Apply now for the President's Research in Diversity Travel Award. As many as 10 students could be awarded as much as $600 to travel to a professional conference between Oct. 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013. Hurry! The deadline to apply is Sept. 16. FInd out more here.

Marlon Cummings, a PhD candidate in the Educational Policy Studies Department, has been named a University Council for Educational Administration Barbara Jackson Scholar. The Jackson scholars, chosen through a national competition, are selected as part of UCEA's efforts to promote the development of a robust pipeline of faculty and graduate students of color in the field of educational leadership. As part of his two-year scholarship, Cummings will receive mentoring in publishing and teaching, and in navigating the higher education system. He will take part in important Jackson Scholar events at the UCEA Convention later this fall in Denver, Colorado.

"We are very proud of Mr. Cummings and this recognition of his accomplishments and promise as a scholar," said Mark Smylie, professor and chairman of the policy studies department.

Gholnecsar E. Muhammad, a Literacy, Language & Culture doctoral candidate, has won two prestigious fellowships for her work with African-American girls and literacy. Muhammad won UIC's Abraham Lincoln Graduate Fellowship, a diversity and achievement-based award that offers stipends and tuition waivers for graduate students. She also was awarded the National Council of Teachers of English Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color fellowship, a premier mentoring program in academia. Congratulations to Gholdy!