Summer Fellowship Boot Camp

Dear colleagues, we are delighted to let you know that as part of our DIA initiative, the Graduate School will host an expanded Summer Fellowship Boot Camp for incoming and rising second year PhD students. If appropriate, please share the information below with eligible candidates.

The boot camp is a 10-day intensive writing workshop in which participants will complete an application for one of the following opportunities:
•         National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship Program
•         Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
•         Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans

Participants will receive a $1,000 stipend for housing and other expenses while attending the boot camp. In addition, participants who submit a complete application to one of the identified fellowships in fall 2016 may be eligible for a travel or research award of up to $1,000.

Participants are expected to attend all of the scheduled activities and to work on drafts of their proposals while not in sessions. Participants will meet as a large group on Wednesday August 3 for a full day of activities. Subsequent sessions will be organized around specific fellowship applications. Students from STEM fields interested in applying for the NSF GRFP will meet in the mornings. Students interested in the Ford, Soros or NSF GRFP in social science fields will meet in the afternoons. On most session days, there will be an optional lunch for all students from 12:00 - 1:00 pm.

Eligibility: Boot camp applicants must meet the requirements of the identified fellowships. Applicants must be a US citizen, US national, or permanent resident and either a newly admitted PhD student or a rising second year PhD student in fall 2016.

Information about specific eligibility requirements for the various fellowships is available on these websites:
NSF GRFP: https://www.nsfgrfp.org/
Ford Pre-Doctoral: http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/FordFellowships/index.htm
Soros: http://www.pdsoros.org/competition/

To apply, please complete the form located here: https://goo.gl/3mTsfA. More information is available from the USC Graduate School at gradfllw@usc.edu. Applications are due on June 3, 2016. Applications will be reviewed by an interdisciplinary faculty committee and acceptance decisions will be sent out before the end of the month.

All the best, Meredith


Meredith Drake Reitan, MPL, PhD
Associate Dean for Graduate Fellowships
Graduate School
Office of the Provost
Adjunct Associate Professor
Sol Price School of Public Policy
University of Southern California
mereditd@usc.edu