Student Support

Lewis Center Graduate Student Fellows Program
Funding opportunity for capstone projects in all three Luskin School departments

The Lewis Center seeks to support graduate students from all three graduate departments at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs for capstone projects on topics that advance the center’s interests on the quality of life for residents in the Los Angeles region, with a focus on how people live, move, and work.

Graduate student fellows are selected through a merit-based process during the year they intend to complete a capstone project. Each project will be provided with at least $2,000 stipend to be put toward the student’s tuition or living expenses. The stipend will be dispersed in two payments — the first in the fall quarter and the second upon project completion.

Later in the fall, and in collaboration with other research centers at the Luskin School, the Lewis Center will solicit requests for proposals to support direct costs related to capstone projects. All students working on capstone projects, including fellows, are eligible to apply for these Graduate Research Grant funds. Students are also welcome and encouraged to apply for more than one fellowship program offered by research centers at the UCLA Luskin School.

All projects must be geographically focused in Greater LA and relate to one of the Lewis Center’s primary areas of interest: housing affordability, access to opportunity and transportation equity, jobs and the regional economy, or inequality. Projects based outside Southern California must make a case for relevancy to the region to be considered.

Students from the Public Policy, Social Welfare, and Urban Planning departments at Luskin are eligible to apply. Applicants can include individuals working on applied capstone projects and theses, and students working as part of group projects.

1. Personal and academic information: Name, university ID number, CV, unofficial transcript
2. Professional reference contact: Faculty or professional reference name and email (does not need to be project advisor)
3. Project information: Background about your project and research question(s)
4. Statement of purpose: 400-800 word description of your interest in the topic and motivations for selecting your particular project. This is not intended to duplicate information provided in the project information section.

*The first dispersal milestone differs by project type:

MURP client project: Signed client MOU
MURP thesis: Approved draft proposal
MPP APP: Approved preliminary data analysis assignment
MSW capstone: Approved research proposal