UW Student from Cheyenne Receives Prestigious Fellowship

Recent University of Wyoming graduate Maeve Knepper, of Cheyenne, is among 30 students nationwide selected to receive the prestigious USAID Donald M. Payne International Development Graduate Fellowship.

The fellowship, for which Knepper was among about 1,000 applicants, seeks to attract outstanding individuals interested in pursuing careers in the Foreign Service of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The Payne Fellowship, which provides up to $100,000 in benefits over two years for graduate school, internships and professional development activities, is a unique pathway to the USAID Foreign Service. It has a 2.3 percent acceptance rate.

Knepper graduated from Cheyenne East High School in 2019. The summer after she graduated, she studied Arabic in Jordan through the U.S. Department of State’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth.

“I lived with a Jordanian host family, and I loved my time there so much that I continued studying Arabic and the Middle East when I started at UW that fall,” Knepper says. During her time on campus, she worked for UW’s Arabic and Middle East North Africa Studies Program for two years.

Graduating summa cum laude in 2023, she majored in economics and international studies, minored in honors and was a UW Trustees’ Scholars Award recipient. Knepper also studied abroad in Jordan and Morocco. 

“I had so many incredible mentors and opportunities while a student at UW, and all have greatly influenced my trajectory,” she says. “I knew when I started here that I was interested in international relations, but it was the connections I made and experiences I had while a student that first got me interested in international development and made me aware of opportunities such as the Payne Fellowship.”

Knepper is taking a gap year to study Arabic intensively on a Boren Scholarship in Oman, a country situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. She is taking Arabic language classes and enjoys learning about this part of the Middle East and North Africa region.

“I was thrilled to find out I was selected as a Payne Fellow, especially after an intensive interview process,” Knepper says.

She will be a Foreign Service officer with USAID following graduate school and hopes to serve as a humanitarian assistance officer. The fellowship’s financial and professional support during graduate school is one of the highlights of the program and will help prepare her for her career, she adds.

“I am especially grateful for the wide range of expertise and advice I’ve received across the UW College of Business; Department of Economics; College of Arts and Sciences; School of Politics, Public Affairs and International Studies; and the Honors College,” she says.