Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh and the Norman R. Rales and Ruth Rales Foundation have announced the launch of a $150 million initiative to broaden access to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education.

The CMU Rales Fellows Program will offer full tuition as well as a stipend to cover living expenses, housing, and health insurance to individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds, first-generation college students, graduates of minority-serving institutions, and other groups that remain underrepresented in STEM fields. In addition, the program will offer comprehensive cohort-based onboarding, dedicated career services, faculty mentoring, networking programs, and opportunities to build leadership skills. The commitment includes an endowment gift of $110 million from the Rales Foundation, $30 million in endowed funds from CMU, and a $10 million fund jointly established by the two organizations to support the program’s developmental years.

The first cohort of students will enroll in fall 2024, and while initially open to students pursuing select graduate degrees in the College of Engineering, Mellon College of Science, School of Computer Science, Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Neuroscience Institute, the program eventually will be open to all of CMU’s graduate STEM programs.

“Addressing the challenges of our modern world will require the concerted efforts of a highly talented pool of STEM trailblazers who can bring a diversity of ideas and experiences to engender solutions,” said CMU president Farnam Jahanian. “At the heart of the CMU Rales Fellows Program is a commitment to remove existing barriers and empower this next generation of domestic talent so they can apply their skills and ingenuity to realize new scientific and technological breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. CMU is grateful to the Rales Foundation for their generous support, and we are honored to partner with them to enact our shared vision for this initiative and to honor the legacy of Norman and Ruth Rales.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Tupungato)