Paul D. Coverdell Fellows Program

Scholarships for RPCVs

The Heller School is proud to offer one 100% tuition Peace Corps Fellows Scholarship to an RPCV applying to the Master of Public Policy or MA in Global Sustainability Policy and Management programs. In addition, The Heller School guarantees all RPCVs admitted to a master's degree program a scholarship of at least 60% tuition. The scholarship amount a student is awarded will be reflected in the acceptance letter.

Eligibility and How to Apply

To verify their affiliation, RPCVs (including evacuated volunteers) should submit a copy of their Description of Service (DOS) as proof of their Peace Corps experience. The DOS may be submitted through the applicant's Status Page once an application has been submitted. The application fee is also waived for all RPCVs.

Meet a few of our RPCVs:

Nicole Levesque, MS GHPM'21

Levesque was halfway through her service in rural Peru when she was evacuated to the U.S. due to the Covid-19 pandemic. She enrolled in the MS program in Global Health Policy and Management, and is now an analyst at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

She says, “Even in a pandemic, even with everything going wrong in the world, Heller did an amazing job of keeping everything on track and continuing to offer this program to people who needed it and who wanted to get back into the workforce... I have such gratitude for Heller... Heller was there for me and for many other Peace Corps volunteers when we really needed it. It has gotten me to exactly where I wanted to go.”

Chibo Shinagawa, MS GHPM’19

Shinagawa found Heller through the Peace Corps program website. “I was looking specifically for programs that focus on advancing social justice as part of their curriculum. I’ve always been a community organizer at heart. That’s my passion, and I’ve always known my interest was in reproductive health and reproductive justice, which is part of the reason why I decided to join the Peace Corps.” She says her Peace Corps experience also helped expose her to the role of direct service organizations, as part of her role included facilitating vaccinations and immunizations at a local health clinic.

Brooke Evans, PhD’19

“To see social work in a developing country and have a different lens and approach, I learned again how much I appreciated understanding the bigger picture of macro systems of care,” says Evans, who served in Mongolia for two years. There, she met a Heller alumna, who recommended Heller to Evans as she started to think about pursuing a doctoral degree. As she learned about Heller’s health policy expertise and tight-knit community of returned Peace Corps volunteers, she decided it would be an ideal fit.