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CRC - Wesleyan-Dana Summer Experience Grant - Overview
Wesleyan
University Summer Experience Grant:
How to Develop A Great Application
Resume |
Budget | Application Statements
Each year, there are many applicants for the Wesleyan Summer Experience Grant and usually about a third receive funding. It is, then, very important to develop the best application you can. The following are tips to help you in your quest for a Wesleyan Summer Experience Grant.
Resume
It is important to develop a resume that has no spelling or grammatical errors. Your resume does need to be approved by the CRC before you can apply for the
Summer Experience Grant, but you should still double check it before adding it to your application. If you have previous experiences that relate to the internship or experience for which you are applying, be sure to include them on your resume and even group them in a category, i.e. Music Experience or Finance Experience. If you do not have previous experiences that relate to your proposed internship, do not worry; having previous related experiences is not included in the criteria for receiving a
Summer Experience Grant.
Bottom line: The Committee prefers that your resume has no spelling and/or grammatical errors.
Budget
Be sure to include your experience dates at the top of the page. Remember, the experience must be 8 weeks long. This time period can include the time traveling to and from the experience site; for instance, the Committee is aware that flying abroad to get to your site can eat up a few days.
Feel free to fill in as much of the Explanation section as needed. If utilities are included in rent, tell us that. If you need health or car insurance during the summer, you should include these items. If you need clothing, explain why; it needs to be specific to the work environment (former applicants have requested clothing allowances to purchase a suit for the corporate world, rain gear for work on a vessel, etc.). Ask friends or family what they normally spend per person on food each week; applicants often underestimate in this area. Be sure to allow yourself some funds to eat out every once in a while. Double check your travel expenses. If you are going to a remote village in Ghana, you should include all travel to get there — plane, taxi, and bus. If you are going to be working in a city, be sure to include travel from home or Wesleyan to get there initially (and the return trip) as well as subway expenses. If you do not fill out a major category like Food or Travel, please explain why you do not need funds in that area.
Make sure you have contacted the Financial Aid Office for the specific amount for your Summer Earning Expectation. Each student’s contribution can be different.
If you find that your total expenses add up to an amount higher than $4000, then you must offset this with income. Some recipients have decided to work part-time jobs before, during or after to make up the difference. Others include savings or assistance from family. Some experiences provide a small stipend; if so, you should include that in your Income section. You do not need to have anything in the Income section; only if your expenses exceed the grant amount. Bottom line: Number 8 (Total Request) at the bottom of the budget must equal $4000 or less.
Finally, double check to make sure your numbers add up
correctly!
Bottom line: The Committee will probably not fund an applicant who has not included a request in a major category (like Food) without explanation, severely underestimates the funds for a category ($200 allotted for travel to London) without an explanation, does not include the correct Summer Earning Expectation, or requests a total grant amount higher than $4000.
Application Statements
Although the above components of the
Summer Experience
Grant application are key, perhaps the most important section of the application includes the statements you prepare. The following are some tips for developing the application statements. We have also compiled three samples of winning statements from former Wesleyan Summer Experience Grant recipients for your review.
Statement #1: Provide a brief overview of the organization for which you will intern or project/program you are developing.
Give us some good detail about the company or organization. Information can often be found on the organization’s website; feel free to include their mission statement (the description of what they do and why they exist). If you are working in a division of a company or organization, be sure to describe that as well. If you are planning an independent experience, you need to provide some good details of the experience, including a timeline specifying where you will be, when you will be there and what you will be doing.
This statement only needs to be about one or two paragraphs long.
BBottom Line: The Committee just needs to have an idea of what the organization or company is doing for their line of work.
Statement #2: Briefly describe the duties involved in
the internship or experience, including responsibilities and tasks.
Be pretty specific about your intended duties. You should contact the potential internship employer and ask for a thorough description of what you may do there as an intern. This statement only needs to be one or two paragraphs. If you are developing an independent experience, you should be equally specific about your work/duties planned.
Bottom Line: The Committee will not fund an internship that offers little responsibility or few details about the position. Answering phones and greeting clients is only acceptable if it is a part of the role you play; there must be other duties that require you to take responsibility in some form. Also, if you have only included a very vague description of your duties, you are unlikely to be funded. Your description should give the Committee a good sense of a typical day in your internship with as many details as possible.
Statement #3: How have you communicated with the
sponsor and determined mutual interest?
It is very important for you to have a conversation with a potential sponsor at a company or organization. Several things can happen that could prevent you from receiving your internship: You may not qualify for their internship, the internship may no longer be available, or an intern may already be selected for that year. One paragraph is usually sufficient. Specifically describe your contact — e-mail, phone, etc. – as well as detail the conversation you have had with the sponsor regarding this internship.
Bottom Line: The Committee needs to know that you have contacted your potential employer and had a discussion about the internship.
Statement #4: How will this experience enhance or broaden your career goals?
This is one of the most important sections of the application. The Committee really wants to know why this internship or experience is important to you. The best essays generally take a “past, present and future” approach. In other words, tell us what in the past has inspired you to explore this career (courses, experiences, exploratory searches, events, courses, and/or internships). Then explain why this internship or experience is a good next step for you in your exploration and/or experience; i.e. what you will feel you will learn to or how it will add to your past experiences or knowledge base. Finally, tell us what contribution this experience will have towards your future goals and give us a sense of what you think are your future goals. You do not need to have specific goals (though some of our applicants do); just give us an idea of what you think you might like to do some day.
Most applicants write anywhere from a one to two pages. Generally, we have found that one or two short paragraphs don’t give you an opportunity to explain to us who you are and why we should fund you. Finally, we do expect good, grammatically correct writing free of spelling errors!
Please note: The
Summer Experience Grant is to be used for career related experiences only.
Bottom Line: This part of the proposal is not an academic statement. Your statement must be compelling; you need to persuade the Committee to fund your experience. We need to understand why this experience is important to you as an individual and why we should fund it.
Final Bottom Line: Start early to explore internship opportunities. Once you have done your research to select an internship, pick the one you feel is the best for you. Use this one to apply. You cannot apply for more than one internship nor can you describe more than one internship in your application.
If you are funded, you are expected to participate in the internship you described in your application. If — and only if — the offer for that internship opportunity falls through, you must use the Application Revision to request that the Committee fund a new internship. Only after the Committee has received and approved the new request and you and your sponsor have completed the Confirmation Forms, will you receive your funds.
Please remember that counseling staff are available at the CRC to review your entire application as well as help you with exploring internships and other opportunities.
Questions? crc@wesleyan.edu.
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