Rev. Dr. Everett Howe (BS ’86) and Dr. Isabella Furth’s gift supports the future of a program designed to encourage undergraduates to pursue science and engineering PhD degrees.

"Investing in one person can change the whole world," says Everett Howe, "especially if that person has not been given much support or encouragement before." This guiding sentiment has led Howe and his wife, Isabella Furth, to establish the Rev. Dr. Everett Howe and Dr. Isabella Furth WAVE Fellowship—the first endowment for the WAVE Fellows program.

WAVE Fellows participate in a 10-week summer program that provides both academic and professional development opportunities, including seminars led by Caltech faculty and JPL scientists and engineers, as well as workshops on such topics as graduate school admissions and effective communications. Each WAVE Fellow works with a Caltech mentor on a research project that culminates in a final paper and presentation. The fellowship award provides for on-campus housing, food, and travel costs.

"We are so grateful for the support of Drs. Howe and Furth," says Candace Rypisi, assistant vice provost and director of Student-Faculty Programs. "Endowments signal a commitment to the longevity of a program and its goals. We hope that the WAVE Fellows program continues to support Caltech’s goal of providing research opportunities to all young scholars for years to come." Since its inception in 2015, more than 450 undergraduates have participated in the program from the Institute and other universities and colleges. In addition to the generosity of individual donors and on-campus partners, the WAVE Fellows program is supported by off-campus partners including Edison International, Google, and the Braun Foundation.

Every Person Contains a Universe

Howe was familiar already with the benefits of a research fellowship, having participated in Caltech's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program. His SURF faculty mentor was Tom Apostol, a professor of mathematics and author of a two-volume textbook on calculus that became known as Tommy 1 and Tommy 2 by Caltech undergraduates. As a student in Apostol's number theory course, Howe missed a crucial word when Apostol discussed a theorem by Paul Erdős, and he worked out a short proof of the altered—and simpler—statement. Apostol invited Howe to use this proof of the easier result as a step toward proving the full theorem; this invitation led to Howe’s SURF project and eventually his first published academic paper.

"I always knew I could do math," says Howe. "But to have an actual paper published in a well-known journal…well, that was an encouragement to go on to grad school."

While pursuing his PhD in mathematics from UC Berkeley, Howe met Furth. The child of two college professors, Furth had completed her undergraduate degree at Yale and earned a PhD in American Literature at UC Irvine. She appreciated from an early age the value of education, while also coming to understand that not everyone had the same access as she did.

"My mother, who was born in the 1930s and got a PhD in the 1960s, would become a prominent person in her field of modern Chinese history," recalls Furth. "But I also saw the struggles she went through as a female scholar in a male-dominated field, and that made me aware of the institutional barriers to success."

Howe also sees the value of a more diverse pool of doctoral students in advancing scientific research. "Simply put, science is better when you have people from different life experiences engaged in it. Every person contains a universe."

Supporting a Ripple Effect

Howe spent the majority of his career as a researcher at the Center for Communications Research, affiliated with the National Security Agency. Then in 2019, he earned a Master of Divinity degree and has since become more involved in social justice work as a Unitarian Universalist minister. Furth’s career led to work as a freelance academic editor, where some of her favorite clients are authors who were first in their families to earn a college degree. She is inspired to see how many of them support other first-generation students following similar paths. "You support one person, who pays it forward and wider. There’s a ripple effect that’s really powerful," she says.

More than 90 percent of WAVE Fellow alumni enroll in graduate programs, and 13 percent have chosen Caltech to pursue their PhDs. Audrey Washington, a WAVE Fellow alumna, is grateful for her fellowship experience. "The WAVE program heavily influenced my decision to attend Caltech," she says. "After spending the summer with the Cushing Lab, I developed relationships that were lasting. When visiting different universities, I could not forget how at home I felt at Caltech, and the WAVE program allowed me to feel comfortable and seen in a rigorous academic environment."

In choosing to endow a WAVE Fellowship, Howe and Furth have blended their personal and professional beliefs to transform lives through education. "Our hope is to help make a better world, a more just and equitable world where more people can flourish," says Howe. "We are starting at the grassroots."