The Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellowship Program is a

fellowship A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned or professional societies, the term refers ...

program that provides funding for

graduate student Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of Academic degree, academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by higher education, post-secondary students who have ...

s as they prepare academically and professionally to enter the

United States Foreign Service The United States Foreign Service is the primary personnel system used by the diplomatic service of the United States federal government, under the aegis of the United States Department of State. It consists of over 13,000 professionals carr ...

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 Colin Luther Powell ( ; – ) was an Americans, American diplomat, and army officer who was the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American to hold the office. He was the 15th National Security ...

, Congressman

Charles B. Rangel Charles Bernard Rangel ( ; June 11, 1930 – May 26, 2025) was an American politician who served as U.S. representative for districts in New York City for 46 years. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the second-longest serving incumbent ...

, and the President of

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

, H. Patrick Swygert. In the early years of the program, the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...

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 The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 117 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.6 billion and ...

and the

Una Chapman Cox Foundation The Una Chapman Cox Foundation is a non-profit organization that works to support the effectiveness and professionalism of the United States Foreign Service through various projects and initiatives. Amb. (ret.) Lino Gutierrez serves as the curren ...

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 United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

. The Rangel Program offers forty-five 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 Capitol Hill is a neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., neighborhood in Washington, D.C., located in both the Northeast, Washington, D.C., Northeast and Southeast, Washington, D.C., Southeast quadrants. It is bounded by 14th Street SE & NE, F S ...

and the second at a

U.S. embassy The United States has the second largest number of active diplomatic posts of any country in the world after the People's Republic of China, including 272 bilateral posts (embassies and consulates) in 174 countries, as well as 11 permanent miss ...

. 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 A Foreign Service officer (FSO) is a commissioned member of the United States Foreign Service. FSOs formulate and implement the foreign policy of the United States. They spend most of their careers overseas as members of U.S. embassies, consu ...

throughout the duration of the program. Rangel Fellows attend a variety of graduate schools across the United States, including the

Harvard Kennedy School The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

, the

Princeton School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (''abbrev.'' SPIA; formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of co ...

, the

Cornell Institute for Public Affairs The Master’s in Public Administration at Cornell University is an academic program affiliated with the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University, an Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. History MPA degrees have been o ...

, the

Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. Fletcher is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations. As of 2017, the student bo ...

, 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 Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C. The school also maintains campuses in Bologna, Italy and Nanjing, China. The school is devoted to the study of int ...

, the

School of International Service The School of International Service (SIS) is American University's school of advanced international study, covering areas such as international politics, international communication, international development, international economics, peace and co ...

, the

School of International and Public Affairs The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) is the List of schools of international relations in the United States, international affairs and public policy school, public policy school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League univers ...

, the

Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy The Ford School of Public Policy (formally the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy) is the public policy school of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was founded in 1914 to train public administration experts. In 1999, the ...

, and the

Elliott School of International Affairs The Elliott School of International Affairs (known as the Elliott School or ESIA) is the professional school of international relations, foreign policy, and international development of the George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. It is ...

References

External links

Official websiteU.S. Department of State Foreign Service Officer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rangel Fellowship Fellowships United States Department of State 2002 establishments in the United States Howard University

History

Program components

See also

References

External links