The phrase "earned a fellowship" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when you wish to say that someone has received an award or special recognition, usually in the form of a financial grant, usually for academic achievement or professional excellence. For example, "After graduating from college, she earned a fellowship from a prestigious research institute, allowing her to pursue her studies in physics."
Professor Pound earned a fellowship at Harvard in 1945 and stayed there the rest of his career.
He also earned a fellowship to Oxford University, where he met his first wife, Margret Ross, and earned another bachelor's degree in 1935.
He earned a fellowship to the American School of Classical Study in Athens, then was invited to lead a new "great books" program at Lawrence College in Appleton, Wis., in 1935.
In 1957, Botero made his maiden trip to the US for a presentation of his work, and earned a fellowship.
Parker — last seen as the hunky cop in the romance "Beyond the Lights" — has roots at Sundance and earned a fellowship through the festival's lab.
Leonard finished his undergraduate studies at Columbia; William Labov, a prominent linguist who had introduced him to the field, helped him earn a fellowship.
After graduation and the bar exam, they return to the same workplace for a year, earning a fellowship stipend, the funds for which are provided by the agency, which benefits from low-cost fellows.
In fact, he's doing everything he can to not blow his windfall this time, unlike the time he earned a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1999.
In 1980, in addition to her second NEA grant, Butterfield earned a Guggenheim fellowship, which she used to travel to Israel and make art from steel and other materials she salvaged from junkyards in Jerusalem.
Mr. Stephens, a dropout from Hendrix College in Arkansas (he later earned a Thiel Fellowship), started UnCollege less than two years ago, and already its Web site attracts 20,000 unique visitors a month.
After leaving England, Ehrenberg traveled to the United States, where he earned a Guggenheim Fellowship, followed by a series of lectures on "Art and Politics" at the Art Institute of Chicago.
