Transportation Research Board Minority Student Fellows Program
Sponsored by TRB and the FHWA
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recognize the need for all segments of the U.S. population to access safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation. To ensure that solutions to the nation’s transportation problems address people from a variety of backgrounds, TRB established the Minority Student Fellows Program in 2010 to actively explore research, ideas, and solutions from diverse perspectives. This program seeks to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in the transportation field and in TRB activities. In spring 2015, FHWA committed to providing additional funding for the program, thus allowing TRB to double the size of the program.
The Fellows Program supports registration, travel, hotel, and related expenses for minority students from eligible minority-serving institutions to attend the TRB Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., and present their research in a poster session. Students benefit not only from executing and presenting their research, but also from networking with transportation professionals from around the world and participating in sessions on a variety of topics.
2022/2023 Minority Student Fellows Cohort
Scholarship
TRB now offers scholarships of exemplary fellows of the previous Minority Student Fellows cohort to attend the TRB Annual Meeting as they start their careers as transportation professionals. For the 2023 Annual Meeting, three fellows from the 2022 cohort were selected. They are as follows:
Esther Bia graduated in fall 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of New Mexico. She has been working as a junior engineer intern at Parametrix, a transportation engineering and planning firm. Esther plans to continue work in the transportation industry.
Dunsin Fadojutimi graduated in spring 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. She is currently working for Honeywell Aerospace in Florida.
Jesus Molina graduated in summer 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Florida International University. His long-term career goal is to start a company that develops autonomous visual bridge inspection systems.
Program Support
Get involved by supporting the program as an organization or as an individual. Several organizations have joined TRB and FHWA in providing donations for the program. Those organizations are:
- Arizona Department of Transportation
- Cambridge Systematics
- Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification, University of Texas at El Paso
- Michigan Department of Transportation
- North Carolina Department of Transportation
- North Central Texas Council of Governments
- Tennessee Department of Transportation
Organizations can designate a donation to support a student and faculty mentor from a particular school. Organizations that support a student and faculty mentor can contact one another and exchange information about the student’s research. To make such a contribution, please contact Karen Febey at kfebey@nas.edu.
Individual donors are also an important source of program support. Contributions of any amount—small or large—are equally appreciated. Donations are tax-deductible because TRB is part of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, a 501(c)(3) organization.
Selection of Fellows
When identifying a student fellow, schools select students who are from a minority group that is underrepresented in the transportation field. Then they base their selections on those students who have exemplary academic accomplishments, work experience, and writing skills, and who plan to enter the transportation field upon graduation. Fellows typically major in an engineering field or urban/regional planning.
Schools also designate a faculty member to oversee the students’ work and accompany them to the Annual Meeting. The schools are minority-serving institutions, and meet TRB’s criteria for having transportation-related curricula and degree-granting programs, and transportation research activities. Schools that are currently eligible to send fellows are as follows:
- Arizona State University, Tempe
- California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
- California State University-Long Beach
- California State University-Los Angeles
- City College of New York, New York City
- Florida A&M University, Tallahassee
- Florida International University, Miami
- Morgan State University, Baltimore
- North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro
- North Carolina Central University, Fayetteville
- Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff
- Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX
- Tennessee State University, Nashville
- Texas Southern University, Houston
- University of Arizona, Tucson
- University of Hawaii, Manoa
- University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
- University of Texas, El Paso
Accomplishments of Fellows
Since 2010, there have been just over 220 fellows. Their career paths are varied and include working at federal agencies; state, metropolitan, or local departments of transportation; research institutions at universities; consulting companies; and other private sector companies. Previous fellows have become involved with TRB through its committee structure and as members of Cooperative Research Program panels. Some fellows have even had their papers accepted for publication in Transportation Research Record (TRR), which are compiled in a special collection.
Meet the Fellows
2023 Fellows
2022 Fellows
2021 Fellows