Undergraduate Fellowships
Office of Undergraduate Research & Fellowships
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11/07/2024
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Take the next steps toward your future! Courtney Santos, Director, Undergraduate Research & Fellowships, will briefly discuss the variety of fellowship opportunities to support undergraduate study and professional development, including awards for original research, meaningful public service, and exciting study abroad. You’ll learn about eligibility and selection criteria, how to become a competitive candidate, and how to apply for the Goldwater Scholarship, Truman Scholarship, Gilman Scholarship, Critical Language Scholarship, Boren Awards, Department of Defense (DoD) SMART Scholarship, NOAA Hollings Scholarship, and Udall Scholarship. Don’t miss this chance to see how fellowships can enhance your career goals, provide substantial funding, and help you gain recognition as a leader in any field!
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- [00:00:00.960]All right. Good afternoon. Wonderful to have you here with us to talk about undergraduate
- [00:00:08.320]fellowships. I'm so excited to share some wonderful awards for research, public service,
- [00:00:14.980]language learning, all kinds of incredible things that you can do with the support
- [00:00:19.100]of these major fellowships and scholarships in the various fields. So I'm Courtney Santos. I'm a
- [00:00:25.940]first generation college student originally, and so I pursued this path toward fellowship
- [00:00:33.020]advising through creative writing. I love to talk to students about their stories and to really
- [00:00:37.900]engage on strategy for these competitive applications. And so I'm looking forward
- [00:00:42.740]to sharing some tips and strategies for you today as well. Here at the Office of Undergraduate
- [00:00:48.500]Research and Fellowships, we are seeking to increase the impact of the research and creative
- [00:00:54.280]activity on campus.
- [00:00:55.440]And really tell the story of the successes that are happening here. And so some of the
- [00:01:00.080]strategies that we have are that we provide long-term undergraduate research and creative
- [00:01:04.440]experiences to students. And so we do host the UCARE program, as well as FYRE and LSAMP.
- [00:01:11.880]So those are all undergraduate research programs that we support. And then we also have advising
- [00:01:18.420]available for international and national fellowship awards at really all the levels that students
- [00:01:23.160]can apply. So pretty much every class here.
- [00:01:25.060]Some of these awards are available. I would love to get to know you, Ava. Thank you so
- [00:01:30.440]much for joining me today. Actually, it's okay to unmute if you would like. Would you
- [00:01:35.220]like to tell me your year in school and your majors?
- [00:01:37.740]Yes. So I'm a current sophomore. I'm majoring in psychology and communications on the pre-nursing
- [00:01:44.640]track. Then I also have a minor in software development. And so I'm not really sure right
- [00:01:49.420]now what I want to go into. I am like a research assistant for a psych.
- [00:01:54.020]I am pre-nursing, so I've looked into being a nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist. But then
- [00:01:59.860]also I do the communication side of things and administrative work. So I don't know. I'm trying
- [00:02:06.000]to figure it out. Yeah, you have a broad range of interests. That's great. Many of those interests
- [00:02:11.480]are well represented in the fellowships. So I'm glad you're here. So as I'm going along,
- [00:02:17.040]if it relates to something I think you've said, psychology, healthcare, perhaps communications,
- [00:02:23.800]we'll definitely chat about that a little further. We can customize this a bit.
- [00:02:27.680]First, I want to kind of start off with a working definition of fellowships. I think that's usually
- [00:02:35.220]pretty helpful for students to think about kind of how does this all fit together.
- [00:02:39.780]And so the first thing I want to do is sort of differentiate it from the idea of a scholarship.
- [00:02:44.320]Yes, there is often a scholarship attached to many of these awards, but they are really so
- [00:02:49.000]much more than financial support. Really, these fellowship agencies, which are typically
- [00:02:54.960]government agencies, nonprofit organizations, even sometimes universities themselves,
- [00:02:59.960]are seeking to fund students who are certainly high achieving, you know, and academically
- [00:03:06.320]successful, but also kind of fund the whole person and the vision that they have for positive change
- [00:03:12.320]in the world. And so they do provide students with other resources for their educational
- [00:03:17.340]and professional success.
