The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans is a grantmaking program that provides scholarships to immigrants and children of immigrants pursuing graduate degrees in the United States. Each year there are a reported 1,800 applicants for 30 available fellowships that each disburse $90,000. ¹ The Fellowships program is a project of the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation. ²

Founding and History

The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans was founded by Paul and Daisy Soros in 1997 with a charitable trust of $50 million. In 2010, the couple added another $25 million to the trust to support future fellowships. ³

In the 25 years since its founding, the Fellowships has provided fellowships to 740 immigrants and children of immigrants from 90 countries, with the most-represented countries being India, China, and Mexico. ⁴ The Fellowships has a particular focus on Green Card Holders, naturalized citizens, recipients of the Obama administraiton’s DACA program (which granted temporary legal status to illegal immigrants that came to the U.S. as children), refugees, and asylum seekers. ⁵

Recipients of the fellowship have pursued careers in academia, the arts, business, government, law, medicine, nonprofits, science, and technology, and more. ⁶

Activities

The Paul and Daisy Fellowships for New Americans offers scholarships to immigrants and children of immigrants who are 30 or younger ⁷ and who are pursuing a graduate degree in the United States. ⁸ For children of immigrants, only those whose parents were both born outside of the United States are eligible to apply. ⁹ Those who win a fellowship receive a $90,000 scholarship toward their education. ¹⁰ The Fellowships require applicants to have a bachelor’s degree ¹¹ but has no restriction on the types of graduate degrees applicants may pursue. ¹²

Current and former fellowship recipients become a part of the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellows Association (PDSFA) devoted to fostering mentorship and professional relationship among members. ¹³

Notable Fellows

Notable fellows include U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy; former California Surgeon General Nadine Burke-Harris; CEO of Modern Electric Tony Pan; Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Amy Chow; Computational Biologist and 2014 Time Person of the Year Pardis Sabeti; and First Lady Jill Biden’s Chief of Staff Julissa Reynoso. ¹⁴

People

The co-founder of the Fellowships, Paul Soros, is the brother of billionaire left-wing political donor and philanthropist George Soros. Paul Soros was born in Hungary in 1926 and defected from the Soviet Union in 1948. In 1956, he founded Soros Associates, an international engineering firm. He passed away on June 15, 2013, at age 87. ¹⁵

Co-founder of the Daisy Soros is the current chairman of the board of the Fellowships. Daisy Soros is also an advisory director of the Metropolitan Opera, secretary on the board of the New York Philharmonic and the director Emeritus of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. ¹⁶

The current director of the Fellowships is Craig Harwood, the former dean of Davenport College at Yale University. The Deputy Director of the Fellowships is Yulian Ramos, the former operations manager and program officer of the Charles H. Revson Foundation, a private foundation associated with Charles Revson, the late co-founder of Revlon Cosmetics.

Among the Fellowships’ directors are Allison Binns, the head of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and sustainable investment strategy at Angelo Gordon; Eric Chung, an appellate and public policy lawyer at Covington & Burling LLP; Jeffrey Soros, the co-CEO of the Los Angeles Media Fund; and Peter Soros, a writer and investor. ¹⁷

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2. Paul & Daisy Soros Foundation. Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990-PF). 2019.
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11. ^[1]“Eligibility.” Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. Accessed August 17, 2023. https://www.pdsoros.org/apply/eligibility
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15. “Paul Soros.” Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. Accessed August 17, 2023. https://www.pdsoros.org/fellowship/paul-soros
16. “Dasy M. Soros.” Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. Accessed August 17, 2023. https://www.pdsoros.org/fellowship/daisy-soros.
17. “Governance.” Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. Accessed August 17, 2023. https://www.pdsoros.org/fellowship/governance