About the Program
Why Was the Program Established?
Empowering students from underrepresented and under resourced backgrounds — dubbed the Missing Millions by the National Science Foundation(opens in new window) — through a graduate degree will increase the number of voices within STEM research, education and innovation, and help the U.S. meet the growing need for a new generation of leaders.
The CMU Rales Fellows Program will directly address the Missing Millions issue through a distinctive program that provides students with full tuition, a stipend to cover living expenses such as housing and health insurance, and a holistic ecosystem of developmental and networking opportunities.
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The Fellows Experience
The CMU Rales Fellows Program experience is designed to offer fellows holistic support encompassing financial assistance, personal and professional development, and a cohort-based approach focused on connection and interdisciplinary collaboration. These resources allow fellows to funnel their energy into their passions and be focused toward the future, fulfilling the Rales Fellows Program’s mission to cultivate the next generation of STEM leaders and drive innovation by increasing access to a life-changing graduate education.
Program Benefits
As a Rales Fellow, you'll be part of a larger change that's transforming the world. You won't just be contributing to your personal success — you'll be paving the way for others to follow in your footsteps.
Eliminating Cost Barriers
Full tuition support and a stipend to cover living expenses such as housing and health insurance
Eliminating cost barriers can be the first step to allow ambitions to become actualized. With the generosity of the Norman R. and Ruth Rales Foundation, Fellows receive full tuition and a stipend to cover living expenses, housing and health insurance.
Holistic Support
Cohort-based experience and onboarding, faculty mentorship, leadership training and personal development
The cohort experience creates a supportive, inclusive community to help you transition into life and learning at CMU. You and your peers will grow together, discovering the resources, mentors and activities that will help you make your mark in the classroom — and beyond.
Success Driven
Concierge career and internship preparation, programs to develop personal and professional networks
Fellows are supported with concierge career coaching and internship preparation, including building professional connections and channels for future opportunities. The outcomes-oriented focus of the Rales Fellows Program ensures Fellows develop their personal and professional networks along their journey.
About the Norman R. and Ruth Rales Foundation
The Rales Foundation was established in 1986 by Norman Rales (1923–2012) and Ruth Abramson Rales (1922–2004), two individuals from modest circumstances who built an extraordinary life together based upon values of integrity, compassion, hard work and giving back to others. The Rales Foundation was created to advance their shared, lifelong desire to help people in need, and create opportunities through which others might thrive.
Norman Rales grew up in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in upper Manhattan, from which he was discharged in 1940, at age 17. Ruth Abramson was raised in Pittsburgh by parents who had fled the pogroms of Eastern Europe. After they married, in 1948 they moved from New York City to Pittsburgh to lower expenses and be closer to her family. In the neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, they raised their children, and Norman began his climb in business.
As children of immigrants who fled persecution in Europe, Norman and Ruth believed deeply in the promise of America and the opportunity it offers all its people, regardless of background, to realize their full potential. They were also driven by a deeply help personal commitment to give back to others to keep the American spirit of generosity and possibility alive for new generations.
The Foundation chose Carnegie Mellon University as the institution with which to establish the CMU Rales Fellows Program based on Carnegie Mellon’s stellar reputation, leadership and entrepreneurship as well as the university’s demonstrated commitment to increasing diversity in the STEM fields.