- [00:03:18.840]And certainly the community aspect, trying to build cohorts of students who believe
- [00:03:23.960]in and support each other and who sometimes even challenge or test each other's ideas in a
- [00:03:29.100]productive way. And so they'll do things like leadership development seminars. And, you know,
- [00:03:34.320]they might have virtual events, they might have in-person events, depending on the nature of the
- [00:03:37.980]award. They often have very engaged alumni networks that will be involved and help participate in
- [00:03:44.620]these conversations and provide mentorship to the students who are a part of the fellowship
- [00:03:48.680]community. So those are some things where it's hard to put a dollar amount on those benefits,
- [00:03:54.180]but they're really important and vital to the success of the student. I did mention at the
- [00:04:00.400]beginning, but we sort of have three areas of concentration in which we find fellowships being
- [00:04:04.540]provided. One would certainly be in research. So when I say research, I mean any original creative
- [00:04:13.000]or innovative work, unless the fellowship agency themselves has defined it more narrowly. That's the
- [00:04:18.520]working definition that we have for research here at our office. And so, you know, really looking to
- [00:04:24.500]see how students are contributing new ideas, new solutions to problems that they confront in all
- [00:04:30.780]major fields. There's also a lot of fellowships that are for cross-cultural engagement. And so
- [00:04:37.560]these would be things like language learning or studying abroad, and that opportunity to really be
- [00:04:42.680]immersed in and deeply understand another culture. And then finally, we do have awards for public
- [00:04:48.360]service, too. And here, you know, they're looking for students who maybe have bright ideas about how
- [00:04:53.860]society can be improved. And whatever their career paths are looking to be active leaders
- [00:04:59.580]who are contributing to making that positive change. And so really looking for things like
- [00:05:05.880]teamwork skills and deep self-awareness that can allow students to lead and influence others in a
- [00:05:18.200]different way. There's no one formula, right? But there are some sort of trends across the awards
- [00:05:22.600]as far as being a competitive applicant. And so certainly, especially as students are kind of
- [00:05:28.280]getting into the second and third year of undergraduate study, it can be really powerful
- [00:05:31.680]to think about which of these things students have already done and maybe which things they'd
- [00:05:35.520]like to plan for that second half of the journey. And so engaging in research or capstone projects
- [00:05:41.840]can be a very important piece here. It's really that opportunity to make an original contribution
- [00:05:48.040]to your major field and also to get mentorship, right? Something that is sort of a unique project
- [00:05:55.340]that you are leading, but you also hopefully have some guidance from more seasoned folks
- [00:05:59.700]and are able to really see your ideas come to fruition. I think also leadership experience.
- [00:06:05.680]And here, most fellowships use the model of team leadership. They are not just looking for a
- [00:06:11.480]student who maybe posts stuff online and there's no social connection element to it, but they're
- [00:06:17.880]using team leadership model where students are getting the chance to mentor and encourage
- [00:06:23.120]others and build really strong bonds around shared goals. And so that could be in the classroom. It
- [00:06:29.420]could be in tutoring, right? It could be a very interpersonal experience that's academic. It could
- [00:06:35.460]also be something that is occurring in a lab, right? It could be training other people. It could be doing
- [00:06:41.740]clinical experiences when we think about healthcare environments, right? And maybe having some projects that
- [00:06:47.720]you are leading in those contexts, but that they touch other people and support their success. So
- [00:06:52.140]there's really a lot of different types of ways that leadership can be demonstrated
- [00:06:56.160]and not necessarily a wrong answer here, but they do like to see a commitment, a more sustained
- [00:07:03.180]commitment. So say doing just like an alternative spring break where we volunteer for a week and
- [00:07:07.940]then we don't do it again for a year, probably not going to qualify as a really impactful leadership
- [00:07:12.780]experience. They want to see something that's a bit more sustained, a semester or more of involvement,
- [00:07:17.560]certainly. They also would love to see hands-on work of other kinds. So that could be internships
- [00:07:24.140]in some fields. I think about health care, certainly government service when students are
- [00:07:30.360]thinking about those kind of roles. There can often be some internships that are really tied into that,
- [00:07:36.040]certainly technology as well. Sharing your work. So here I've got a photo of our research symposium.
- [00:07:42.600]So that's one possible way is to like make a poster and tell other people about the practice or the work that
- [00:07:47.400]you are doing. But there are other ways, right? Like sharing your work online, you know, publishing
- [00:07:53.520]material, having a YouTube or a channel on social media that maybe describes the work you do. But
- [00:08:00.320]they like to see that public engagement. I've even seen where students sharing might have been
- [00:08:05.880]done through things like museums or public demonstrations of science, hackathons,
- [00:08:11.340]solar decathlons, all kinds of sort of competitive things that students might also do.
- [00:08:17.240]That reach others. Or it could be through designing an after-school program and sharing
- [00:08:22.200]it with youth, right? So there's maybe many different ways that we can get our work out
- [00:08:26.840]there into the world. Certainly strong mentor relationships is vital to any fellowship
- [00:08:33.540]application. Pretty much all of the fellowships require at least one reference. Many of them
- [00:08:37.880]require three or more. And so sort of being aware of who's always been providing really strong advice
- [00:08:47.080]to, you know, somebody who really cares about and supports and knows you and is invested in
- [00:08:54.740]your success. And so for many of the fellowships, there might be a combination of academic
- [00:09:01.180]references, which might be folks that you've had supervise your classes, and those who have
- [00:09:07.980]supervised you in other contexts outside of work, right? Someone has to be able maybe to talk about
- [00:09:12.060]your leadership experience in great detail. Well, is that a club leader? Is that
- [00:09:16.920]a volunteer coordinator, a work supervisor? Who knows about the things that you have done
- [00:09:23.180]outside of class too? Sometimes sports coaches or other people that students are connected with
- [00:09:29.640]in the community can be really great references for some of the awards.
- [00:09:32.860]We already talked a little bit about your interest in communication, Ava, and I think that is
- [00:09:40.840]something that the fellowships really support, whether that's through sort of perspective sharing and
- [00:09:46.760]dialogue, whether it's through language learning, you know, other ways of interpersonal engagement.
