2025 Summer Fellowships Advising Welcome
Courtney Santos
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06/02/2025
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Dreaming of graduate study, teaching or research opportunities? Chart your course to meaningful, affordable graduate school or “gap”/professional development year experiences. We'll discuss how working with a fellowships advisor helps students stay on track with goals and achieve their highest ambitions. Join Courtney Santos, Director, Undergraduate Research & Fellowships to learn about your fellowships options, summer advising services, and application management tools.
These workshops are primarily intended for enrolled UNL graduating seniors, graduate students, and recent alumni (within 2 semesters of graduation) applying for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships-supported fellowship awards. These include the Fulbright U.S. Student Program and graduate leadership or research fellowships awarded to senior undergraduates, such as the Marshall Scholarship, Rhodes Scholarship, Gates Cambridge Scholarship, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and similar awards. Staff, faculty, and graduate assistants who support undergraduate students may observe. Learn more at uraf.unl.edu!
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- [00:03:00.000]Fellowships, Fridays, plan your adventure workshop! I am so excited to welcome you to our Summer Workshop series.
- [00:03:09.000]So, I am Courtney Santos, I am the Director of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships here at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, so I'm an expert.
- [00:03:17.000]On all of the pathways that students have toward Uh, external merit fellowships.
- [00:03:23.000]Um, as well as our undergraduate research programs, like UKR, I won't be talking too much about UCARE today, but if you have questions about it, certainly Ask me, I am here for you.
- [00:03:33.000]Um, and uh, so one of the things that I'll be doing this summer is just really serving as a guide and a coach.
- [00:03:40.000]On students' paths as they figure out what they would like to do after graduation. So my focus is primarily on graduating seniors and recent alums.
- [00:03:50.000]Who are thinking about doing graduate study, or perhaps Spending a year abroad doing things like English teaching.
- [00:03:58.000]Um, study or research. Uh, with the Fulbright program as well. So, over the summer, I support about 17 fellowships awards, and we'll kind of chat through what are some of the common themes and threads there.
- [00:04:11.000]Um, but I do want to make sure these workshops are inclusive of all possible applicants, so I want to recognize that sometimes also graduate students decide to apply for a Fulbright, and I'm certainly the contact for those students, too.
- [00:04:24.000]Um, so welcome, wherever you are in your journey. I am glad you are here, and that you want to engage and learn more about Merit Fellowships.
- [00:04:33.000]Um, so I will be giving you today a little bit of a website tour, in case you are new to our office, or, like, you don't know what I do.
- [00:04:40.000]Exactly what is a fellowship's advisor. We'll kind of chat through that today.
- [00:04:43.000]And then I'm also going to show you around our Canvas workspace for fellowships applicants who are actually going through the advising cohort this year.
- [00:04:51.000]For one of those supported awards. Um, and then at the time… at the end, there'll be plenty of time for questions.
- [00:04:58.000]Um, we are recording this workshop. It will be available in Canvas, as well as on our events page here on our website.
- [00:05:04.000]Um, after the session, so if you need to leave early, you don't have to tell me, it's okay. Um, I know that students have lots of other commitments, and some of you, this might be your lunch break from work or whatever, so again.
- [00:05:14.000]Glad you're here, um, but if you missed something, it's gonna be okay.
- [00:05:18.000]So first, I'm going to talk a little bit just about me, about the mission of undergraduate research and fellowships, and kind of what we do with students, so… We have a team of three staff.
- [00:05:29.000]Um, if you are in UCARE, you may already know Callie Patterson, who is our lead advisor for UCARE.
- [00:05:35.000]Um, she doesn't do a lot of fellowships advising. She can answer quick questions, like, if I'm out of office or something like that, and you drop in.
- [00:05:42.000]Callie's still gonna be here and try to support you, but she's mostly gonna route you back to me.
- [00:05:46.000]Um, I am also supported by Ioana Kippuru, who is an experienced fellowships Advisor Um, she is in her second year of her graduate program. Yay, Ioana!
- [00:05:56.000]Um, and she has been working with me a lot on the Gilman Scholarship, Critical Language Scholarship, and Fulbright, and now she's expanding to supporting all of our awards this summer.
- [00:06:05.000]So the first thing I want you to know is you can book with either myself or Ioana. If you want to talk about fellowships.
- [00:06:11.000]You want to know if you're eligible for specific awards, you want to talk about if you're a competitive candidate, maybe do a little brainstorming about your application strategy.
- [00:06:20.000]Or even you want a draft review. Um, you can book with either one of us. So that applies to all undergraduates.
- [00:06:27.000]Um, to all, uh, you know, recent alumni who, uh, just earned a bachelor's.
- [00:06:33.000]Degree. Um, and it also applies to graduate students who are applying specifically for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
- [00:06:40.000]Now, that said. Our office is not responsible for all graduate studies support.
- [00:06:48.000]Right? There is, in fact, a separate Office of Graduate Studies that offers most of the fellowship advising.
- [00:06:54.000]To the students who are in graduate study at UNL. So if you are an enrolled graduate student, remember, I am the Fulbright U.S. Student program contact.
- [00:07:03.000]Only. So this is for students who are applying. They're a U.S. Citizen, and they are outbound, and they want to go abroad next year, right?
- [00:07:10.000]Um, so for everybody else, if you are applying for a fellowship, it's important for you to know that your contact is the UNL Office of Graduate Studies.
- [00:07:20.000]And so, I'm going to show you as well a little bit of information on their website that I think will be really, really helpful to you.
- [00:07:27.000]Um, so if you are a graduate student. Know that there's this button up here at the top that says Graduate Support.
- [00:07:34.000]And you can click here, and you can see all the different resources that they offer to graduate students.
- [00:07:40.000]And one of them is called Consultation Services. And so this is how you actually connect with the fellowship advisor.
- [00:07:47.000]Um, is they do an online process, so it is different. At the undergraduate level, a lot of my services are very appointment-based.
