Grace Duffy ’22 Receives Stouffer Fellowship for Graduate Studies

Grace Duffy has received the Elsie M. Stouffer Fellowship from Grinnell College. The $23,200 fellowship award is the result of a generous gift made by Elsie M. Stouffer, a member of the class of 1924.  

The fellowship is open to senior women who are fluent in French, Spanish, or Portuguese with plans for a career and graduate study in a public service field in Latin America and Latin American communities. 

Duffy, a class of 2022 graduate from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is an English and Spanish double major with a peace and conflict studies concentration. She plans to pursue a dual degree J.D./M.A. program in law and peace and conflict studies to work in legal advocacy efforts at the U.S.-Mexico border and in Central America. 

“I’m extremely grateful to receive support for graduate studies through the Stouffer Fellowship,” said Duffy. “I look forward to continuing my education and experience in criminal legal reform and immigrant advocacy and applying these studies to meaningful justice work in Latin America.” 

Duffy focused her Spanish major studies on Latin America and U.S. Latinx communities; through SOC-295: Immigration and Transnationalism, taught by Associate Professor Xavier Escandell, she researched U.S. humanitarian asylum policies for immigrants from Central America and how legal advocacy work at the border relates to conflict transformation.  

In summer 2021, Duffy served as a policy and advocacy intern at ACLU of Texas. She was also the student coordinator of Grinnell College’s Liberal Arts in Prison Program in 2021-2022; she has volunteered, taught, and tutored with the program since her first year of college. Duffy has made significant contributions on the Rosenfield Program Committee and the Peace and Conflict Studies Committee. 

More than 40 Grinnell College alumni have received funding for graduate studies through the Elsie M. Stouffer ’24 Fellowship. The award is advised and administered through Global Fellowships and Awards in the Center for Careers, Life, and Service.