As a doctoral student in the English program at the University of Arkansas, Andrea Rogers seeks to remedy a problem she noticed as a child growing up as a member of the Cherokee nation in Tulsa: a lack of books written by contemporary Cherokee authors.
Rogers has written books that span a spectrum of young readers — from children’s books to young adult — that portray the Cherokee and broader Native American experiences. Those books have garnered prestigious accolades along the way, including the Caldecott Medal and the Walter Dean Myers Award. And she’s been able to pursue her writing career full-time thanks in part to the university’s Doctoral Academy Fellowship.
The Doctoral Academy Fellowship is a nationally competitive fellowship established in 2002 through a gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation. The fellowship attracts highly qualified graduate students from across the country to study at the U of A and contribute to the university’s research and creative activity mission. Fellows receive a $12,000 award each year, as well as a 50 percent graduate assistantship provided concurrently by their department.
While pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the Institute for American Indian Arts and Culture in Sante Fe, she met Toni Jensen, a faculty member in the English Department at the U of A and asked her for career advice. Jensen recommended she go back to school to earn her doctorate from the U of A, but cost was an issue. Rogers had no desire to take out more student loans, and with her family living in Texas, moving to Fayetteville posed challenges. Jensen informed Rogers of funding available at the U of A — like the Doctoral Academy Fellowship — that would cover the cost of her education and more.
“It’s been good to see the impact it’s had on the market,” she said. “We’re talented, we can tell our own stories, and our perspective is valuable. To be able to share experiences like our wild onion dinners, and for a kid to read it who might be Cherokee who lives in California — it helps to perpetuate cultural values that I think are very important.”
*This post is condensed from a longer article by John Post published in the fall 2025 issue of Arkansas Magazine. Post is the director of communications and marketing in the University of Arkansas Graduate School and International Education.