- [00:07:54.000]Office of Graduate Studies is too, but they want you to submit information to them through consultation services. For me, you're going to be corresponding with me through Canvas, right? Um, so there's a little bit of a difference in our approach there.
- [00:08:06.000]Um, but it's important to know that you do have staff members who support you, who care very much that you are applying for a fellowship, and are going to be giving you a similar quality of service. In fact, I'm very good friends with the people who do this work over at Graduate Studies.
- [00:08:19.000]So I want to plug them, they are wonderful and amazing, and if you are a graduate student, these are people you should get to know.
- [00:08:24.000]Okay? All right, back to… undergraduate research. So, what fellowships?
- [00:08:31.000]Do we support? Well, first of all, what is a fellowship? Okay.
- [00:08:34.000]So, a fellowship is different from a scholarship in a certain way, right? Um… it usually has funding attached to it, right? But a fellowship is, in fact, about a community, right? That word actually is, you know, rooted in the idea of communities.
- [00:08:50.000]Right? And so it's bringing people together who share common values.
- [00:08:54.000]Um, maybe who want to advance, say, positive change for society, or maybe they want to go really in-depth and co-create new knowledge Through doing research or other types of creative work.
- [00:09:08.000]Right? And so, um, if you're an undergraduate student and you're in UCare, you're already in a fellowship. You might not think of it that way, but that's exactly how UCARE is designed, right?
- [00:09:18.000]It is an undergraduate research program, yes, but it is also a fellowship. It provides funding, and it provides community.
- [00:09:24.000]Right? And so we do things like leadership and career development work.
- [00:09:28.000]We do workshops together for UCARE all year round, right? And that is because it is designed along the same lines as a fellowship's community.
- [00:09:36.000]So, if that's an experience that you've had before, maybe in UCARE or in another program.
- [00:09:41.000]It's wonderful, because you already have sort of a point of access to understanding these.
- [00:09:45.000]Um, otherwise, you have to kind of think beyond that idea of just a scholarship. It's way more than just funding, right? They are looking for people who want to come together and get to know one another.
- [00:09:56.000]And so that might mean that students are say, uh, working together in retreats. There might be an online community associated with the fellowship, but they all have some sort of active way for cohorts to get to know each other each year.
- [00:10:11.000]Um, and many of them have very engaged, active alumni communities.
- [00:10:16.000]Who do things like volunteer service together, who remain connected as a professional network for the rest of their lives. And so.
- [00:10:22.000]There's really a lot more benefits besides just the money, and so these fellowships are looking for students who are ready to take advantage of all of those different things.
- [00:10:31.000]Now, there are two fellowship cycles per year at my office. One of them is the summer one, it's actually usually the bigger group.
- [00:10:38.000]Um, and so this is the time when we support certain international fellowships.
- [00:10:43.000]As well as graduates study fellowships. There are other fellowships available, but they're not necessarily open at this time of year, so I don't advise applicants at this point in time, right?
- [00:10:53.000]Um, and so, um, if we go over to the international fellowships menu, I'll show you several here.
- [00:10:59.000]Um, that are important to get to know, but the really big one is really the Fulbright U.S.
- [00:11:05.000]Student program. That's generally the biggest advising group that I have in the summer.
- [00:11:10.000]Um, it is a program where students can spend a full academic year abroad.
- [00:11:15.000]Um, they do allow senior alumni and graduate student applicants. I am the campus endorsement contact.
- [00:11:22.000]So, campus endorsement just means that the university has reviewed the student's application, and we actually attach basically a letter of support explaining why we are nominating a student for this award.
- [00:11:33.000]There is no nomination limit for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, so you are only in competition with your own best self.
- [00:11:39.000]And so what do I do as the endorsement contact? Well, I help make sure students' applications are complete.
- [00:11:45.000]And I write those forms explaining why we are nominating students, right? But overall, I'm really helping provide comprehensive advising, a Fulbright application is a complex thing.
- [00:11:55.000]Um, and we have a campus space where we work together on those materials.
- [00:12:00.000]Um, so that's definitely the most popular of the awards that I support at this time of year. It is important to note it is the program for U.S. Citizens to go abroad, right?
- [00:12:07.000]The Fulbright Foreign Student Program. Is a wonderful program, and it's one that students who are international students should get to know, but is not one that I can support, because you actually have to go Graduate and go back to your home country before you can apply for it. So that's why I don't support
- [00:12:23.000]The Fulbright Foreign Student Program. But our colleagues at Graduate Studies can talk to you about that award. We always have some Fulbright foreign students.
- [00:12:30.000]Here at UNL, so you can even asked to get to know some of those folks who have won one before, if you have questions about that slide. But it is something that's outside of my wheelhouse.
- [00:12:40.000]I will direct you to other people at Graduate Studies for help, if that's of interest to you.
- [00:12:44.000]All right. So, um, another award that's, uh, popular for students who are interested specifically in Germany That I offer during the summer is the DAAD German Academic Exchange here. I love this program. I wish we had more applicants.
- [00:12:59.000]But we have had winners, it's wonderful. Um, if you speak German, or even if you speak English, but you're interested in studying in Germany, this is really wonderful program for you.
- [00:13:10.000]Like full rate, they offer fully funded experiences abroad. Um, and it is, in fact, the second largest international educational exchange in the world.
- [00:13:19.000]Um, after the Fulbright program. And so, they're very closely aligned. Uh, DAD and Fulbright talk to each other, they love each other.
- [00:13:27.000]Um, and so they coordinate a lot, um. In a certain way, to try to make sure that students are getting support, so I cannot say enough good things about the DAAD program Um, so happy to talk to students about this. You can do master's degrees, PhD research.
- [00:13:43.000]All of those things. All right. Um, next, I'm gonna go over to our Graduate Fellowships Guide. So you can see it's actually linked here at the bottom. There's also, you know, you can get it through it through the regular menu, either way.
- [00:13:55.000]Um, and so most of the other awards that we'll be talking about today are in this grouping.
