Grace Cajski, a Yale Environmental Studies graduate from the Class of 2024, recently received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research fellowship. She will be using the grant to pursue a Master of Science (MSc) in Natural Resources and Environmental Management at the University of Hawai’i.
During her MSc, Grace will be working collaboratively with community partners and under the mentorship of Dr. Mehana Vaughan. She will be studying community group efforts to care for the lands and waters across Hawai’i. To do this, Grace will map the impacts of collaborative care on social and ecological resilience and identify how community groups grow and stem from each other. This research is grounded in community-identified needs, and she’ll use the data collected to provide recommendations to strengthen and expand community governance, including pathways for the return and rematriation of lands.
Her graduate research builds on her EVST senior thesis, “The Stewards and Residents of Anchialine Pools: Storytelling as a Tool for Marine Conservation,” which earned the Gaylord Donnelley Prize. During her time at Yale, Grace double-majored in Environmental Studies and English. She pursued the custom concentration track of EVST and built out her own concentration in Marine Conservation.
The GRFP provides tuition waivers and stipends to fellows for 3 years. It is a competitive program and typically receives over 13,000 applications annually. The acceptance rate falls between 13-16% and was even lower this year due to funding cuts. About 1,000 applicants received funding.
The fellowship is designed to support graduate students pursuing full-time research-based degrees in the stem fields or social sciences. The program is open to U.S. citizens, nationals, or permanent residents pursuing research-based master’s or doctoral degrees. A fellowship lasts 5 years, so Grace can pick the 3 out of the 5 years that she would be a tenured fellow. She would be happy to talk about the application process with any interested students!
