Recent Pitt Graduate Awarded Humanity in Action Fellowship

PITTSBURGH—A former student from the University of Pittsburgh’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences has been awarded a 2016 Humanity in Action Fellowship. Recent Pitt graduate Mehrgol Tiv will conduct social-science and humanitarian-based research in Amsterdam during the summer of 2016. Including Tiv, Pitt students have now won 16 Humanity in Action Fellowships since 2006. 

The Humanity in Action Fellowship program brings together international groups of university students and recent graduates to explore topics related to discrimination and social resistance as well as issues affecting underrepresented groups around the world. Fellows are selected on the basis of high academic achievement, evidence of leadership ability, and demonstrated commitment to human rights issues. For 2016, Humanity in Action has accepted 48 fellows from more than 500 applicants attending U.S. colleges and universities, who will join peers from institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, and Ukraine. 

A native of Tehran, Iran, Mehrgol Tiv came to the United States at age 7, living first in Dallas, then in Pittsburgh’s North Hills. Tiv majored in psychology and French and minored in neuroscience. She graduated with a Bachelor of Philosophy degree in psychology and a Bachelor of Arts degree in French.

Since enrolling at Pitt in 2012, Tiv has assisted with research in Pitt’s biology and psychology departments. Her BPhil research, conducted under the mentorship of Tessa Warren in the Learning Research and Development Center, focused on idiom learning. 

Beginning this fall, she will attend McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to earn a PhD in experimental psychology with a concentration on language acquisition. 

As a Pitt student, Tiv was honored with a University Honors College Community-Based Research Fellowship, a University Honors College Brackenridge Undergraduate Fellowship, the Dr. John Knox Hall Jr. Scholarship from the Department of Psychology, and an Alliance Française Nationality Room Study Abroad Scholarship.

Tiv applied for the Humanity in Action Fellowship with assistance from Pitt’s University Honors College, which advises Pitt undergraduate students and alumni who are interested in pursuing national and international awards. Past fellows have used their experiences to further careers in education, civil service, journalism, law, and art. 

Established in 1997, Humanity in Action is an international educational organization that seeks to promote human rights, diversity, and active citizenship around the world.

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