- [00:14:01.000]But they are… Um, kind of diverse in what they support, right? And so there's a couple that are for graduate fellowships in the U.S, and so if you are an undergraduate or a recent alum.
- [00:14:12.000]Who wants to apply to the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.
- [00:14:16.000]Which is specifically for immigrants and children of immigrants, um. Uh, do let me know. Um, I think this is a wonderful fellowship, very competitive, but, um, absolutely wonderful.
- [00:14:27.000]Um, and supports all graduate majors. There's also the Knight Hennessy Scholars Program at Stanford University, so if Stanford is on your list of places where you would like to do graduate education.
- [00:14:39.000]Again, give me a holler, I would love to know about your interests in Stanford and talk with you about it. I know a lot about this award.
- [00:14:46.000]Um, and I think it's really a great one. But you have to want to go to Stanford, right? It's pretty specific.
- [00:14:52.000]Thanks. So you'll find that some of these Fellowships. For graduate study.
- [00:14:57.000]Are specific to a certain population? Like the New Americans were, right?
- [00:15:02.000]Or to a specific graduate school, Stanford. So I think these are wonderful models to get to know.
- [00:15:08.000]There are also a ton of graduate fellowships to go abroad.
- [00:15:13.000]So I mentioned Fulbright, and that's one of the most common options, actually, for students who are thinking about studying abroad for graduate school.
- [00:15:19.000]Um, so that's one possibility, and it offers a lot of different host country options, like 140 countries.
- [00:15:25.000]But sometimes students specifically want to go to the UK, right?
- [00:15:29.000]Um, and it's often better to apply for some of these UK Graduate Leadership Fellowships Um, so, you know, there are very… Strict selection criteria for some of these. So, for example, for the Marshall Scholarship, you absolutely must have a 3.7 GPA, and you must be a U.S. Citizen.
- [00:15:46.000]Right? So it's pretty strict. Um, but if you qualify for these.
- [00:15:50.000]You actually may have better odds of winning these than a Fulbright UK scholarship, possibly, right? Um, and so, I think it's worth noting that some of these are very, very good investments if a student is willing to spend the time on the strategy development.
- [00:16:03.000]That is necessary to win one of these awards. There are also awards here where an international student, um, can apply for them. So while Marshall is restricted to U.S. Citizens.
- [00:16:13.000]Uh, the Rhodes Scholarship. Um, is one where, uh, a student from any country can apply. Same for the Gates Cambridge Scholarship.
- [00:16:22.000]Right? Um, and so if you are interested in some of these university-specific awards, Rhodes is for Oxford.
- [00:16:28.000]Gates Cambridge is for Cambridge, right? Um, but that's something that would interest you. Again, let me know.
- [00:16:35.000]Um, so I certainly encourage students to browse these and to look very carefully at the eligibility criteria.
- [00:16:42.000]In many ways, these scholarships are very similar. They're looking for very high-achieving students, you know, if you're going to go to Oxford or Cambridge, you need to be able to get past the graduate admissions review for that, right? So it's going to be very high academic performance.
- [00:16:54.000]Maybe you've had some prior research experience, or if you're an artist, maybe you've done a lot of performances or exhibits or whatever, right? So you have some sort of documented history.
- [00:17:03.000]Of your talent or your particular expertise, right? Um, so you need to be… really, really well positioned for graduate study, but I think they're wonderful, right?
- [00:17:14.000]And the award benefits for these are extraordinary. Truly, fully funding the graduate school.
- [00:17:21.000]Providing leadership development programming for the cohort. Um, and again, having those really engaged alumni communities. These fellowships can open doors.
- [00:17:31.000]Similar scholarship, but for Canada. At McGill University, one of the finest English-speaking universities in Quebec, um, is the McCall McBain Scholarship. It's a newer program, but it's modeled on some of these other ones.
- [00:17:44.000]Um, again, one where I know a lot about this award, happy to chat about it.
- [00:17:48.000]Uh, and then finally, for Tsinghua University, the Schwarzman Scholars Program. So if you have an active interest in China, and you can see that being a part of your future career path, perhaps?
- [00:18:00.000]Um, I think the Schwarzman Scholars Program, again, is just absolutely wonderful, well-designed, master's-level award.
- [00:18:07.000]Um, and truly one where I would love to see more applicants from UNL, um, and I know a ton about this fellowship as well.
- [00:18:15.000]All right, so those are under the Graduate Fellowships menu. And then we're also going to head over to the research fellowships, because there are several.
- [00:18:23.000]Um, graduate research fellowship specifically. Many of these are centered in STEM.
- [00:18:28.000]Um, that you can get to know during this summer process.
- [00:18:32.000]Um, so for the UK, we've got the Churchill Scholarship, which is also, um, at Cambridge University.
- [00:18:38.000]Um, that is specifically for a STEM master's. Uh, we've got, as well, the Hertz Fellowship. This one is, um, for, uh, graduate study in the U.S. Related to STEM.
- [00:18:51.000]Um, and it provides up to 5 years of support. Incredibly generous award.
- [00:18:56.000]Very, very competitive, but wonderful. National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.
- [00:19:03.000]Um, which is really for students who are interested in Department of Defense research priorities.
- [00:19:11.000]Um, but a diverse array of STEM fields. Uh, and then finally, the most popular in this grouping.
- [00:19:18.000]By far, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Um, so this one provides up to 3 years of support, um, to seniors or graduate students who are planning to pursue research-based.
- [00:19:31.000]Master's or doctoral degrees in STEM, STEM education or social sciences fields. And, uh, every year we have winners for this fellowship from UNL.
- [00:19:41.000]Um, we have also, uh, students who are enrolled at UNL using, um, an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
- [00:19:49.000]Um, and so I think it's a wonderful scholarship. I, again, know a ton about this award.
- [00:19:55.000]Always happy to work with students on their applications. So I do support undergraduates.
- [00:20:01.000]As well as recent alums who are not enrolled in graduate school on this award.
