Tag: Watson

Watson Webinar on Wed 9/12 at 3pm EST!

Lisa Gates / / Fellowships

The Watson foundation is holding a fall webinar for prospective applicants on Wednesday, September 12th, 3pm ET. This webinar would be great for students interested in learning more about the Watson and those applying for nomination this year. You can sign up for the webinar here:

From foster care to opera; from Cambrian Explosion to human augmentation; from threatened big cat species to spoken word, the Watson Fellowship provides graduating seniors with a remarkable year to explore their deepest interests on a global scale. Fellows create original projects, execute them outside of the United States and embrace the ensuing journey. At our half century mark, today Watson Fellows comprise leaders in nearly every field, inspired by a ‘dream year’ that continues to shape the arc of their lives and those of others.

The Watson fellowship is open to all citizenship types. Students can only apply for nomination their senior/super-senior fall–and this year’s internal nomination deadline for Fall 2018 applications is Tuesday, Sept. 11. For more information, see go.middlebury.edu/watson or contact Watson Advisor Lisa Gates at fellowships@middlebury.edu.

August Reminders for Watson and Fulbright Applicants

Lisa Gates / / Fellowships

For those thinking about applying for a Fulbright or Watson Fellowship this fall, read on for reminders and answers to common questions. Dean Gates will be out of the office Aug 5-21. During this time, you can reach Colleen Norden at fellowships@middlebury.edu. 

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Watson Applicant Notes
If you are not yet registered for the Watson online application, contact fellowships@middlebury.edu. Keep working on developing your project idea, making in-country contacts, and shaping your project plan. Dean Gates can provide feedback on essay drafts AFTER August 22. Please send drafts to fellowships@middlebury.edu.

Instructions for nomination materials and submission are online at go.middlebury.edu/watson. Deadline is Tuesday, Sept. 11 at noon. No applications will be accepted after this date.

Please review the following documents carefully:

Middlebury’s Watson Applicant Timeline and Checklist

Middlebury’s Watson Application Guidance

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Fulbright Applicant Notes

August 15 “Intend to Apply” Deadline
Send a copy of your Fulbright Embark application as a pdf along with a word doc with the Statement of Grant Purpose (SGP) and Personal Statement in an email to fellowships@middlebury.edu for Dean Gates to review. In the email, provide names of your intended recommenders, language evaluators (if relevant), and status of affiliation (if relevant). To generate the PDF of the Embark application, you can “print to PDF” or print and scan to make a copy of the application. Be sure to label each file with your last name.

We do not expect a polished application at this point. Recommendations, transcripts, affiliation letters, etc. are not needed at this time (but if you have an affiliation lined up, include a copy of that). Dean Gates will review your materials, send comments as needed, and you can continue working on your application. We will order transcripts (no charge) for those who have an active application in the Fulbright Embark online system only and send requested materials by August 15.

If you do not send in your materials by Aug 15, you can still apply! Be aware Dean Gates will be less able to provide substantive comments on your essays depending on when you send in your materials to review. You will also need to order your own transcript. If you discontinue your application after this point, that is also fine, just let us know as soon as you determine that. See go.middlebury.edu/fulbright for complete application instructions, guidance documents and the Middlebury Fulbright Applicant Checklist.

September 12 at noon (Wed) This is a hard deadline!
No applications will be accepted after this date.
Submit your complete and polished Fulbright application in the Embark online system. All components of your application should be done at this point. Essays must be polished with no grammatical or spelling errors. Revisions after this date only happen when the campus committee review process notes issues that require your attention. If you have late recommendations or problems with an affiliation letter, please still submit your application by the deadline and be in touch with fellowships about the issue. Note: by submitting the application, you are sending it to the Fellowships office at this point, not to Fulbright. After your committee evaluation is added, we submit to Fulbright in October.

Please review the following documents carefully:

Middlebury’s Fulbright Applicant Timeline and Checklist

Fulbright Application Guidance

Fulbright Essay Guidance

A few important notes:

Transcripts: Fulbright will accept unofficial transcripts as well as official ones at this stage.  If you upload an unofficial transcript, make sure that it is concisely organized, in chronological order, and contains the necessary elements on an official transcript (courses, grades by semester, overall GPA, major, etc.). If you are a transfer student or have grades from other schools you would like represented, you will need to obtain a transcript from those previous institutions and upload.

Affiliation letters (study/research grants): The affiliation letter is from the institution/individual in the host country with whom you are proposing to work. It should be written in or translated to English, printed on official letterhead and signed by the author. If an English translation is provided, both the original letter and the translation should be uploaded. Letters should include the author’s position title, indicate the author’s willingness to work with you on the intended project, should speak to the feasibility and validity and merits of what is being proposed. The letter should also indicate any additional resources or contacts that the adviser can provide to support the work. Letters will vary, but the strongest letters will address these points noted.

