Friends of International Center Fellowship

The FIC was a non-profit, all-volunteer organization founded in 1961 (dissolved September 2021) whose mission statement was to support international education, to foster friendship, understanding, and cooperation within the international community, and to create a meeting place on the UC San Diego campus for people who share these aims. This mission may not seem novel in present times, but, at the time, the concept of global citizenship did not exist and the very word “foreign” often engendered fear rather than igniting curiosity. The FIC operated a variety of programs, building cross-national community while supporting international scholars and their families at UC San Diego, as well as funding an academic student support program for both undergraduate students studying abroad and graduate students whose work had an international component and/or global relevance.

The FIC student support program began with a single award in 1975 and at its peak, before the pandemic of 2020, awarded 41 scholarships to undergraduate students and 32 fellowships to graduate students. Over the life of the FIC student support program, it has awarded over $1 million to UC San Diego scholars. The FIC generously established a graduate fellowship endowment fund to support their mission in perpetuity at UC San Diego.

Learn more about the award and how to apply here.