- [00:20:06.000]If you are a current graduate student. Again, you would go work with the Office of Graduate Studies on your application, and we offer jointly, workshops on the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
- [00:20:18.000]In the early fall. So, you may already be familiar with that if you've attended one of those, but if not, please come out.
- [00:20:24.000]We will be having those events, um, as well as this summer advising process, so there will be events specific to GRFP.
- [00:20:32.000]Okay, I'm gonna pause and check the chat, see if there's any questions.
- [00:20:38.000]All right. If not… I am going to stop sharing for just a second.
- [00:20:46.000]I'm gonna pop over to my Canvas course. And reshare.
- [00:20:54.000]All right, so, some of you may have already received an invitation to this course. If I had you on my interest list.
- [00:21:03.000]Hopefully you got one. Um, and if you haven't reached out to me previously and told me you were interested in doing advising this summer.
- [00:21:10.000]For a graduate fellowship, or for Fulbright, let me know.
- [00:21:16.000]Um, you can email me. Or you can send me a quick private message right here in the Zoom chat, and I can add you to this space. It's that easy, okay?
- [00:21:27.000]Um, I will do that right after the meeting for anybody who private messages me.
- [00:21:31.000]All right. All I need is either your NUID or your Huskers email address. Either one will work.
- [00:21:38.000]Um, and so this is where I interact with fellowships applicants over the summer. I recognize that many of you are maybe out of town during the summer, um, you know, we have a lot of students who are doing internships, studying abroad, all of that fun stuff, and I think this is the easiest way for us to stay in touch.
- [00:21:55.000]Um, as well as for me to share resources with you. So, it's not a graded course, it shouldn't stress you out in that way, right?
- [00:22:03.000]Um, but I want you to know that there's really some incredible things here. We've got learning objectives, you can find out what the benefits are of participating in the course.
- [00:22:11.000]But most of what we're doing is really in the modules.
- [00:22:15.000]Let me make sure you can see what I'm looking at. Yes, okay.
- [00:22:18.000]Um, and so I've got a little explainer on what I do, um, for advising services.
- [00:22:25.000]Um, you know, some statements of values, like our commitment to student success.
- [00:22:31.000]Um, I want to draw your attention to the Code of Ethics here.
- [00:22:35.000]Um, because I think it's helpful for you to know what it is you're expecting.
- [00:22:40.000]To do if you participate in advising for fellowships. And this actually comes from my professional organization, the National Association of Fellowships Advisors, right? And so these are sort of national best practices that… are being implemented here. Um… You know, and so it talks quite a bit about what I will do for you, and also what I will not do for you.
- [00:23:02.000]Right? Um, you know, I will not write your application for you. I think that should go without saying, but I think it's also… useful for me to write stuff out and for you to just be really aware of it, right? Um…
- [00:23:15.000]And also, you know, there's lots of people who ask, well, who gets nominated? How fair is that process? Those kind of things.
- [00:23:21.000]It's all really addressed here, right? We are living by principle.
- [00:23:25.000]In this office. Um, and I think it's useful for you to know what my values and principles are as an advisor.
- [00:23:31.000]All right. Um, another thing to know, I'm a mandatory reporter, like most of the other people that you interact with who are instructors or advisors.
- [00:23:40.000]Um, you know, if you decide to disclose to me that you were a victim of a crime or something like that.
- [00:23:47.000]You need to know that it might trigger a reporting obligation on my part, and this explains what that would look like.
- [00:23:55.000]So that would include, if you say something in your fellowship's essays about something that happens to you a long time ago, just be aware, I'm probably gonna follow up.
- [00:24:03.000]I'm going to ask you if you're okay, and if you're aware of resources that you can use, right? Even if it seems like the thing happened off campus in a long time ago.
- [00:24:10.000]Right? And it could trigger a reporting obligation on my part, so just be aware of that.
- [00:24:15.000]All right, um, resources for your fellowship success. I think it's important for you to know that I'm not the only resource, right? I mentioned Office of Graduate Studies, they're here on this list.
- [00:24:25.000]Right? So if you forget, you can find them here. Um, but there's also some other allies on campus that you should absolutely enlist when you are writing a fellowship application of any kind.
- [00:24:36.000]Um, and so one would be the Writing Center. Um, our wonderful, wonderful colleagues over at the Writing Center are, um, absolute experts on the craft and art.
- [00:24:49.000]Of writing, right? And so they can talk to you about the flow of your ideas in your essay.
- [00:24:54.000]Genre conventions for the different types of fellowships essays, like a personal statement.
- [00:25:00.000]Or a proposal essay, right? They can talk to you about rhetoric and tone, and voice, and style.
- [00:25:08.000]Right? And help you create an absolutely compelling persuasive application essay. So, will I do some of that conversation with you? Sure.
- [00:25:18.000]Right? In fact, a long time ago, I was a writing specialist. That was actually how I began my career.
- [00:25:23.000]In students' success, right? But at the end of the day, I am the fellowship advisor, and the big thing that I'm going to be talking to you about is strategy.
- [00:25:31.000]Maybe talking to you about ideas and concepts that relate specifically to the fellowship.
- [00:25:37.000]Right? And so, I'm not going to be able to be… in your rearview mirror on every little period, or comma, right? Like, I can't… I can't engage at that level.
- [00:25:49.000]Um, and support this many students, but it's also something where someone else on campus can do that, right?
- [00:25:55.000]And is an expert on it, and you should really be working with them for that kind of stuff.
- [00:26:00.000]Um, and so it's important to know that I do expect you to work with a writing specialist, um.
- [00:26:05.000]You know, especially if you want feedback specifically on essays and other writing materials, right?
- [00:26:12.000]It's also, I think, really useful to be in conversation with a career services coach.
- [00:26:18.000]And so every college and our Explore Center, um, have career coaches, um, who are really great experts on professional development.
- [00:26:28.000]Right? And every fellowship is going to ask you what your career goal is. So if I just tell you that up front.
- [00:26:34.000]If you don't have a career goal in mind, if you don't have a vision for your career that's very concrete.
