The Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) announced a new fellowship program targeting applicants with strong ties to the Midwest. The program will fund tuition for three fellows in its inaugural year, contingent on those fellows contributing to the economic development of the region two years after graduation.

The program, officially titled the Stanford USA MBA Fellowship, is part of a broader GSB effort to increase enrollment from underrepresented areas. In future years, prospective students from other regions, such as the Southeast, will also be able to apply for financial aid under the fellowship program.

“We wanted to create this fellowship to increase the number of students that we are getting from different parts of the country,” said associate director of MBA admissions Simone Hill MA/MBA ʼ14.

Hill noted that the largest group of domestic applicants to the MBA program comes from the coasts, and she predicts that the program will increase applications from elsewhere in the country, starting with the Midwest, while also stimulating economic growth.

The GSB chose to focus on the Midwest, which it defines as llinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin, due to existing partnerships in the region with companies like General Motors and Eli Lilly. Though the program will expand to cover more fellows and regions in the future, Hill emphasized that the direction it grows in is, among many factors, dependent on alumni giving.

Recognizing the myriad ways in which alumni can put a Stanford MBA degree to use, the program does not stipulate what “economic development” means exactly.

“We know from experience with our alums that impact comes in a lot of different forms,” Hill said. As examples, Hill mentioned investing capital, starting businesses, working for the government and founding nonprofits.

The fellowship program will begin accepting applications in January of next year.

Contact Miguel Samano at msamano ‘at’ stanford.edu.