David Bohnett Foundation gift supports prestigious fellowship

A $374,000 gift from the David Bohnett Foundation will extend and expand the David Bohnett Public Service Fellowship at the Ford School for three additional years.

The Bohnett Fellowship is a prestigious, competitive award that provides incoming Ford School master's students with two years of tuition support and a paid summer internship in the city of Detroit mayor's office. The fellowship enables recipients of the award to apply the academic training they receive at the Ford School to benefit the people and government of Detroit, MI. The expansion of the program will include a third fellow in another Michigan city.

Since its inauguration in 2010, the Bohnett Fellowship has been awarded to six incoming Ford School students. Bohnett Fellows have researched urban planning and associated tax issues, expansion of curbside recycling, human resource management, and improved public service delivery in Detroit. With this new grant, the Ford School plans to increase the diversity, visibility, and internship experiences of future Bohnett Fellows. Looking to the long term, the Ford School will also use the gift to assemble a highly impressive portfolio of the internship and career accomplishments of Bohnett fellows, demonstrating what a model program like this can do for a city, for a school, and for a high impact career in the public sector.

David Bohnett is a University of Michigan alumnus (MBA '80). Through the foundation that bears his name he has worked to improve society through social activism. In 2010, the Ford School joined NYU and UCLA as hosts of the David Bohnett Foundation Leadership and Public Service Program.