Neurosciences grad student learns the art of fellowship funding
Preparing for grad school these days means more than being ready for late nights in the lab. It can also mean looking for fellowship opportunities to jumpstart a young scholar’s career.
At USC, students are taught how to write fellowship applications that shine — and the efforts are paying off. This year, 37 Trojans — more than two-thirds of whom are USC Dornsife students or alumni — were awarded or received an honorable mention for the coveted National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. The award provides a $34,000-per-year stipend for three years and opens doors to international research opportunities. In 2010, USC had just eight recipients.
“It’s basically the Harry Potter scar on your forehead indicating you’re an amazing scholar,” said Meredith Drake Reitan, associate dean for graduate fellowships at the USC Graduate School. There are about 2,000 NSF Fellowships awarded each year, and competition is fierce — the success is rate is about 15 percent.
“The fellowship program is about research potential,” she said. “Faculty members might say, ‘They’re not ready to apply to for the NSF Fellowship because their research hasn’t quite jelled.’ But that’s actually right where the NSF wants them — it’s designed to be an early career accelerator.”
Besides encouraging faculty to talk to more students about fellowship opportunities, the Graduate School is actively preparing them for the application process. Last year, the school hosted its first boot camp for the process. Forty-five students heard from current or former fellows as well as those who had served on review committees. In addition to the NSF program, they learned about the Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship and the Soros Fellowship.
Success after the first attempt
USC Dornsife Ph.D. student Panthea Heydari is a current NSF Fellow. Unlike most applicants, she received the award on her first try. She had heard how competitive the program was and figured she didn’t have much chance, but could at least learn from the experience and prepare for a stronger application in the future.
But the review committee was impressed. Studying in USC’s Graduate Neuroscience Program, Heydari investigates stroke rehabilitation in patients selected from lower-income areas surrounding USC, Keck Hospital and Ranchos Los Amigos Hospital in Downey. The fact that her research could have a direct impact on these communities was a key part of her application.
What Heydari learned was how to convey her research quickly and with passion. A former NSF Fellowship reviewer spoke to participants about having just a few minutes to look over each application, then making a case for the most deserving applicants.
“There really needs to be a way to catch the reader’s attention and fight for your proposal,” Heydari said. “If it comes down to a tie, they fight for you. I kept coming back to that idea when I was writing.”
The benefits of boot camps
Heydari also stressed the writing benefits that came out of the boot camps. Since filing her own application, she’s helped set up workshops and seen the progression of students as they bounce ideas off one another and revise each other’s work.
“I personally think it should be required for all grad students to apply for external fellowships,” she said. “Even if you don’t get it, it’s such a great skill to take all these things you know and put them into an application.”
Drake Reitan said 75 participants are already scheduled to participate in the upcoming fellowship boot camp in August. She’s also in talks with the Health Sciences Campus to possibly create a boot camp for the National Institutes of Health NRSA F32 Fellowship.