The Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship is a competitive academic grant made each year to fifteen undergraduates nominated by 10 affiliated New York City colleges which provides successive summer internships for three years, stipends, mentoring, and seminars. The fellowship is a program of the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, named after the wife of IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

 founder Thomas J. Watson

Thomas J. Watson

Thomas John Watson, Sr. was president of International Business Machines , who oversaw that company's growth into an international force from 1914 to 1956...

. Jeanette K. Watson Fellows intern at not-for-profit organizations, governmental agencies, and for-profit organization in New York in their first two Watson summers. In their third summer, they typically intern in overseas offices of such organizations as the Institute of International Education

Institute of International Education

Institute of International Education - is a non-profit organization promoting international exchange of education and training. It was established in 1919 and is based in the USA....

, Save the Children

Save the Children

Save the Children is an internationally active non-governmental organization that enforces children's rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries...

, the International Planned Parenthood Federation

International Planned Parenthood Federation

The International Planned Parenthood Federation is a global non-governmental organization with the broad aims of promoting sexual and reproductive health, and advocating the right of individuals to make their own choices in family planning. It was first formed in 1952 in Bombay, India, and now...

, as well as community based organizations in such countries as India, South Africa, and Ghana.

The Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship is associated with six divisions of the City University of New York -- Lehman College

Lehman College

Lehman College is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, USA. Founded in 1931 as the Bronx campus of Hunter College, the school became an independent college within the City University in 1968. The college is named after Herbert Lehman, a former New York governor,...

, Hunter College

Hunter College

Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...

, the City College of New York

City College of New York

The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...

, Queens College, Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...

, and the College of Staten Island

College of Staten Island

The College of Staten Island is a four-year, senior college of and is one of the 11 senior colleges in the City University of New York. Programs in the liberal arts and sciences and professional studies lead to bachelor's and associate's degrees. The master's degree is awarded in 13 professional...

. It is also affiliated with four independent colleges -- Marymount Manhattan College

Marymount Manhattan College

Marymount Manhattan College is an urban, coeducational, independent, private, liberal arts college located in Manhattan, New York City, New York with a focus in performing arts. The mission of the College is to educate a socially and economically diverse student body by fostering intellectual...

; Pace University Manhattan

Pace University

Pace University is an American private, co-educational, and comprehensive multi-campus university in the New York metropolitan area with campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York.-Programs:...

; Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus

Long Island University

Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...

; and the College of Mount Saint Vincent

College of Mount Saint Vincent

For the university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, see Mount Saint Vincent University The College of Mount Saint Vincent is a Catholic liberal arts college located in the northeast corner of the Riverdale section of The Bronx, New York, adjacent to the Yonkers border. It is the northernmost location in...

. The Fellowship was established by the Thomas J. Watson Foundation in 1999. It was shaped by its founding Director, the late Alice Stone Ilchman

Alice Stone Ilchman

Alice Stone Ilchman served as the eighth president of Sarah Lawrence College from 1981 to 1998.-Background:...

, former President of Sarah Lawrence College

Sarah Lawrence College

Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...

 who was succeeded as Director in 2006 by Frank Wolf, Dean of the School of Continuing Education Emeritus at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

.