Students Ria Collingwood, Emily Gerth and Kiah Williams have been awarded 2007 Tom Ford Fellowships in Philanthropy, which are offered through the Haas Center for Public Service, in conjunction with the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation. The fellowships provide three graduating seniors with the opportunity to serve for 11 months with a high-level mentor focused in their area of interest at a major U.S. philanthropic foundation.
The fellowship program honors Tom Ford, a former university trustee and dedicated member of the Haas Center's national advisory board. The fellowship is funded by Ford's widow, Susan Ford Dorsey, who has served on the board since 2001. Ford died in 1998, and the fellowship program was established in 2001.
This year's fellows are:
Ria Collingwood, who is a cultural and social anthropology major, with a minor in African studies. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies, Collingwood is interested in using the fellowship to explore the role of private funding as a medium of sustainable and autonomous development in Africa and the Caribbean. As a 2006 Donald Kennedy Haas Summer Fellow, Collingwood worked with teachers and administrators in the school of a rural fishing village in Ghana to launch an academic enrichment program for young women.
Emily Gerth, who is majoring in public policy, with a concentration in urban policy. Gerth began her public service at Stanford through the Quest Scholars Program and the Stanford Foster Care College Project. Originally from Half Moon Bay, Gerth has held two Haas Center public service summer fellowships: an Urban Summer/Thiemann Family Fellowship at a community redevelopment organization in San Diego in 2005, and this year, an Arrillaga Fellowship in Philanthropy at San Jose's Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2). Her honors thesis focuses on the effects of community composition on the quantity and equity of civic engagement and political participation. Through the Ford Fellowship, Gerth plans to explore the challenges and opportunities that arise when philanthropy and democratic life intersect.
Kiah Williams, who is majoring in science, technology and society, with a focus in management science and engineering. This year, Williams also expects to earn a master's degree in sociology, with a focus in stratification and inequality. She has delved into the public sector through work with community organizations in Philadelphia and Brooklyn, as well as while serving as president of the Stanford chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Williams said that experience has allowed her to see the importance of philanthropic giving and support, in order to build and sustain social ventures. She is interested in learning more about the intersection of medicine, business and education in the public sector and gaining a more holistic view of public service in order to shape her future career path.
Modeled after the John Gardner Public Service Fellowship, the Ford Fellowship is the Haas Center's second postgraduate fellowship and a catalyst for the development of the new Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS Center). Through the center—a collaboration between the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences and the Haas Center—faculty and students explore philanthropy's evolving role, with its potential for increased impact. The PACS Center is housed in the Haas Center.
For more information about faculty, graduate research fellows, events, undergraduate summer philanthropy fellowships and courses, visit http://pacscenter.group.stanford.edu/.