- [00:09:53.260]All of them value communication skills, and so developing those and being able to see the
- [00:10:00.200]connection to communication, I think, is going to be very helpful in writing a good fellowship
- [00:10:06.600]application. I've mentioned a few ways of community involvement, so I'll probably just
- [00:10:11.400]let that stand unless there are questions, but I did want to also mention advocacy.
- [00:10:16.600]So for some of the fellowships, this might be more applicable than others. So I think about
- [00:10:22.520]our public service awards, typically there is some form of advocacy happening in that student's life.
- [00:10:28.200]They tend to be very passionate about causes or issues, and so advocacy is often a piece of that,
- [00:10:35.160]really informing and building awareness of issues. But there can also be ways in which it might
- [00:10:41.320]be a part of the other fellowships. So I think about research, for example,
- [00:10:46.680]very often students might be also concerned about issues of science policy, right? How are we
- [00:10:52.040]funding research, or how are we making sure the public gets a chance to know about it,
- [00:10:56.840]or how are we translating research from academia into the world?
- [00:11:00.040]And so those can all be places where we see advocacy in the sciences. So it is, again,
- [00:11:06.760]something that's sort of broadly applied, and you have to figure out how to interpret it alongside
- [00:11:11.160]your particular area of expertise. Another thing I would say before going
- [00:11:16.280]into a fellowship application, it's really important to think about is just eligibility.
- [00:11:20.640]And so a lot of the fellowships are restricted to either U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
- [00:11:25.920]And so checking to see if that's the case before you apply is important. Also,
- [00:11:32.180]knowing what class years they are working with. So for example, the Truman Scholarship is only
- [00:11:37.040]for juniors, right? But students will often be like, well, I've reached junior status by units,
- [00:11:42.780]but I'm really only a second year student, right? So being
- [00:11:46.120]very aware that the fellowships go by graduation date. They are imagining a student is always on
- [00:11:51.180]a four-year path or close to it, maybe it's a three and a half year path or four and a half
- [00:11:55.900]year path. And so they are wanting to know, when are you graduating? So they will very often have
- [00:12:00.200]particular graduation windows where they're determining this is the class year. So if you
- [00:12:04.840]ever have questions about those kinds of things, ask me. I probably have it all memorized, but if
- [00:12:09.860]I don't, I'll help you look it up. And then minimum GPA is there for some of the awards.
- [00:12:15.960]So Goldwater would be one where it's a 3.0 and they're firm about that. Commitment to a specific
- [00:12:22.500]major, to preparing for graduate school, or commitment to a career field could be a part of
- [00:12:27.820]the eligibility criteria. And so if that's the case, they will state it very clearly and boldly
- [00:12:32.560]on their website, but I'm always happy to help folks interpret that as well. So now I'm going to
- [00:12:37.340]kind of dig into the specific undergraduate fellowships and we'll have time for questions.
- [00:12:41.320]But I think one thing that can be really helpful is to think about how people gain experience
- [00:12:45.800]toward these awards and how they use the fellowship itself to gain experience too.
- [00:12:50.120]These are designed to help augment and supplement your undergraduate education in ways.
- [00:12:55.320]And so I've got a couple of student stories. I'm going to start off with Ahmed's story.
- [00:13:00.260]So Ahmed is our recent critical language scholar for Turkish language.
- [00:13:05.240]He's currently a graduating senior in global studies and political science
- [00:13:10.020]and a member of the William H. Thompson Scholars Learning Community. And Ahmed also serves as
- [00:13:15.640]president of the African Student Association. So he brings leadership experience and a lot
- [00:13:21.380]of knowledge in the social sciences. In summer 2023, he received a Critical Language Scholarship
- [00:13:27.000]and he traveled to Turkey for intensive study of the Turkish language and to build mutual
- [00:13:32.780]understanding with other nations, which is the mission of the State Department,
- [00:13:36.080]which funds the award. And he has also worked as an Arabic interpreter,
- [00:13:40.660]assisting immigrants and refugees with health care and tax appointments and taught
- [00:13:45.480]citizenship classes. This past summer, Ahmed also participated in the Public Policy and
- [00:13:50.480]International Affairs Summer Institute at the University of Michigan, where he began planning
- [00:13:54.880]for graduate study in international affairs and immigration policy. And he is currently
- [00:13:59.620]applying to graduate schools and preparing for a career in the U.S. Foreign Service.
- [00:14:04.140]And so, of course, as a foreign service officer involved in diplomacy with other nations,
- [00:14:09.800]Ahmed will have lots of opportunities to use the languages, Turkish, Arabic,
- [00:14:15.320]that he has been pursuing throughout his undergraduate studies.
- [00:14:19.060]And so you can really see the mission of the State Department sort of reflected in the profile
- [00:14:25.260]that Ahmed has been building. Right. And so through advising, thinking about,
- [00:14:29.960]you know, how am I building mutual understanding with other people and getting opportunities to do
- [00:14:35.280]that through the fellowship? And so the State Department is one of the
- [00:14:40.360]major funders of fellowships. It's useful to get to know them because they fund multiple awards that our office supports
- [00:14:45.160]including the Gilman Scholarship, Critical Language Scholarship and the Fulbright Program.