- [00:26:38.000]Talk to Career Services, Appointments are available. And our colleagues in the career coach space are brilliant, okay? These are people I talk to every single day.
- [00:26:49.000]Right? Um, and I know what incredible skill and talent they bring to this work, and so I want you to interact with them.
- [00:26:56.000]Right? Not just me. Right? I am not a career coach, right? Do I know a lot about career? Sure. Yes.
- [00:27:03.000]But the people in each college know about the majors that you're involved in.
- [00:27:08.000]And how your strengths that you're developing in that work. Line up with graduate school admissions.
- [00:27:14.000]Line up with things that you're going to be doing after you graduate in a way that I just don't know, right? Nobody could be in… expert on the outcomes for every single major. We have, what, 80… something undergraduate majors.
- [00:27:29.000]Right? Let alone all the graduate majors that we have here at UNL, right? And so I will do my best, always, to give you good career advice, but at the end of the day.
- [00:27:37.000]Someone else is actually responsible for developing your career vision with you.
- [00:27:41.000]And they are much more trained and much more expert than I am on this, and so I do expect you to use them.
- [00:27:49.000]As part of this process, right? Um, and to enlist them in supporting us both.
- [00:27:54.000]Okay, we talked about graduate studies, what they can do for graduate students.
- [00:27:58.000]One thing I wanted to note is they have some really cool individual development plans, and if you're applying for programs like the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, you're actually required to have one of these things.
- [00:28:07.000]So you might as well just talk to them now about it and get the ball moving forward, right? Because I hope you win an NSF fellowship, and I hope you need one of these individual development plans.
- [00:28:17.000]Um, so I… I really recommend their services, again. And then finally, I think students sometimes they think of all these other services as being critical, and then they don't realize that maybe CAPS is as well.
- [00:28:30.000]Um. So, applying for a fellowship, this is like competitive sports, right?
- [00:28:37.000]Students experience performance anxiety, and… Other types of stress in planning their future and in thinking about how they can kind of position themselves for a fellowship that you might have a 20% chance of winning, or in case of some fellowships, it might be 5%, it might even be as low as 1% chance of winning.
- [00:28:57.000]Right? And so Students actually undergo a huge emotional process, right? For a lot of students, we're talking about the transition from undergrad to grad, which is huge.
- [00:29:07.000]Right? Often bigger leap than students really think. Um, and so I just want to say up front.
- [00:29:13.000]Mental health is something you should care for always, and it's especially something that you could just build into your fellowship application strategy, right?
- [00:29:23.000]Um, again, I'm happy to talk to students about these things in the general sense, but I'm not a counselor.
- [00:29:29.000]Right? Um, and sometimes students have levels of anxiety. Or levels of uncertainty about the future, or really deep philosophical stuff that's happening.
- [00:29:41.000]And I want to let you know that that kind of support really exists, and again, they're experts.
- [00:29:46.000]Who are ready to help talk about it with you. So again, it's free. Why wouldn't you use it, right?
- [00:29:51.000]Um, and it's never the wrong time, right? If that doesn't sound right to you today, maybe a few weeks from now or a few months from now it does, right? And so I want to reinforce that CAPS is there for you, and they will absolutely understand
- [00:30:05.000]The kind of transitions that students are going through, and the ways in which we can come at this from a really healthy mindset.
- [00:30:12.000]Okay? Alright. Now I'm going to head over to talking about our little workshop series, kind of why are we doing this?
- [00:30:21.000]Um, I think one reason is because it's really good for students to hear each other's questions, so I love to create kind of a group cohort where you can talk to each other.
- [00:30:28.000]And I think these events are one way to do that.
- [00:30:31.000]Um, I think another one is it's great to know that I'm here coaching you every week, and so this event series really reinforces that.
- [00:30:39.000]Um, and so we get to do deep dives together into a lot of the topics that are relevant for particular moments in the fellowship's application cycle. So I've thought very hard about kind of like, what is the order of workshops that I should offer over the summer? When do students need key information?
- [00:30:58.000]Right, and so I think one of the first ones that I always need to talk about is, like.
- [00:31:03.000]Why go to graduate school? You know, because most students through this process are applying for graduate fellowships.
- [00:31:09.000]Um, you know, how would we choose a graduate program? You know, what does the admissions process look like?
- [00:31:16.000]Um, funding your education in other ways, too, right? So we'll… you know, kind of briefly touch on what are the backups if I don't win the fellowship, how do I get an assistantship, for example?
- [00:31:26.000]Right? Um, if you are applying for Fulbright, in two weeks we are doing selecting a host country and grant type, and while I have a recording of last year's workshop in Canvas that you can take a look at now.
- [00:31:36.000]So, if you have burning questions, you know. Access to recording, by all means.
- [00:31:40.000]Um, we will be doing it live in a couple of weeks.
- [00:31:43.000]Um, and I think it's useful because every year, the particular countries and grant types that are available tend to change a little bit.
- [00:31:51.000]And Fulbright has massively changed its online application this year. They dropped an entire essay, the personal statement, and they actually replaced it with new short answers.
- [00:31:59.000]Um, and so those can be things that we talk about, um, as well. Um, but I think for a lot of students, it's really hard. Maybe you're interested in a particular world region.
- [00:32:08.000]Not necessarily sure of the specific host country. So we can do a really deep dive into well, how would I figure that out, right?
- [00:32:15.000]And stuff like that. Um, we'll talk about letters of reference and letters of support later in June, and wrap things up with, uh, essay types. So, statements of purpose and project proposals And totally demystify, kind of, what's going on there genre-wise.
- [00:32:29.000]Um, I will take July 4th off, and I hope you do too as well, to celebrate independence.
- [00:32:35.000]And then we will be, in July, having another 5 workshops as well. Um, and so we'll talk more about essays, um, as we go into that. We'll talk about career planning, and again.
- [00:32:46.000]Not a career coach, but I'll give you my advice on you know, sort of careers and leadership all at once, and at least it'll sort of break the ice on that.
- [00:32:55.000]Um, and you can follow up individually with career coaches for more personalized work there.