Recommendations and language evaluations: It’s courteous to give at least three weeks notice for these. You can certainly schedule the language evaluation to take place when you return to campus, but the evaluation needs to be submitted by the Sept. 12 noon deadline. If you have the same person complete both a recommendation and language evaluation, please use two separate email addresses to register them. You want to choose recommenders who know you and are best suited to comment on your proposed research or ETA grant application.

Fulbright has a great Application Tips section on the website and make sure to follow any special instructions on the specific country page.

For alumni applicants: if you are not currently enrolled as a graduate student at another institution, you can choose to apply through Middlebury College or At-Large. If you apply through Middlebury, you must adhere to our internal deadline and will have a campus interview (via Skype or phone). The campus evaluation will be added to your application. You will also be counted as a Middlebury grantee, which we like!

Fulbright webinars and tutorials: are ongoing this summer. Check out http://us.fulbrightonline.org/about/videos-tutorials and http://us.fulbrightonline.org/applicants/information-sessions  (click on webinars to see schedule).

Fulbright online application: Start your online application through this section http://us.fulbrightonline.org/applicants .

Talk by Watson Fellow and Fulbrighter Barbara Ofosu-Somuah ’13 on Tuesday, March 20

Lisa Gates / / Fellowships

Join Barbara Ofosu-Somuah ’13 for a talk about her Fulbright and Watson Fellowships on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at 4:30 pm in Axinn 229. 

Barbara studied psychology, sociology and Italian at Middlebury. During her Watson year, she explored the role of hair in Black, Latina and multiracial cultures in several countries. For her Fulbright grant, she examined diversity and inclusion efforts in Italian schools.

See go.middlebury.edu/watson for fellowship details and links to profiles of additional current and past recipients.

Eligibility: Fulbright requires US citizenship and is open to seniors and young alumni; Watson is open to all citizenship types, but you can only apply your senior/super-senior fall. 

If you’re considering applying to either of these in the fall, now is the time to think and to plan. Preliminary applications are due April 15 (but yes, you can still apply in the fall if you miss that date).

Watson Nomination Application Available

Lisa Gates / / Fellowships

The Watson application is now open and available. You need to be registered by the fellowships office in order to access the application. If we registered you, you will receive a link to the Watson application system to start your nomination application. You have also received an email confirmation from the fellowships office that you have been registered. If you can’t find the Watson link but you got the email from fellowships confirming registration, check your spam/junk folder. If you have difficulties with this or have not yet been registered but would like to apply for Watson nomination, contact fellowships@middlebury.edu.  We will need your first and last name (as you would like it to appear on the application) and your middlebury email to register you in the Watson system. And make sure you carefully read Summer Notes for Watson Applicants on this blog before starting the application!

Summer 2017 Watson Notes

Lisa Gates / / Fellowships, Uncategorized

If you’re interested in applying for Watson Fellowship nomination in September and we haven’t yet talked or emailed, June is a great time to connect!  I am in and out of the office during the summer, so my ability to respond to you may be faster or slower depending on when you contact me. See go/fellowships for how to best reach me during the summer.  Remember, you are only eligible for this fellowship as a senior/super-senior. All citizenship types are eligible and there is no GPA minimum. What matters is you, your passion and your project.

Middlebury can nominate four students for the Watson. To be considered for nomination, you must submit the following  by Tuesday, Sept. 12 at noon. No exceptions! Please read the instructions below carefully. (This is a new process, so there may be updates noted during the summer.)

  1.  To apply for nomination, email a pdf of the online Watson application (specifications noted below) to fellowships@middlebury.edu with the subject line “Watson nomination application” by Tuesday, September 12, 2017 at noon.  Please also complete the online Fellowships Permissions and Waiver form by this deadline. No late applications will be accepted.
  2. To access the Watson application for nomination consideration, please follow these instructions and complete to these specifications:
    1.  Contact fellowships@middlebury.edu with your full name and Middlebury email information and request access to the application. If you submitted a preliminary application on April 15, we will register you with the Watson application system. No further action is needed on your part. We expect the application to open in early June, so will register students after that happens. Update: the application is now open and students registered. If you have not been registered and want to be, please contact fellowships@middlebury.edu .
    2. Complete the application with the following exceptions:
      1.  do not add email addresses for your recommenders. We only want their names at this point. No recommendations are needed for nomination.
      2. compose an abbreviated personal statement and abbreviated project statement– no more than about 800 words for each section. If nominated, you will rewrite and expand these. You will not be enhancing your nomination chances if you exceed this limit.
      3. Include an unofficial academic transcript, printed from Banner Web (provide the chronological format, NOT the degree audit format. We do not need an official transcript for this. The advising transcript works well.)
  • We will invite a group of applicants to interview with Watson campus committee members later in September to choose our four nominees and one alternate.

