ARL/SAA Mosaic Scholarship Program
The ARL/Society of American Archivists (SAA) Mosaic Scholarship Program promotes much-needed diversification of the archives and special collections professional workforce by providing financial support, practical work experience, mentoring, career placement assistance, and leadership development to emerging professionals from underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups. An important objective of the program is to attract and retain individuals who demonstrate excellent potential for scholastic and personal achievement and who manifest a commitment both to the archives and special collections profession and to advancing diversity concerns within it. ARL/SAA will recruit 15 diverse students in archival science or special collections librarianship from June 2013 to May 2016.
image © Sophia HussainGraduate scholarships will attract diverse students to master’s programs in archival science and LIS programs with specialization in special 
collections. The scholarship program will provide financial support of up to $10,000 per student, a level that will compete with graduate-level academic and professional programs in other disciplines. The program will include a paid internship in a partner ARL library or archive as well as financial support for student membership in SAA for one year.
Participants in the ARL/SAA Mosaic Scholarship Program enjoy the following benefits:
- Tuition stipend of up to $10,000 to be distributed over two years. Stipends are distributed in installments of $2,500 per semester.
- Paid internship in a partner ARL library or archives organization. Each student will be supported for up to 20 hours of internship work per week for two 14-week semesters.
- Mentoring from an archives professional or special collections librarian, ideally at the host institution for the internship. The mentoring component will build on SAA’s current program to effectively match protégés with mentors.
- Student membership in SAA.
- Travel award to attend the annual SAA Mosaic Leadership Symposium and SAA Annual Meeting during the participant’s scholarship year. The symposium, held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting, will bring together the program participants and active professionals in archival science and special collections librarianship. The primary goal of the one-and-a-half-day symposium is to introduce attendees to macro-level issues facing the archives and special collections profession—particularly in the context of research intensive institutions—and provide training to develop job search and interview skills.
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To be eligible to participate in the ARL/SAA Mosaic Scholarship Program, you must:
- Identify with a racial/ethnic minority group as described by the US Census Bureau or Statistics Canada.
- Be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States or Canada.
- Be accepted into an ALA-accredited program in archival science, archival management, digital archives, special collections, or a related program.
- Remain enrolled in at least 6 graduate credit hours per term through completion of the designated graduate programs.
- Maintain a 3.0 grade point average (on a 4-point scale) and provide evidence of progression towards completion of graduate studies in the targeted areas.
- Commit to aggressively pursuing employment in an ARL member institution with the goal of obtaining a position for a minimum of two years upon completion of graduate studies.
To apply for the ARL/SAA Mosaic Scholarship Program, you will need to submit the following materials (detailed instructions forthcoming):
- Résumé
- Official undergraduate and graduate school transcripts including your last academic semester completed
- Two letters of reference
- Recommendation forms
- A 500-word essay describing what attracts you to the archives and special collections profession
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