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Monday night, ILCB.
Instead of our monthly presentation on whatever’s pertinent to the University Honors program, such as politics in the United States and student responsibility or discussions about the resources on campus, tonight’s presentation started with a brand-new speaker. Clad in emerald green, a woman appeared in the front of the room. Smiling, she simply asked us a singular question.
“Have you heard of the National Fellowships Program?”
The whole room stilled – not a single person could muster an answer to her question. Although we’d been spoken to about conducting research throughout our college careers, it was the first time we’d been introduced to the concept of a National Fellowship. And a real shame that was.
What are you talking about?
I’m going to assume that you, dear reader, are also drawing a blank about what this could mean to me. A research program? A national research program with extended recognition? Although these were some of my guesses to counter the speaker’s question, the National Fellowship program is something completely different. Rather than being an overarching program that allows one to gain recognition in their field, the program instead splits into multiple branches, each one catering to different needs and interests. It’s a set of grants and scholarships for those nominated by the University that offers money granted towards research, study abroad, working with Tribal Institutions, national defense, and language acquisition, to name a few. Each of these grants is granted a name, with the ones piquing my interest being the Rhodes and Mitchell Fellowships, offering the winners a full scholarship for their Master’s at top universities in the UK, notably Cambridge and Oxford.
I was instantly stunned. This is an opportunity that any aspiring student can work towards? And achieve? Perfect for me, maybe?
Am I interested?
Perchance.
(I later found out the programs I wanted to go for exclusively accepted citizens; perhaps the worst outcome in my case.)
Is that so…
However, the woman presenting may have predicted my misgivings as she elaborated that there was a fellowship for anyone – one just had to seek it out. The LAUNCH department is open to students interested in getting involved in the program, so the good news is if you see yourself wanting to conduct research or study abroad and you think you’ve got the ‘it’ factor, you should apply! Look into it because you might need to get nominated by the university. Look, I wish I had all the information for you here neatly packaged, but I’m learning about this myself as I write. All these awards do have a fair bit of requirements, so I encourage you to read about whether fellowships truly could work for you. Who knows, if the cards do end up being in your favor, I should be the first one to know, as I’m the biggest sucker for success stories.
General Engineering, Class of 2027
If you found this blog post interesting, you may consider reading “The Co-op Connection” and “You Graduated Without a Job Offer.. Now What?.”