- [00:33:01.000]Um, we'll talk about resumes and CVs, and the little lists of achievements and honors that you have to enter into these online application systems.
- [00:33:10.000]And finally, we'll wrap things up with talking about revision. And final submission.
- [00:33:16.000]So that's kind of what the summer looks like as far as the group-based advising services.
- [00:33:20.000]Um, then we will also be offering appointments, right? And I really expect you to have basically one appointment a month with me while you're preparing a fellowship application. I think that's a good goal.
- [00:33:31.000]For us to check in, individually one-on-one. With each other, and just see, how's it going? What questions do you have?
- [00:33:38.000]What drafts do you have going that you want me to take a look at?
- [00:33:41.000]Right? Um, and really be able to interact and give you personalized coaching.
- [00:33:46.000]And then, finally, uh, we do have the advising timeline here that has a lot more, sort of, detail about what benchmarks or targets I expect you to hit every month with your application.
- [00:33:58.000]Um, and so, I'm glad you're here, you've signed up for the Fellowship Fridays events, that's… that's a good starting point.
- [00:34:05.000]Right? Hopefully you're signed up for a fellowships advising appointment with me, or you will be soon.
- [00:34:10.000]Um, and then I think right now it's a great thing to be confirming your eligibility for our supported fellowships.
- [00:34:16.000]Um, and really thinking just very holistically about, is this the right award for me?
- [00:34:21.000]So I would say now is a good time to be thinking about choosing just one or two supported fellowships. There's 17, That's too many. I guarantee you, you can't even do 5 at once. Don't do it.
- [00:34:32.000]You won't sleep, right? Um, these fellowship applications are complex, right?
- [00:34:37.000]So I think you should think about it more like, what's the return on investment?
- [00:34:41.000]Right? Like, if I'm eligible for things, what am I also competitive 4. Right? Um, and so if I go over to the eligibility list here, this is all the awards that are available in summer.
- [00:34:52.000]There's a separate list for fall, if you're interested, it is in Canvas, you can check it out.
- [00:34:57.000]Um, but that's mostly undergraduate fellowships, right? And at this stage, we're talking about graduate fellowships and postgraduates, so, like, Fulbright, right?
- [00:35:04.000]Um, so you can kind of go through the list, and you can see, well, kind of what's the target GPA, Right? Um, do they allow graduate students if you're a graduate student?
- [00:35:13.000]Right? Do I need U.S. Citizenship? Um, is there an age limit as a few fellowships still have that in place?
- [00:35:21.000]Um, you know, all of that kind of stuff is here. If you notice an error, by the way, any discrepancy in this list.
- [00:35:28.000]Versus the actual fellowships website, let me know. Because sometimes they randomly change stuff on me, and I don't notice it, and so tell me, please, if you find errors.
- [00:35:37.000]Um, a lot of the GPAs, if it says preferred, that's based on my knowledge of the fellowship. If it just says a flat-out 3.7, it's because they have a stated minimum.
- [00:35:46.000]Right? Um… So do be aware of that as well.
- [00:35:51.000]Um, service requirements. A few fellowships, um, will say, oh, you have to work for, say, the federal government for a few years. If that's the case, it'll be listed in this last column as well.
- [00:36:02.000]Um… Let's see… go back to my little chart.
- [00:36:09.000]Another thing you can be doing right now is looking at our scholar profiles and our winter stories. So this is just a selection, this isn't even nearly all the winners that we have, right? But I tried to find basically one for every different type of fellowship, so you could get a sense of the different flavors
- [00:36:25.000]Plus, I just like to see all these smiling faces looking at me when I access this page.
- [00:36:30.000]Um, and then there's a guide to, sort of, understanding the selection criteria. So again, this is kind of broad.
- [00:36:37.000]Right, but we need to remember that fellowship agencies allow lots of room for interpretation.
- [00:36:42.000]Um, of their criteria, right? And so when they're saying academic excellence, that could be grades.
- [00:36:48.000]Um, but a lot of the time, it's other types of achievements, right? If they're talking about leadership, they're probably talking about team leadership, but everyone's leadership style looks different.
- [00:36:58.000]Maybe for some people, it's founding a new club. Maybe for some, it's serving as a representative for a community, maybe for some, it's a new service or charitable initiative, right? It's gonna look different from person to person.
- [00:37:09.000]But they like to see that you take initiative. And that you can bring other people into your goals, right? And motivate them to work on a common goal.
- [00:37:19.000]Um, they love to see public service experience for a lot of the fellowships. It's not a requirement for all of them.
- [00:37:24.000]Right? Um, but if that's there, this is kind of how that usually gets interpreted.
- [00:37:29.000]Um, I want to call the Fulbright English Teachings Assistant Program specifically for looking for things like mentoring, tutoring.
- [00:37:37.000]Um, resident advisor, stuff like that, where you've engaged with students in a leadership role.
- [00:37:43.000]Um, cross-cultural competence, it might be a part of it, like for Fulbright, this actually makes sense, right? If you're going to study abroad, then you should probably be the kind of person who's friendly and engaging and warm.
- [00:37:55.000]Um, and wants to get to know the people of a host country, right? Um, so think about that and kind of flexibly interpret it according to your fellowship.
- [00:38:03.000]Um, but I think it's typically relevant for the international awards.
- [00:38:06.000]High career ambition, we talked a little bit about that, but I want to emphasize that concrete plan, right? They are looking for students who can sort of persuade them?
- [00:38:15.000]Of the potential that if they invest in you, this fellowship agency gives you money.
- [00:38:20.000]And resources, you know, and visibility, that there's going to be some sort of outcome.
- [00:38:26.000]From it, right? Um, and so that could be in academia, it could be in industry, and we have a lot of resources for kind of exploring the different settings in which you might work, and stuff like that.
- [00:38:37.000]Um, but the more concrete the plan, the better, right? Then you are able to enlist their support.
