Fellowships provide the student with a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees (paid to the institution), as well as access to opportunities for professional development available to NSF-supported graduate students. Fellowships may only be used for an eligible graduate degree program at an academic institution accredited in, and having a campus located in, the US, its territories, possessions, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. NSF Fellows are anticipated to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching, and innovations in science and engineering.

Mikayla is currently a Purdue Doctoral Fellow at the Weldon School, working as a graduate research assistant in the lab of Dr. Deva Chan. She is from Easton, PA and graduated from Penn State in December 2022 with a degree in Biomedical Engineering. In summer 2022, Mikayla was chosen as a Purdue Pathway Scholar where she first started her academic journey as a Boilermaker with Dr. Chan. She has an interest in orthopaedics, and plans on pursung a career in academia with the goal of becoing a professor in the future.