- [00:14:51.160]And so they actually are sponsoring 40,000 exchanges, not a small number, really.
- [00:14:57.160]And so these are really big fellowship programs. And they really want to give people the opportunity
- [00:15:02.160]to learn about languages, cultures and peoples on both sides of this exchange,
- [00:15:08.160]as well as to think about how their shared values across societies, maybe human rights or access to
- [00:15:15.000]opportunity or upward mobility, maybe education, the environment where it would be helpful for us
- [00:15:21.000]to really cooperate and understand one another better.
- [00:15:25.000]And so that's sort of the flavor of these language learning fellowships, really.
- [00:15:30.000]You know, there are multiple options for students to potentially pursue,
- [00:15:35.000]but they really want to make sure that U.S. citizens are getting the chance to learn about other cultures
- [00:15:40.000]through these fellowship opportunities. And so the Critical Language Scholarship gives students
- [00:15:44.840]the chance to go abroad to study languages that are currently deemed critical by the U.S.
- [00:15:49.840]Department of State. Critical meaning we don't have enough speakers and we would really like to have more.
- [00:15:55.840]And so the State Department creates or contracts with, really,
- [00:16:00.840]summer study abroad programs to provide very intensive language study.
- [00:16:05.840]They also have virtual institutes for students who are absolute beginners in certain languages like Arabic that are very popular.
- [00:16:14.680]And it is a competitive award. It's actually the second most popular fellowship at UNL.
- [00:16:19.680]But it's also a really wonderful program in that it's sort of completely planned for you and it's fully funded.
- [00:16:25.680]If you win this award, you get to study that language and really know that you are going into an excellent language learning program.
- [00:16:34.680]And for many students, it's wonderful to spend the summer doing this because maybe they don't have other commitments that would be in the way of getting to know that language and really being immersed.
- [00:16:42.680]There is a November deadline.
- [00:16:44.520]It's coming up this year on November 19th.
- [00:16:46.520]So it's pretty soon.
- [00:16:48.520]Advising is optional.
- [00:16:50.520]And so it's very popular.
- [00:16:52.520]We are actually offering drop-in hours starting next week for this scholarship.
- [00:16:58.520]So it's a wonderful one.
- [00:17:00.520]Connect with me if you are interested in it.
- [00:17:02.520]The Boren Scholarship, kind of a similar one, but for learning a larger language list, actually.
- [00:17:07.520]They have a kind of bigger list of non-Western European languages that are closely related to our national security interests.
- [00:17:14.360]One where you can actually choose your own language, choose your own summer or academic year, study abroad program,
- [00:17:20.360]kind of work with global experiences to plan your own adventure.
- [00:17:23.360]And so for students who are looking for something that's a little more flexible,
- [00:17:27.360]you know, kind of maybe feeling confident about planning their own study abroad excursion, I think this is a wonderful fit.
- [00:17:34.360]They do require a campus nomination, but they give us a little bit more time to work on this award with you as a result.
- [00:17:40.360]So it's not due until January, which is nice.
- [00:17:44.200]And there is a service requirement for Boren. So students who are thinking about applying to Boren need to know that they are looking for students who are committed to careers in government agencies.
- [00:17:56.200]When they say national security, they mean a really broad definition of national security.
- [00:18:00.200]So that could be like working together on the environment because the environment also helps keep us secure.
- [00:18:05.200]Or it could be on public health stuff, right? So things like pandemic response are issues of national security.
- [00:18:12.200]So they do kind of apply it very broadly.
- [00:18:14.040]So I want to see that students are willing to spend at least one year working in the federal agency of their choice and potentially more, really more looking for a long-term commitment for that award.
- [00:18:26.040]But it's also more generous. You can stay up to a full year abroad, actually, on a Boren.
- [00:18:32.040]So they give you a lot. They really do.
- [00:18:36.040]And then the Gilman Scholarship is actually our most popular award at UNL.
- [00:18:41.040]It can be used for things besides language study, in fact.
- [00:18:43.880]It can be used to take regular coursework, such as in a student's major or minor field.
- [00:18:49.880]It can be used to do an internship or to learn a language.
- [00:18:52.880]But they will give you extra money if you're thinking about doing language learning.
- [00:18:57.880]And they also are trying to broaden access to education abroad.
- [00:19:02.880]And so students need to be receiving a Pell Grant, which is a form of federal need-based aid to apply for this program.
- [00:19:10.880]They do allow short-term study abroad.
- [00:19:13.720]It's the most flexible award that we really work with.
- [00:19:16.720]Sort of the sky's the limit.
- [00:19:18.720]Student has something they want to do abroad, it can probably be supported by a Gilman.
- [00:19:23.720]And it's also one of the least competitive awards.
- [00:19:25.720]And it's the only one that I work with that has two deadlines, so March and October.
- [00:19:29.720]So many students can actually apply once.
- [00:19:32.720]If they're applying far enough ahead of time, maybe they get the result, didn't get it, okay, we can revise, we can resubmit.
- [00:19:40.720]And so I think that's also a really nice thing about Gilman,
- [00:19:43.560]is that you give most students two chances to apply.