- [00:38:43.000]And then desire for positive impact. I think this one… It's a pretty central to a lot of fellowships, but again, very differently interpreted, right? So I think about, like, the Hertz Fellowship, right? And… Um, so the Hertz Fellowship was basically created, um, to bring together scientists
- [00:39:00.000]Um, and they have a commitment to the betterment of the United States.
- [00:39:05.000]And in the event that the U.S. Was facing a terrible catastrophe or challenge.
- [00:39:11.000]Or you had the skills to apply it, that's when they require your service.
- [00:39:15.000]Right? And it's like a values-based commitment. It's not like you have to do a certain number of years of work for the government or anything like that, right? It's more like… If I knew how to solve a problem facing the United States that was critical.
- [00:39:27.000]I would do it, right? So a very values-based desire for positive impact. So, I love that one because it's kind of unique amongst the fellowships.
- [00:39:36.000]Um, in its flexibility, right? Um, but it really shows how this desire for positive impact is there in so many different ways across the awards.
- [00:39:47.000]All right. Another thing that I always want to tell students up front, metrics.
- [00:39:51.000]Are important, right? We're going to be writing essays, and we're going to tell qualitatively how, you know, you are an excellent candidate for these awards, right? We're going to tell good stories.
- [00:40:04.000]We're gonna make them rich. Right? We're gonna maybe even use dialogue and images and stuff like that to draw people into your story, and I think students actually expect that.
- [00:40:14.000]When they come to me, but maybe sometimes they don't realize that I'm gonna ask them for numbers, too.
- [00:40:19.000]Right? Um, you know, if you have been founding a club, right?
- [00:40:25.000]I want to know what that looked like concretely. How many members, right? If you have been mentoring people, what was the impact? How can we quantify it?
- [00:40:35.000]Right? Um, if you have been raising money for an organization, let's talk about it in terms of dollars.
- [00:40:42.000]Right. If you are doing research. What are your… what do your activities where you are sharing your work look like? Can we make a list?
- [00:40:52.000]Right? That's countable. Right, um, so… so I want us to think in terms of this way as well. We want qualitative evidence that you are an awesome fellowships candidate, and we want quantitative evidence. Those two things together make a very, very solid
- [00:41:07.000]Argument for you, right? Um, and then the other thing is I really want to encourage students to use the word Um, I have a lot of students who… my primary piece of feedback for them is.
- [00:41:19.000]You used WE a lot. Right? To describe your work with organizations.
- [00:41:25.000]And teams. Um… We use greats.
- [00:41:30.000]But the fellowship is to you, the person, not to your team or your organization.
- [00:41:35.000]Right? Um, so it's not a grant in the sense of, like, a research grant or something where you're writing on behalf of UNL, right, or an entire research lab or something.
- [00:41:45.000]Right? It is to you, the person. And so, we need to toot your horn.
- [00:41:50.000]Right? We need to put you up front. And that means you need to tell your story using I.
- [00:41:57.000]Um, so if that's you, if you're super humble. Uh, this is gonna be challenging for you, but it's going to be a productive challenge that you will need to write cover letters and all kinds of other applications for the rest of your life, so…
- [00:42:08.000]We might as well get over that hurdle together. All right, so those are kind of the things that I want to do in May. Um, the last thing that I would tell you is if you're already 100% sure of which fellowship you want to apply for.
- [00:42:22.000]Come over to our consent form, fill it out, it's super easy.
- [00:42:26.000]It's just me asking for a few permissions. Making sure you know the expectations for advising, and then you get to check off which awards you want to apply for.
- [00:42:34.000]Um, this is required to use my appointment services and to receive any written feedback on your materials.
- [00:42:40.000]Um, so you do want to get this done relatively early in the process, but sometimes students need a few weeks to think.
- [00:42:46.000]You want to kind of marinate in the advice I've given.
- [00:42:48.000]Maybe you want to, um, look a little bit more closely at the different fellowships that are on offer. Maybe you want to talk to me first, and that's totally okay.
- [00:42:56.000]Um, but I want to get this consent form in place before we do any actual essay review or our second advising appointment, or whatever. So, if you haven't done it by the second advising appointment, I am going to sit you down and make you do it in front of me.
- [00:43:07.000]So, if you'd rather just do it ahead of time, it is right here in Canvas, and you can go ahead and do that right now.
- [00:43:14.000]All right, I'm gonna stop sharing. I still don't see any questions in the chat, so now I'm going to invite you, if you want to talk, you can just unmute.
- [00:43:25.000]And I will take your questions.
- [00:43:43.000]Yes, uh, hello. I'm an undergraduate student here at UNL, It's just, uh, attending this just because I'm interested in where this will all go. What do you think is the best time to start, like, thinking about these graduate fellowships, and to start looking into starting this process?
- [00:44:00.000]Yeah, it's a great question. Um, so, you know, I think students can start anytime looking into graduate school, right? I think that Setting goals for the future is great.
- [00:44:10.000]For this summer's advising process, I think the resources that I have in Canvas are really important for seniors, right, or for students who are going to be, you know, already graduated on the application deadline this fall.
- [00:44:24.000]Right? Most of the deadlines are in September and October. Um, but students were maybe a little bit earlier in their trajectories, like sophomore or junior year or something like that.
- [00:44:33.000]Um, I think it's great to have an advising appointment. Right? Um, and kind of learn more about the stuff that's available to you.
- [00:44:40.000]Um, I won't be talking a lot about undergraduate fellowships today, um, but we do have them listed on our website.
- [00:44:48.000]So I'll go ahead and link that in the chat. There you go. Um… And so, every single one of those categories also has undergraduate fellowships, too, right? And so, I generally start, um… like, in-depth advising on the undergraduate fellowships in the fall, in late October, right after fall break.
- [00:45:09.000]Um, and so, um, I think that's also a really good time to come see me, like, for follow-up. Like, if you identify a specific award you want to… pursue, like, say, the Goldwater Scholarship or the Truman Scholarship, or whatever.
- [00:45:22.000]Um, those are going to be things where I'm working in depth with students after fall break.
