The Experiential Learning Fellowship is a fund that began in 2004 when The Cleveland Foundation made a generous grant to the College of Arts and Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. Between 2004–2007, this grant enabled the college to offer a total of almost $250,000 in funds to 60 undergraduate students wishing to undertake experiential learning projects at home and abroad. Students majoring the college’s twenty-two departments and their disciplinary programs received experiential learning funding under this program.
In the program's early years, the purpose of the Experiential Learning Fellowship was to encourage and support undergraduate student projects for students in the humanities, arts and social sciences with the goal of providing opportunities for experiential learning. A wide range of student projects was eligible for funding, including but not limited to support of research projects, Senior Capstone projects, travel to research conferences to present research, or project-oriented travel abroad associated with completion of a student's major or minor program. During this time, the College of Arts and Sciences made approximately five awards each semester, with an average award size of $5,000 to the most meritorious applications received.
In more recent years, the Experiential Learning Fellowship has grown to its current state, which is a grant program holding three separate funds: the Rocks, the Experiential Learning Fellowship in Anthropology, and the Traub. The Rocks supports work in art history and art, classics, English, modern languages and literatures, music, and theater and dance; the Experiential Learning Fellowship in Anthropology supports work of students majoring in anthropology; and the Traub supports the work of majors or minors in history, politics, public policy, and economics.