Graduate school is a time of deep academic exploration and professional preparation for doctoral students. At Marquette University, the Arthur J. Schmitt Leadership Fellowship adds another dimension to that experience: an intentional focus on developing scholars as leaders committed to making a positive difference in their communities and beyond.
The fellowship identifies exceptional Marquette doctoral students and supports their academic progress while providing opportunities to grow their leadership skills, knowledge, and sense of purpose. Inspired by the vision of Arthur J. Schmitt and supported by the Arthur J. Schmitt Foundation, the program seeks to foster socially responsible leaders who embody the values of Marquette University.
Developing Leaders Through Experience
The Arthur J. Schmitt Leadership Fellowship provides seven to eight doctoral students with a transformative opportunity for an academic year. Fellows receive a 10-month stipend of approximately $23,000, allowing them to pursue their doctoral studies without teaching or research assistantship responsibilities.
While the fellowship provides financial support, its purpose extends well beyond the stipend. Throughout the academic year, fellows participate in a series of activities designed to encourage personal reflection, leadership development, and meaningful engagement with others.
The fellowship includes an experiential component putting their leadership development into practice. Working collaboratively, fellows identify and pursue a group leadership project with a scope appropriate to the academic year. From determining a focus area to bringing a project to fruition, the process gives students the opportunity to navigate the challenges of collaboration, planning and implementation while developing practical insights about leadership.
At the conclusion of the fellowship year, students present their work to internal partners and representatives of the Arthur J. Schmitt Foundation. They also reflect on how their fellowship experiences, project work, and assigned resources have contributed to their personal and professional development as leaders.
For current Schmitt Fellow Sumaiya Chowdhury, who serves as president of Marquette’s Graduate Student Organization, leadership is rooted in supporting others and strengthening community.
“Across these experiences, I learned that leadership is not about authority, but about empowerment, collaboration, and creating environments where others can thrive.”
Sumaiya Chowdhury, Ph.D candidate in the Biological Sciences program
Meet the Current Schmitt Fellows
A Legacy of Leadership and Service
The fellowship honors the legacy of Arthur J. Schmitt, an industrial executive who believed deeply in education and the development of responsible leadership through Christian principles and ideals.
Schmitt founded the Arthur J. Schmitt Foundation in 1941 with a commitment to using its resources to help fashion a better and more humane world. That vision continues through the foundation’s support of educational opportunities and leadership development.
For more than 60 years, the Arthur J. Schmitt Foundation’s partnership with Marquette University has supported graduate education. During that time, 473 awards have provided funding for 390 students across 15 doctoral programs. Dr. Carrianne Hayslett, Graduate School Associate Dean for Strategic Innovation and Academic Program Development and Director of the Marquette University Schmitt Fellows program, notes,
“Marquette University’s enduring partnership with the Arthur J. Schmitt Foundation is grounded in a shared vision and common values uniting us in our commitment to the Schmitt Fellowship and its mission to empower students to make a meaningful impact on the world.”
The impact of those scholars extends well beyond their time as fellows. Schmitt fellows have gone on to contribute to the academy and industry as scientists, scholars, pastors, writers, academic leaders and clinicians; meet past alumni from the Arthur J. Schmitt Fellows program at Marquette University.
The foundation’s broader Schmitt Leadership Scholars program reaches more than 300 students each year, supporting students at multiple stages of their educational journeys. Scholars include high school students from organizations such as the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, High Sight and LINK Unlimited; college students from institutions including Arrupe College, Benedictine University, DePaul University, Dominican University, Lewis University, St. Xavier University and the University of St. Francis; and graduate students from Loyola University Chicago, Marquette University and the University of Notre Dame.
Across these programs, Schmitt Leadership Scholars are recognized as inspirational and imaginative, hardworking and resilient students who envision more for themselves and their world. Along with tuition scholarships, students participate in leadership training and develop projects designed to challenge them to grow, lead, and make a positive difference.
That commitment to meaningful leadership is reflected in the experiences of current Schmitt Fellow Shamudra Dey, who has advocated for graduate students through Marquette’s Graduate Student Organization and Graduate School stipend workgroup. Reflecting on his efforts to help improve graduate student stipends, Dey shares a lesson that continues to shape his approach to leadership:
“The experience taught me that lasting change comes from consensus-building, not from the loudest voice in the room.”
Shamudra Dey, Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Engineering
These projects are an important part of the fellowship experience because they give doctoral students an opportunity to move leadership concepts from discussion into practice. Fellows must work together to identify a meaningful area of focus, develop a plan, and see that plan through experiences that can offer lessons in communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and values-based leadership; see past leadership projects completed by alumni from the Arthur J. Schmitt Fellows program at Marquette University.
Interested in Becoming a Schmitt Fellow?
The Arthur J. Schmitt Leadership Fellowship is a nomination-based program. To be eligible for nomination, students must be admitted to a doctoral program at the time of nomination, have demonstrated leadership and a strong record of scholarship, and demonstrate personal character aligned with Marquette’s mission values of Excellence, Faith, Leadership and Service.
Students interested in being considered should begin by speaking with their department chair or director of graduate studies to learn about their department’s nomination process and timeline.
Building a Legacy of Leadership
The Arthur J. Schmitt Leadership Fellowship recognizes that the influence of a doctoral education can extend far beyond a dissertation or academic career. By combining financial support with intentional leadership development, collaborative project work and reflection, the fellowship gives students an opportunity to consider not only what they will contribute to their fields, but how they will use their knowledge and leadership to serve others.
The fellowship continues Arthur J. Schmitt’s longstanding vision of education as a means of developing responsible leaders and contributing to a better and more humane world. In doing so, they answer his call to, “figure out a place for yourself in the world and then do something about it.”
