Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students are chronically underrepresented in STEM careers. Many systemic factors play into this reality, including that people of color tend not to have a pre-existing professional network to support them throughout and after their STEM education. By founding this fellowship, we intend to build a bridge from our organization to these individuals to provide this support.

From 1920 to 1972 the Ann Arbor Foundry operated at 1327 Jones Drive in Ann Arbor. It began as a co-operative for a group of displaced foundry workers, with an unlikely pair of co-owners: Charlie Baker, an orphan whose forebears fled to Canada to escape slavery in the U.S., and Tom Cook, a Jewish refugee from Czarist Russia.

Baker and Cook also supported each other’s causes. Minutes from a 1950's Ann Arbor Foundry meeting record Baker moving to give money to the United Jewish Appeal, while Cook moved to give funds to the Dunbar Center, a forerunner of the Ann Arbor Community Center. Cook was believed to be the first local contributor to the United Negro College Fund.

It is in this spirit of community inclusion and connection that we’ve named our fellowship after Charlie Baker and Tom Cook.

To apply for this fellowship, you’ll need to provide the following as a part of your application:

• Transcript
• Essay Response
• Needs-based questions showing income level (ex: access to the National School Lunch Program, approximate income level of the family)

Atomic will use our hiring portal to collect the transcripts, essay responses, responses to needs-based questions, and to schedule in-person interviews. All application submissions will be evaluated according to our scoring system.

For further details, and to find the essay prompts, view the application.