Seven Graduate Students from Riccio College of Engineering Win STEM Leadership Fellowships
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Seven graduate students from the Riccio College of Engineering (Riccio CoE) have received STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Leadership Fellowships from a newly established program at UMass Amherst that is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovations in Graduate Education Program.
The two-year fellowship program provides STEM graduate students with training in inclusive leadership involving how to lead classrooms and research groups and collaborate effectively with others, especially those from many diverse backgrounds. Each fellow also receives $500 per semester for participation.
The seven Riccio CoE Ph.D. students who won the fellowships include Anirudh Narayan Devanathan of the Biomedical Engineering Department, Shahrukh Islam and Raphael Nnachi from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Amna Gillani and Mortaza Hassani of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, and Inti Becic and Yukti Kathuria from the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department.
“The STEM leadership fellowship will give me tools to become not just a better academic, but a great leader in STEM,” explains Islam. “While most academics focus solely on publishing, many lack essential skills like mentoring and prioritizing, competencies this fellowship will help me develop.”
As Nnachi says about this opportunity, “This fellowship will be instrumental in honing the leadership skills I need to drive innovation in the future of STEM.”
According to an article posted by the UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences (SPHHS), at least one fellow from beyond the Riccio CoE also has an astute take on the new fellowship.
As Ruth Appiah Kubi (Health Policy and Management) explains, “Joining the inaugural cohort of the STEM Leadership Fellows provides a meaningful opportunity to continue growing as a public-health researcher and STEM professional. It offers a chance to connect with peers who are committed to leading with purpose, clarity, and confidence. I look forward to exchanging ideas, learning from diverse perspectives, and co-creating meaningful change at UMass and beyond.”
The SPHHS article explains that, during their first year, fellows will attend skill-building workshops, gain insights from leaders and strategies for effective leadership, and learn how to pull together groups of people with a diversity of backgrounds and opinions in order to achieve a goal.
During the second year, each fellow will participate in a leadership project with a small group of peers under the guidance of a mentor to create meaningful change at UMass. The fellows will also receive individualized career coaching from a professional coach.
According to the NSF, “The Innovations in Graduate Education Program is designed to encourage development and implementation of bold, new, and potentially transformative approaches to STEM graduate-education training. The program seeks [projects] that a) explore ways for graduate students in STEM master’s- and doctoral-degree programs to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers, or b) support research on the graduate-education system and outcomes of systemic interventions and policies.” (January 2026)