2026 UNCF Mellon Summer Institute (Participation in a research fellowship - 7 points) Alyssa Amaker

 

    This past June, I was blessed to work alongside 19 humanities scholars as a UNCF Mellon Mays Fellow at the 2026 Mellon Mays Summer Institute at Emory University. I developed my historical research prospectus on Olympic track and field athlete Wilma Rudolph, established a sense of community among my peers, and learned more about the graduate school application process. 

    Upon applying to Mellon, I didn't know what to expect from my Summer Institute experience. By the end of my time at Emory, I was pleasantly surprised with my growth as an emerging historian and the kindness of my peers. Together, we visited the Auburn Avenue Archives, the AUC Woodruff Library Archives, the Amy Sherald art exhibit at the High Museum of art, and we spoke with Ms. Andrea Jackson Gavin of the HBCU Digital Library Trust about the importance of utilizing, maintaining, and supporting HBCU archival collections.

    This experience inspired me to start taking GRE classes in preparation for the exam, to develop my list of prospective masters and doctoral programs, and it inspired me to develop my bibliography for my research by finding relevant primary sources I hadn't considered before. I was able to draw on the knowledge and skills I gained from the Historical Research Methods course that I took this past spring at Spelman— most days I was tasked with "gutting" history books or critically analyzing newspapers through Emory's ProQuest database (which surprisingly offered different newspapers than the AUC library's ProQuest collections). I learned to overcome the impostor syndrome I felt as an undergraduate researcher, and I overcame my fear of public speaking in academic settings. I will continue to hone these skills as I finalize my prospectus and begin the true research process for my final presentation in the fall of 2027.

    I look forward to seeing my cohort again at the Mellon Mays Southeastern Regional Conference at Rice University this fall!

- Alyssa Amaker