- [00:19:46.560]I think the language learning and study abroad fellowships are nice for talking about sort of selection criteria and why it matters, right?
- [00:19:53.560]Because some of these fellowships have a lot in common, CLS and Gilman are both supported by the US Department of Education.
- [00:19:59.780]state. And so they really show that there's similarities between their selection criteria,
- [00:20:05.120]like the connection between a language and your goals, your preparation or commitment to language
- [00:20:11.260]study, personal strengths like adaptability or resilience that can be very useful for going
- [00:20:18.160]abroad. And so they actually have more similarities than they are different, even though CLS is more
- [00:20:23.220]competitive and Gilman is less competitive, right? So the interpretation of this is a little more
- [00:20:27.580]flexible with Gilman, whereas for CLS, they're really looking for students to present a high
- [00:20:32.760]profile in this, right? But the values are the same. And so ultimately, they're looking for
- [00:20:38.260]similar strengths. We have had some students who actually win both awards. If you are the sort of
- [00:20:43.980]person who likes to build mutual understanding with other nations, you might want to do it as
- [00:20:47.440]a Gilman first and as a CLS student second, right? And then there's programs like Boren that really
- [00:20:55.160]add a lot into the basket. And so they are sort of looking for the same values as the State
- [00:21:00.240]Department. They want to see a student who's really into studying abroad and really going
- [00:21:04.120]to take advantage of the experience, be a successful language learner, but they're also
- [00:21:08.480]looking for that national security element. And they are looking for that longer-term commitment
- [00:21:13.320]to government service careers. And so that's something to be aware of is that a lot of these
- [00:21:18.020]fellowships have some similarities, but looking out for the differences can help you to develop
- [00:21:23.340]a really effective
- [00:21:24.300]strategy. And so I sort of think of this like an assignment rubric. How many things do we have to
- [00:21:29.360]check off that go into the final assignment, right? We want to touch on all those criteria.
- [00:21:34.500]All right. Speaking of students who touch on a lot of criteria, here's Sarah Altman.
- [00:21:38.740]And so I'm transitioning here to some science fellowships through this story.
- [00:21:44.060]Sarah was a Chancellor's Scholar in biological systems engineering with minors in math and
- [00:21:50.160]biomedical engineering. She was an INBRE scholar, so working on
- [00:21:54.140]research at the medical center and doing biomedical imaging and biosignal analysis
- [00:22:01.160]with Professor Gregory Bashford. She was also a member of the University Honors program
- [00:22:06.660]and vice president of our chapter of Tau Beta Pi, which is an honor society.
- [00:22:11.920]Sarah plans to pursue a doctoral degree in medical engineering and medical physics at the
- [00:22:19.320]Massachusetts Institute of Technology. So she was very aware at the time she came to me that
- [00:22:23.980]to apply for Goldwater that she wanted to go into a PhD and keep doing research.
- [00:22:27.860]And she was really interested in image reconstruction and acquisition techniques in
- [00:22:32.700]magnetic resonance modalities or MRI, right, for things that would eventually have a healthcare
- [00:22:38.720]application. Sarah ultimately also received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and started
- [00:22:45.760]graduate school. So she's doing awesome. So that's a really good example of a student who would
- [00:22:52.200]consider an undergraduate STEM
- [00:22:53.820]fellowship, right, and many of which are very focused on research success and giving students
- [00:23:00.160]those opportunities to pursue some very niche interests at the highest level. What's great
- [00:23:06.860]about these awards, like the Goldwater Scholarship, the NSF Research Experiences for
- [00:23:12.980]Undergraduates, the Department of Defense SMART Scholarship, and the National Oceanic and
- [00:23:20.240]Atmospheric Administration Hollings Scholarship,
- [00:23:23.660]Really is that intense focus on science and preparation for skills like science writing,
- [00:23:31.240]doing presentations, really building those career opportunities through close mentorship.
- [00:23:38.060]They also can be really good great gateway scholarships to graduate level awards, right?
- [00:23:45.600]And so we saw that with Sarah.
- [00:23:46.940]She wins the Goldwater and then she starts getting ready for graduate school and doing
- [00:23:52.160]the NSF and the Goldwater.
- [00:23:53.500]It was a big part of the strategy for how she got there.
- [00:23:56.300]The selection criteria and the competitiveness for these can vary.
- [00:24:01.700]You know, some of these programs are larger or smaller, like Hollings.
- [00:24:05.400]This is a fairly small program compared to some of the others on this list, but it's
- [00:24:09.040]also very focused, right?
- [00:24:10.920]They are looking for students who are really into the environment and atmospheric science.
- [00:24:15.640]And so by constraining it as far as how many majors can apply, they also are keeping the
- [00:24:23.340]application pool small, right?
- [00:24:24.840]So being very aware of what is this agency that funds this award really intending to
- [00:24:29.640]do through the students, right?
- [00:24:31.860]And, you know, with the Department of Defense Award, they've got a service
- [00:24:36.680]requirement.
- [00:24:37.180]So kind of similar to Boren, they want students to work for the Department of Defense Labs,
- [00:24:41.780]right?
- [00:24:42.240]And so they want to see students who are interested in being a government scientist.
