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The W. E. B. Du Bois Department is pleased to announce its recipients for this year's Chester Davis Scholarship. This year, the scholarship is awarded to Bertovah Michel ('22) and Zachary Steward ('23). This award is named in honor of Chester Davis, a beloved professor and mentor who taught in the Du Bois Department for over twenty years. We thank the scholarship's donor for their ongoing support of our undergraduate students.

Bertovah Michel is a graduating senior from Brockton, MA who is completing a dual major in Afro-American Studies and Sociology. She is very involved on campus, serving as an RA for Coolidge and as Harambee DRC; she does PR for UMass's NAACP chapter; and she also participates as a member in HASA and BSU. Bertovah is currently completing a senior project on the gendered history of sexual violence in Jamaica during the age of slavery, under the supervision of Dr. Anne Kerth. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a master's in public policy.

Zach Steward hails from Belmont, MA and is a senior at UMass Amherst with a dual major in Afro-American Studies & Legal Studies. He is also a 4+1 Master's student in the Public Policy program. On campus, he serves as a Resident Assistant, Peer Advisor with the International Programs Office, and a Student Learning Assistant with the Athletics Department. He is also the chair of the Racial Justice Coalition, which has worked since the summer of 2020 to ensure that campus is racially and socially just, as well as a safe, welcoming, supportive space for Black and other PoC students, faculty, staff, and administrators. He hopes to go into a people-facing career in the future, in public policy, politics, social work, advocacy, activism, or something similar. Ultimately, he would love the opportunity to work with Black and Brown youth and young adults that have intersecting identities, and to make sure they have access to what they need in a timely manner. Zach's senior project, supervised by Dr. Toussaint Losier, studies the long history of Black student activism at UMass Amherst and connects it to current struggles and movements on campus.

This year the faculty selection committee included Dr. Britt Rusert, Dr. Yolanda Covington-Ward, and Dr. Jim Smethurst. More information about the Chester Davis Scholarship can be found here: https://www.umass.edu/hfa/news/professor-chester-davis-scholarship-fund-supports-undergraduates-afro-american-studies