The NASA Administrator's Fellowship Program (NAFP): Benefits to the HBCUs/MIs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities / Minority Institutions)

摘要

The NASA Administrator's Fellowship Program (NAFP) is for the faculty members of the HBCUs/MIs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities / Minority Institutions) and NASA career employees. This program has been in existence for over a decade. Each year approximately 12 fellows including 6 NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) employees may be accommodated by this program. The NAFP program is directed toward promoting research and scholarly activities within the HBCUs/MIs. One of the strengths of the program is that the faculty members may go to the choice of NASA premises and get involved in research activities with NASA personnel, while the NASA employees go to their choice of HBCU/MI institutions to enhance research skills via interactions with the academic members. This exchange process renders exposure of a two-way traffic for both NASA employee and the HBCU/MI faculty. The training program for the NAFP fellows is extensive through participation in the workshops and conferences. At the end of the program the NAFP fellows return to their respective home institutions acquiring knowledge that was not previously realized. The knowledge acquired this way is beneficial to minority students via research exposure and interactions with the NASA employee. Both undergraduate and graduate students get opportunity to interact with the NAFP fellows in the classroom or during mentoring of capstone projects and, thus, become potential contributors to research that benefits NASA's program.