- [00:24:45.340]So the first thing I would say is just review the program details really carefully, even
- [00:24:52.300]when we think about...
- [00:24:53.180]Is this a beginner research experience?
- [00:24:55.500]Some of the NSF research experiences for undergraduates are.
- [00:24:58.880]And so, for example, our current Goldwater Scholar, different student, Zein Saleh, was
- [00:25:04.800]a psychology major.
- [00:25:05.840]And one of his early research experiences was with an REU program.
- [00:25:10.040]He went to another university, I believe it was Boston College, and was doing a psychology
- [00:25:15.120]program there.
- [00:25:15.620]And it was designed for students as kind of an introductory experience, right?
- [00:25:19.220]But others are going to be looking for a more intermediate level of research.
- [00:25:23.020]So I think about Goldwater as being one where, generally speaking, a student has a year or
- [00:25:27.720]so of research experience.
- [00:25:29.040]They might have gone into UCARE.
- [00:25:30.780]They might have done INBRE or another program here on campus.
- [00:25:34.060]Or they might have done a summer program before they apply for Goldwater.
- [00:25:37.040]And it makes a big difference.
- [00:25:38.320]So that's sort of important to take into account, is are they really looking for absolute
- [00:25:43.580]beginners or intermediate level?
- [00:25:45.260]Also looking at benefits.
- [00:25:47.480]So for example, the REUs, these are hosted at other universities.
- [00:25:50.620]So they might include not just...
- [00:25:52.860]The tuition for the program, but also a living stipend and housing and travel, because students
- [00:25:57.700]don't typically have those things funded during the summer otherwise.
- [00:26:00.480]So looking carefully at what is it going to give you.
- [00:26:04.440]Considering your commitments, right?
- [00:26:08.040]So REU programs tend to be full-time during the summer, right?
- [00:26:11.940]And so being aware of what you would be able to achieve at any given time and what to say
- [00:26:18.160]yes to or no to.
- [00:26:19.220]And then finally thinking about, like, is there any...
- [00:26:22.700]Any follow-up expected?
- [00:26:23.760]Is there a report, a presentation at the end of the program?
- [00:26:27.900]Do they need me to serve in a particular job like DOD Smart would?
- [00:26:32.580]Noah Hollings also has summer internship programs that they require from the students.
- [00:26:38.300]So just really being aware of kind of how does all that fit together.
- [00:26:41.820]And again, I would say analyzing the selection criteria, but kind of putting our science
- [00:26:46.440]hat on, you know, with our Goldwaters, we're looking for a strong commitment to the
- [00:26:52.680]research career in the specific scientific discipline.
- [00:26:56.860]So that's going to look a little different from student to student, but more or less,
- [00:27:00.040]there's going to be a lot of similarities.
- [00:27:01.420]There's going to be strong coursework performance.
- [00:27:03.720]Maybe there's going to be original research achievement in things like computer science.
- [00:27:10.060]Maybe that's app development, right?
- [00:27:11.700]So it could vary from student to student.
- [00:27:13.820]In the life sciences, maybe it's more like cell biology, right?
- [00:27:17.720]Or vaccine administration programs or things like that.
- [00:27:22.660]And then they really want to see that potential for a significant future contribution.
- [00:27:27.500]So some confidence in the students' future goals.
- [00:27:30.640]Virtually all of the Goldwater scholars intend to obtain a PhD as their highest degree objective.
- [00:27:37.100]And I would say that's common across a lot of these awards.
- [00:27:39.500]There are some students who pursue these awards who are more planning a master's,
- [00:27:44.500]but it's typically going to be a terminal degree that they are going to use for a leadership career in industry.
- [00:27:52.640]Or somewhere else like that that doesn't require a PhD.
- [00:27:55.140]So think of our computer scientists, again, as being ones who maybe they can have a research-based master's
- [00:28:01.560]and go into software development or whatever.
- [00:28:03.800]And it's not always necessary to have that PhD.
- [00:28:07.040]Many of the scholars have also published their research or presented their work.
- [00:28:11.540]So that could be things like our UCARE symposium, but it could also be things like scientific journal articles
- [00:28:17.440]or national or regional conferences.
- [00:28:22.620]I would also say that a lot of the students who are pursuing these awards, Goldwater or other research fellowships,
- [00:28:29.340]can be a really good time to talk about sort of what does it look like to have a leadership career in STEM?
- [00:28:34.140]Because a lot of students, their first thought is professor, and that's very valid, right?
- [00:28:39.260]Academia is a great place to be a scientist, but I've already kind of mentioned software developer, right?
- [00:28:45.780]And so kind of there are ways in which a student might be pursuing leadership in a very different context.
- [00:28:52.600]And that's going to change how we develop a strategy around these awards, right?
- [00:28:56.500]If we're looking more at sort of designing products and services as the long-term impact of your work,
- [00:29:02.400]that's very different from something that would be more publishing-oriented like a professor job or even maybe teaching-oriented, right?
