Want to become a WomenNC Scholar?
Watch this video to learn more about our Scholar Program!
Apply Now!
Download Research Scholar Application (January 2025-April 2026)
Download Advocacy Scholar Application (October 2025-April 2026)
Application Deadline: December 1, 2024
Accepting applications from NC State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Shaw University, Meredith College, Duke Baldwin Scholars, UNC Chapel Hill, and NC Central University.
If you do not see your school or program listed and you wish to apply, please contact info@womennc.org for more info on how to apply!
About the Program:
For the last 15 years, WomenNC has trained young leaders, empowering the next generation to advance gender equality in North Carolina.
This year, WomenNC has split our program into two track options: the Advocacy Scholars Community Leadership Program and the Research Scholars Leadership Development Program.
During Scholar's time with us they examine such issues as the lack of female and minority participation in STEM fields, the toxic environment in which many low-income Durham women and children live, and how dress codes in Durham differentially impact Black adolescent girls. Our scholars not only investigate these issues, but importantly, they develop policy recommendations to improve the status quo and then create advocacy and dissemination plans to educate and inform.
Our scholars' work in ending gender disparities does not conclude when they become our alumni. We reinforce their commitment to make the world a more gender equitable place. Recent graduates of our program include the First Lady of North Carolina’s press secretary, a USAID Donald M. Payne International Development Graduate scholar at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, a Teach for America teacher, and a George J. Mitchell scholarship recipient. Together we work to create a world free of gender discrimination. We do this with a program that is guided by the belief that leaders need to command from a place of rigorous training. Also undergirding the program is our conviction that individual mentoring plays a key role in creating a cohort of young leaders who have both the knowledge and skills to begin to make an impact.
The program combines social science research methods that are gender focused with training on advocacy for dissemination and public policy recommendations to improve the lives of women and girls. Scholars are paired with applied researchers from RTI’s Global Gender Center who work with scholars over a 10-month period to craft a project that:
• identifies and researches a specific instance of gender inequality in a particular North Carolina community;
• determines policy solutions to improve current conditions;
• presents and disseminates their findings in a variety of fora to local (e.g., city councils county commissions), state (e.g., WomenNC’s Local to Global Forum at RTI), national, and international audiences (e.g., the United Nations Commission of the Status of Women); and finally
• with advocacy partners, makes policy recommendations to the appropriate local officials to eliminate the gender inequities.
We sincerely hope that you will be able to join us in the coming academic year to improve the lives of women and girls across the state and be a part of the next generation of leaders committed to gender equality.