New office will broaden access to national fellowships for Cornell students

Cornell University has launched the Office of National Fellowships, a new unit designed to expand student access to competitive opportunities that fund graduate study, research, service projects and global experiences.

Previously operating as part of Cornell Career Services, the new dedicated office aims to raise awareness across campus and empower more students to pursue these life-changing opportunities.

"There are pockets of campus where we have high-achieving students that aren't getting access to these kinds of opportunities," said Krista Saleet, director of the new office. "We previously weren't able to do the outreach that we can do now."

Located in 100 Barnes Hall, the office provides support to undergraduates and alumni at any stage of the application process, from exploring which fellowships might fit their goals, to reviewing written materials, selecting applications for endorsement and conducting mock interviews for finalists.

Although Cornell has had more than 450 winners of the most prestigious fellowships, dating back to the first Rhodes winner in in 1904, proportionally the number of yearly applicants has been consistently lower than peer institutions in the Ivy+ network.

Saleet said she hopes to advise more applicants this year and noted that even when students don't win, most benefit from going through the application process; as it allows them to solidify their own goals.

Alex Herazy '25, an ILR graduate, applied to four of the top fellowships and made it to final rounds for two of them. Although he did not win either, he said that the hours he spent on applications and in advising appointments were a valuable exercise in self-reflection.

"The entire fellowship process forced me to ponder the difficult, yet necessary, questions of purpose and meaning," said Herazy. "What could be a more worthy use of your time than to think through your purpose on this Earth, your life's mission, and the impact you want to make?"

Herazy, who currently works as an appellate paralegal in the Bronx County District Attorney Office, said the experience helped him see the value of learning how to prepare and taking pride in his efforts.

"My main takeaway from the entire fellowships experience was learning the importance of good processes irrespective of the outcome," Herazy said. "My definition of success changed."

For many years, fellowships support and advisement operated with just one staff member, limiting its capacity. However, in the past academic year, with a redefined team of three full-time staff and two student employees, the office conducted more than 400 one-on-one advising appointments. The team can now offer outreach and guidance on a broader portfolio of fellowships - which each have their own set of eligibility criteria.

The formalization of the office also helps raise visibility across campus for faculty, who play a key role in the advising process by recruiting and recommending students, helping with interview preparation and sitting on institutional endorsement committees.

"We're always on the lookout for ways to broaden the number of faculty that are involved so we're representative of all Cornell colleges and schools," Saleet said. "This is an exciting moment to expand our academic partnerships across campus with faculty, college advising staff, experiential programs and undergraduate research. Partnerships will lead to advisors nudging more students to consider fellowship opportunities and helping us to prepare promising candidates in the application process."

Although now a distinct office, the fellowships office remains connected with Cornell Career Services, also located in Barnes Hall, allowing students to continue working with college-specific and pre-professional advisors while also receiving specialized fellowship guidance.

"We're never going to lose the student-centered focus," Saleet said. "All of the specialties that exist in Career Services help to supplement what we're doing so that students have individualized attention for whatever their path is."

Atticus DeProspo '15, an ILR School graduate and recipient of both the Schwarzman and Gates Cambridge Scholarships, pursued fellowships in order to immerse himself in new cultures and engage with diverse scholars-all without incurring debt.

As a Schwarzman Scholar, DeProspo earned a master's degree in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. The fully-funded program covered tuition, travel and housing, as well as offering mentorship from global leaders.

DeProspo even had the opportunity to accompany local government officials to rural areas, where he observed how economic policies were being implemented to improve citizens' lives, including an initiative providing each household with a goat for sustenance or income generation.

"All of these theoretical concepts and topics we had discussed in the classrooms in Ithaca, I got to see how they played out in real life." DeProspo said.

The next year, as a Gates Cambridge Scholar, he earned a master's degree in criminology at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, United Kingdom. This program also covered tuition, travel, housing and healthcare, and allowed him to write a dissertation that would later be published as a law review article.

DeProspo credited the Career Services advising team with helping him successfully navigate the complex application processes, including crafting a compelling personal essay and building the confidence he needed for the interviews.

"The preparation for the interview was really a make-or-break moment in the process," DeProspo said. "They gather what other previous applicants and successful fellowship recipients have gone through so that they can help future generations apply and have the same success."

Now an attorney in Washington, D.C., DeProspo says the global network of scholars he built through his two international experiences continues to support his work today. Whether collaborating on pro bono cases or drawing on the expertise of former classmates, he said these connections have enabled him to work across disciplines in pursuit of meaningful change.

DeProspo hopes the creation of the new fellowships office will help more Cornellians discover the kinds of opportunities he pursued. He encouraged current students and alumni to take advantage of the office's resources, emphasizing that attending just one fellowship information session during his senior year changed the course of his life.

"I know students go to lectures all day and are involved in so many extracurricular activities," DeProspo said. "The last thing they want to do is go to another session. But I had no idea any of this even existed - until I heard about that information session."