- [00:29:10.720]And I think about health care, which you had mentioned some interest in,
- [00:29:15.940]and I think it's really valid to know that there are plenty of jobs that are,
- [00:29:22.580]sort of, more practitioner-oriented, I guess. I think about, like, clinical researchers,
- [00:29:28.380]certainly, you know, clinical psychology, for example, right? I think about public health
- [00:29:36.480]agencies and being the head of those agencies and having a real impact on things like public
- [00:29:41.940]awareness or science literacy, you know. So, there's many different ways to demonstrate
- [00:29:48.140]leadership, but a student would want to think on that before deciding to apply for
- [00:29:52.560]for a fellowship. So, I'll leave it at that with the science ones. We can come back at the end if
- [00:29:57.480]you would like, but I wanted to throw out a few things about the public service awards first,
- [00:30:00.840]and then we'll have some time for questions. So, the Truman Scholarship is a popular award.
- [00:30:09.060]It does offer $30,000 for graduate study related to public service careers, and they mean public
- [00:30:16.300]service really in all contexts. So, that could be things like government service. It could be
- [00:30:22.540]it could be the military. It could even be education, especially K-12.
- [00:30:27.140]But they really want to see students who are oriented toward their communities and wanting
- [00:30:31.940]to make a real difference in the world. And they also offer leadership development activities.
- [00:30:36.980]They have like an actual leadership week that they run with the students every year. They offer
- [00:30:43.160]internship opportunities in Washington, D.C. to the students who are participating as well. So,
- [00:30:48.480]they will help support a student by bringing them in for an internship role
- [00:30:52.520]Another somewhat similar scholarship, and I say somewhat similar because it's very values-oriented
- [00:30:58.020]like Truman is, is the Udall Scholarship. This one's more niche, though. It is restricted to
- [00:31:06.180]a couple of themes. So, one would be careers in environmental policy, and then for students who
- [00:31:11.620]have Native American tribal membership, they can also consider tribal policy or health care.
- [00:31:16.820]So, it would be the health care focus on the tribe. But for most students, this is
- [00:31:22.500]more of an environmental policy type award. And so, both of these have very engaged, active alumni
- [00:31:29.500]networks, and they're both looking for students who really are issues focused. I think that's true
- [00:31:34.940]really of all the public service awards that I support. The students often have something that's
- [00:31:40.260]really driving them, you know, a problem in society that they think they have the skills or building
- [00:31:46.740]the knowledge to address and really want to make that real world concrete change. I think a public
- [00:31:52.480]health is being one of the themes that you had raised where a lot of the time I see, you know,
- [00:31:57.980]really great potential Truman Scholars coming from those areas because there is that opportunity to
- [00:32:04.500]make a concrete impact on living conditions and how people are being treated. Psychology would
- [00:32:11.160]be another one, right? Like we look at in the mental health challenges facing our country,
- [00:32:16.440]again, a place where people can make very concrete world world change.
- [00:32:22.460]And so what I would encourage our students thinking about these awards to do is really
- [00:32:26.460]think about an issue that they care about and then connect it to particular career paths and
- [00:32:31.720]roles. Often students will come to me and say, well, I'm very passionate about a lot of things.
- [00:32:35.060]And I'll be like, yes, but we need to focus for the purpose of this fellowship. And to think
- [00:32:41.480]about how do people get to positions of leadership and influence or even power where they can drive
- [00:32:48.220]positive change forward. And so doing things like talking to a career coach
- [00:32:52.440]and analyzing LinkedIn profiles. There's a wonderful nonprofit called 80,000 Hours. It's
- [00:32:59.260]actually out in the UK, but they do podcasts and interviews with people all over the world who are
- [00:33:03.340]involved in change-making. Lists like the Forbes 30 Under 30 even can be very inspiring to see
- [00:33:09.380]people who are early career, relatively young, and what's their path and how are they gaining
- [00:33:14.800]experience? So I think those are really nice ways to approach these. All right, I'm going to pause
- [00:33:22.420]and see, Ava, if you have any questions. I'm sorry, I don't. I think you've covered
- [00:33:28.480]everything pretty well. Oh, thank you. I'm glad to hear that. Yeah. It's a nice smorgasbord of
- [00:33:34.620]offerings. It's kind of like a little menu, maybe. Well, okay. Do let me know if any questions come
- [00:33:43.140]up. One thing I would say that's really helpful is just to know when to apply. So sort of right now,
- [00:33:52.400]when a lot of students would be contacting me, because a lot of these awards are due in early
- [00:33:56.800]spring term. And so we typically would be starting three to six months in advance of an external
- [00:34:02.800]deadline. There are some where we can start it kind of at the last minute. I would say Gilman
- [00:34:06.640]Scholarship is one where I've seen students apply pretty last minute. But in most cases,
- [00:34:13.000]if there's like a nomination process that we need to work on, if we need to do multiple drafts of an
- [00:34:17.840]application, I want to be working with a student earlier. And earlier is always better, even for
- [00:34:22.380]the student. So it's good to stay in touch with me. Check my website to see when are the advising
- [00:34:29.440]timelines for the award you would want to apply for. Because generally, it's just once annually.
