City to offer fellowship for HBCU grads

Baltimore will create a fellowship program with the city’s two historically Black colleges and universities to encourage city students to choose careers in public service. The program, which Mayor Brandon Scott, a Democrat, announced Thursday, will use $4 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to pay stipends to 25 recent graduates of Coppin State University and Morgan State University. Graduates will work for a variety of city agencies for nine months while receiving professional development training.

Recent graduates with a bachelor’s degree will be paid $50,000 annually plus benefits. Those with a graduate degree will receive $65,000 annually. The program will pay an additional $1,000 housing stipend as well as a transportation stipend of up to $500.

Standing with the presidents of both Coppin State and Morgan State in the City Hall rotunda Thursday, Scott said the city’s HBCUs are the perfect institutions to grow local talent and keep graduates in Baltimore.

“We have hundreds of critical vacancies throughout Baltimore City government, and we know our HBCUs have thousands of brilliant minds to fill them,” he said.

Council President Nick Mosby, a Democrat, clad in a Tuskegee University sweater, called the fellowship program a win-win for the citizens of Baltimore and city government.

“This is the right thing to do. It’s the logical thing to do. It should have been done, but you’ve got to take that step in the right direction. And that is what the city of Baltimore has decided to do.”

Fellows will serve in the Baltimore City Health Department, Department of Finance, Department of Housing and Community Development and Department of Transportation. Agencies will have the option to transition participants to full-time employment. The program will begin in September.

Anthony Jenkins, president of Coppin State, said his university has already been an incubator for local talent. Of Coppin graduates, 70% stay in Maryland and 50% remain in Baltimore, he said.

“This really falls right into the wheelhouse of who Coppin State University is,” he said.

David Wilson, president of Morgan State, applauded the city for offering a living wage to city graduates.

“It is one thing to create opportunity, It’s another to recognize that if you really are serious about attracting the best and brightest … a financial incentive is always good.”