Application Process and Timetable:
By June 30: Have read through carefully information on the Watson fellowship site—both at go/fellowships (click on Watson in list) and at http://watson.foundation/fellowships/tj .
By July 20 (recommended): Work on personal statement and project proposal drafts and send to me for feedback. Also share with other relevant people for feedback. Develop your list of in-country contacts relevant for your project and reach out to those contacts. We don’t expect everything to be solidified by Sept. 12 but being knowledgeable about contacts and having some contacts in place helps us understand the feasibility of your proposal. I will provide feedback on drafts after this date, however, I am out of the office during part of August and as we get closer to September, the application draft volume increases–hence the recommendation to get some feedback earlier!
Early September: Talk with those you would want to write letters of recommendation for you, just giving them a heads up. Note: letters are only needed IF you are nominated! But you do want to start the conversation with those you would ask.
By September 12 noon: Email your nomination materials to fellowships@middlebury.edu. See specifications above.  And yes, this is right after the start of classes. And yes, this is a hard deadline.
Late September: We will hold Watson interviews for a subset of applicants. Dates/times TBD.
Early November: Watson foundation application deadline–also a hard deadline.

Summer dates above are guidelines to help you organize the different parts of the application and get everything done so that you are ready to go by the September deadline. The campus nomination and foundation deadlines are hard deadlines. No exceptions.

A few important notes about the Watson:

  • Read through (and think through) the Watson website, especially the eligibility section.  There are lots of good questions for you to ask yourself and your project idea to see if this is a good fit.
  • Your application should really reflect YOU. This is not an academic fellowship. It’s about a deep, abiding personal interest you have and it’s also about you as a deeply curious, independent, courageous person. The Watson foundation is looking for fellows who are independent, imaginative, resourceful, responsible, bold, and self-motivated. Your project is just that—your project and should embody, reflect a passion you have. It does not have to be unique to you but definitely can be. It should grow organically from your life—things that you’ve done, explored, studied, wondered about, are inspired by—and should be personally significant to you. Watson priorities are person first, project second. It does not matter if this project is similar to something someone else did; what matters is that it’s the right project for you.
  • Selecting countries: you should be choosing places that are new to you (the stretch factor). You may have been inspired by a period of study abroad or travel in a certain place, but depending on the amount of time you spent there (more than 3 weeks typically), you should not include that country/area on your project list. (And often there are ways to adapt a particular interest to a different set of countries/areas). Also, some countries are of such a broad and diverse scale, you may be able to justify a visit to a different part of that country. China or Russia might fall into the latter category. The Netherlands would not.  For some of you, this is an area we may need to discuss further and think about how you might adapt your proposal. Any country on the US state department travel warning list or the US treasury department embargo list may not be included. We don’t expect you have figured out everything with respect to the feasibility of all components for the nomination process, but we do expect you’ve given serious consideration to different ideas and are prepared for some shifts in your plan. The list of countries ultimately may change between application for nomination, application for Watson, Watson interview  and departure, and actual fellowship year. Any country on the US state dept warning list may be listed provisionally in case it changes (and of course, countries may also shift in the other direction too).
  • Contacts abroad may take some time to identify and connect with, so definitely allow for that. What you want from them may differ according to your project, but they should provide a resource and a kind of grounding for you in the community/country/project focus. You may also be contributing to them as well—but make sure that your mission, your project is still your own.
  • Recommendations—if you are nominated, you will need 2-3. No recommendations needed for nomination. If two, both can be from Middlebury or one from Middlebury and one external. If three, one must be from Middlebury, one external.
  • Language ability: you will definitely propose going places where you do not speak the language—and you should. But do think about how you will conduct the work of the project in these spaces. Guides/interpreters may be essential in some cases.
  • In thinking about your personal statement and project proposal, you want to describe the following: Your plan for the 12-month fellowship year, including a description of your project and details about how you intend to carry it out. (In addition to focusing on a topic you are passionate about, the project should be personally challenging (yet feasible), independent, and sustainable over 12 months.) Discuss why you chose your topic, how it developed out of previous interests or experiences, and how it represents a new challenge. You may also want to describe your background, your college years, your professional goals and aspirations, and your reasons for seeking a Watson Fellowship.