- [00:34:34.100]And so it's kind of going to occur at the same time every year. As far as essay strategy, I think
- [00:34:40.960]one thing that can be really useful is just to take those selection criteria. We kind of broke
- [00:34:44.900]some of them down today. And to then sort of brainstorm with people who know you very well
- [00:34:49.880]in your personal network or on campus. And then if you have any questions,
- [00:34:52.360]And so that can be people like advisors, career coaches, certainly me, writing center consultants, even faculty are often willing to talk to students and say, oh, remember when you did this? That really mattered, right? That was really an incredible strength that you demonstrated there.
- [00:35:09.400]And I would say highlighting a few key experiences is my top tip for students writing these essays. If students just try to restate the list from the CV or resume, it's not a narrative, right? It's not kind of drawing the reader into the experience.
- [00:35:24.040]And so if we can use things like show don't tell, that old creative writing strategy, effectively here, it's going to be a lot more memorable to the person who's receiving the essay.
- [00:35:36.880]And so using details.
- [00:35:39.380]I use detailed anecdotes to illustrate why you're a good fit, you know, sort of outlining this is the thing that I did and here's how it matches with the selection criteria.
- [00:35:47.480]Here's how I developed skills. Here's how I understand myself as a leader today after this experience. Right.
- [00:35:55.120]And so thinking about how those experiences have actually shaped you as a person into someone with a unique set of values or a unique approach to working with people, I think is really key here.
- [00:36:08.780]And then finally, I hope that I can encourage you to connect not just with me and certainly with me, but also with other people in the professional development network.
- [00:36:18.980]So like today, you mentioned that you have a lot of different possible career interests.
- [00:36:22.860]You know, there's career coaches that you can talk to that I think it can be really fruitful to developing your vision, especially right now, sort of in the middle of your undergraduate trajectory.
- [00:36:33.760]It could be a very meaningful dialogue to open up with somebody and get some feedback.
- [00:36:38.280]About how to use those strengths.
- [00:36:41.200]I'll say I'm an ambassador for the College of Arts and Sciences so I'm pretty familiar with all that, like, how they can do mock interviews resumes like all. Yeah.
- [00:36:49.920]Yeah.
- [00:36:51.040]That's great. I have to like help with tours sometimes and then also like post part writing campaigns calling campaigns.
- [00:36:57.980]So yeah, love the career coaches.
- [00:37:01.140]Oh, I'm so glad to hear it.
- [00:37:03.680]Well, then you probably also know because you have.
- [00:37:08.200]College of Arts and Sciences, but our global experiences coordinators.
- [00:37:12.480]If you are interested in studying abroad, great person to connect with Renee.
- [00:37:18.360]Exactly. Yeah.
- [00:37:20.200]Our writing center consultants there in arts and sciences, too.
- [00:37:23.300]So, you know, a lot of the folks on this list.
- [00:37:26.600]I think the one that sometimes students don't consider, too, even if they are very knowledgeable about the campus is sort of the other mentors piece.
- [00:37:35.000]Right. You know.
- [00:37:37.300]So sometimes those folks that are off campus, but maybe it's that neighbor who's always listened and always cared for that person in a sports community, a hobby that a student has, even church leaders, folks like that.
- [00:37:54.980]Right. Every student has people who believe in them, but it's just sort of recognizing that and saying, well, this is actually somebody maybe I could discuss my professional goals with and get some feedback.
- [00:38:06.440]I think that can be really valuable to do at this stage.
- [00:38:09.180]You have any other questions for me today?
- [00:38:13.220]I'm sorry, I don't think I do.
- [00:38:16.080]OK, thank you so much for walking me through all this.
- [00:38:20.460]It was great to meet you today. I would love to have a personal advising consultation with you as a follow up, if you would like.
- [00:38:28.280]So just know you can book one on one appointments with me on our Web site anytime that you are interested in.
- [00:38:35.580]We can also be doing more events during International Education Week.
- [00:38:39.580]We'll be talking about the Fulbright program, which is something you might be interested in for after graduation.
- [00:38:43.840]But, yeah, I'll definitely have to look into scheduling an appointment and thinking about what I might want to do.
- [00:38:49.780]Because, yeah, whenever you're running through like the I think there are like eight different types of like the what you want to talk about with your application.
- [00:38:59.020]There are a lot of those that I've already checked or like done.
- [00:39:02.280]I am like an honors program. It's like I'm a peer mentor through that.
- [00:39:05.120]I'm in an HRI, so I do mentoring with that. I'm involved in research.
- [00:39:08.840]I'm on exec for my sorority and other RSOs for comma on the student advisory board.
- [00:39:13.440]Like there were a lot of those boxes that like had checked.
- [00:39:16.980]So I'll just have to look into how that could be applied.
- [00:39:21.600]Yeah. I hope it was affirming and validating to see that you are on the right path.
- [00:39:26.740]Yeah. Deeply engaged. Yeah, that's great.
- [00:39:30.680]But yeah, I would say so. That was nice to see. Like, OK, like,
- [00:39:34.660]I have experiences that could back up or like that show the consistent contribution.
- [00:39:39.840]Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. The essays are already starting to write themselves then.
- [00:39:46.340]OK, well, good. So I'll be looking out for you to make an appointment with me soon and we can sit down and choose a fellowship.
- [00:39:55.100]Well, thank you so much. All right.
- [00:39:58.420]Nice to meet you.
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