- [00:45:28.000]That was a good question.
- [00:45:42.000]But yeah, if you're a graduating senior this year. In the fall? Definitely want to work on these.
- [00:45:48.000]Fellowships now.
- [00:46:03.000]Remember, y'all can… Ash to be in the canvas. Let me go ahead and start adding folks.
- [00:46:11.000]You're reaching out, thank you for doing that.
- [00:46:22.000]Welcome to the Canvas course. You should get your invite in a minute.
- [00:47:04.000]Incoming applications would you recommend one would apply for? Just, like, one or two, or just…
- [00:47:11.000]1 to 2. Everybody that I've had over the years, and I've been doing this 11 years.
- [00:47:13.000]Me too.
- [00:47:18.000]Who applied for 3 or more. Didn't win. Sometimes we place the semifinalist or honorable mention in those cases.
- [00:47:28.000]But I haven't seen anybody win. Um, and I think it's just because… it's a lot of competing… application requirements, right? You're writing a lot of different versions of the same story, but the application requirements can really differ across the awards.
- [00:47:44.000]Um, so I never want to discourage a student from applying for a fellowship, but I do ask them to think really about the time that's involved.
- [00:47:50.000]Um, I think… Each fellowship application probably feels something like a 3-credit course over the summer.
- [00:47:58.000]Honestly. Um, there may be a few where it's a little bit easier, and it feels like a little bit less units or something, but… a lot of students are investing 80 hours in one of these applications? It's a lot.
- [00:48:14.000]And so, unless you have nothing else happening in your life this summer.
- [00:48:19.000]I really think you're not gonna sleep if you take on more than two at a time.
- [00:48:24.000]Yeah. But I'm always happy to talk to students about making multiple applications work, or, like, kind of what's the strategy behind multiple applications.
- [00:48:33.000]Um, in Canvas, let me see, do I have it here?
- [00:48:44.000]I have a list of what I call synergistic combinations.
- [00:48:50.000]Let me pull it up here.
- [00:48:56.000]Um, so it's down here under Fellowship Exploration. So we've got, like, the competitiveness statistics here, you know, some of these are pretty old, they maybe don't release data every year, but when I get new data, I try to add it.
- [00:49:13.000]Um… And then… the synergistic combinations is kind of the last one. So, say you want to apply for two awards, right?
- [00:49:23.000]Um, there's some really good possibilities here, right? So I think about, like, the NSF Graduate research fellowship.
- [00:49:32.000]That one allows a lot of majors. It's very broad, it's very large fellowship competition, but maybe sometimes students want to apply for a second award there.
- [00:49:42.000]Um, for Fulbright, you know, if a student's applying to Germany, then I'm like, let's apply to Germany, right? And let's apply to the DAAD.
- [00:49:51.000]Um, if a student… they want to do social sciences research, maybe we want to apply for the Carnegie Junior Fellows Internship, which actually isn't due till the following January, so it's not even in the summer process.
- [00:50:02.000]Right? So sometimes there's… might be reasons why you want to apply for one now, and one later, right? Um, so I'm always happy to chat those through.
- [00:50:11.000]But I think one of the most common ones during the summer is actually, um, like, applying for one of the UK fellowships.
- [00:50:18.000]Um, maybe applying for two different UK fellowships. Right? Um… like, you know, you could do Marshall, and then you could do another one, because Marshall allows any UK university, right?
- [00:50:32.000]Um, or possibly you want to apply for a UK award, and then you want to apply for Fulbright Study Grant.
- [00:50:39.000]To the UK to that same university, and a lot of… universities have a partnership award with the Fulbright program, so there can be some really good reasons to combine those international awards, and I That's probably the most common combo that I see.
- [00:50:54.000]But I'm always happy to chat about it. Every student is eligible for slightly different awards based on you know, things like citizenship and um, major and… career role and stuff like that, so if you ever want to just chat about it and be like.
- [00:51:09.000]Well, I've kind of narrowed it to 3 or 4, and can you help me narrow it further? You know, I think that's a really good reason to have a first advising appointment.
- [00:51:19.000]Good questions, keep them coming.
- [00:51:32.000]I guess I kind of mentioned time management there, too, and… So I do have a time management resource.
- [00:51:40.000]In Canvas. That one's way up here under orientation, because I think this is a fundamental skill everybody needs.
- [00:51:47.000]Right? Um, and we actually have a pretty cool project management workshop that we recorded Um, that I think is useful, um, if that's something where you just really want to learn all of the strategies and skills in depth.
- [00:51:59.000]Um, but there's some basic tips here. Um, and I think, you know, different students have different issues with managing time as well, um, so I'm always happy to chat about this stuff.
- [00:52:10.000]Um, it's certainly an ongoing learning thing for me. I'm… was not originally the best time manager, but I feel like I get a little better at it every year.
- [00:52:18.000]And, uh, so it's a lifelong journey. That I share with students.
- [00:52:39.000]So I will be here for you throughout the summer. Most students start a first draft in June, nail down which fellowship they're gonna apply for, and start brainstorming.
- [00:52:48.000]So I think that's a good goal for June. Um, I would love to see you for an advising appointment, so if you're… if you're even just thinking about doing this, maybe even not sure.
- [00:52:59.000]Definitely check out the Canvas resources, and then come see me. Tell me your thoughts.
- [00:53:03.000]Um, I really do spend time with every student one-on-one during the summer, and I love that part of my work, and so I'm really looking forward to getting to know you.
- [00:53:15.000]I think I got everybody for the canvas, let me just double check here.
- [00:53:22.000]Yeah. Okay. Well, it was great spending time with you today on a Friday.
- [00:53:28.000]I would like to give you 10 minutes back, unless you have other questions for me.
- [00:53:34.000]And I hope to see you next week at our, uh, at our next Fellowships Fridays event.
- [00:53:39.000]We'll be talking all about graduate school. Have a great weekend!
- [00:53:44.000]Yeah, too. Thanks for all the information.
- [00:53:46.000]Absolutely
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