significance of your research, crafting proposals, and creating budgets, and signals your potential as a distinguished researcher or scholar.
Moralez also points out the importance of not forgetting your support system when applying to scholarships and fellowships.
“Don’t do it alone. Tap into your support networks and your systems of support. That was the single, probably most instrumental part of what got me through this program and this application process,” Moralez said.