The Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellowship Program is a fellowship program that provides funding for graduate students as they prepare academically and professionally to enter the United States Foreign Service.
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History
Launched to help promote greater diversity in the U.S. Foreign Service, the Rangel Fellowship Program was announced in 2002 by Secretary of State Colin Powell, Congressman Charles B. Rangel, and the President of Howard University, H. Patrick Swygert. In the early years of the program, the U.S. Congress provided an appropriation for the program, and its early operations were supported by the Department of State and contributions by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Una Chapman Cox Foundation.
Program components
The program is managed by the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center at Howard University and is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of State.
The Rangel Program offers thirty graduate fellowships annually to outstanding seniors and college graduates who want to join the U.S. Foreign Service. The fellowships help finance two-year graduate programs and provide two paid summer internship opportunities, one on Capitol Hill and the second at a U.S. embassy.
Like the Thomas R. Pickering Fellowship Program, the Rangel Fellowship Program guarantees a five-year contract in the Foreign Service to successful Fellows. Rangel Fellows also receive mentoring from Foreign Service Officers throughout the duration of the program.
Undergraduate institutions that have had students selected for the program include the University of Illinois, Fairfield University, University of Missouri, Princeton University, Paine College, Baruch College, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Lincoln University, University of Houston, Oklahoma City University, University of Georgia, Ohio State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, University of Central Florida, University of South Florida, Middle Tennessee State University, Connecticut College, and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
Rangel Fellows attend a variety of graduate schools across the United States, including the Harvard Kennedy School, the Woodrow Wilson School, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the Lyndon B. Johnson School, the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, the School of International Service, the School of International and Public Affairs, and the Elliott School of International Affairs.